Well to start, we got up at 5 am, as planned, and Rami drove us to the bus station. Oh shoot. I just realized I've been spelling his name with an "i" instead of a "y" this whole time. But I've written his name so many times that I can't possibly be bothered to go back and change it now. Just let it be known that it should be spelled "Ramy," not "Rami."
There. All better.
So we hopped on a bus to Wadi Musa, a town right outside of Petra that, we had been warned by lonely planet, was full of grifters and thieves. Oh Lonely Planet! I think you did Wadi Musa a disservice. Granted, the hostel was a little more expensive than one not so close to one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, but they didn't try to rip us off, the room was neat and clean, the bathroom was washed down several times during our stay, and everyone was very friendly and helpful. More than adequate for a single night's stay. So we set our stuff down and took advantage of the free transportation to Petra.
We were dropped off at a strip of stores that, we were assured, was right outside the entrance, and told to be back at 6 pm to be picked up and returned to the hostel. This was fine with us. It was only noon, and we stopped to have some delicious food before we went in - hommas and taboula, some eggplant and tahini dish whose name I can't remember, foul and lentil soup - so good! - and then we were ready for the adventure.
And then we walked right past the entrance and got lost on the winding desert roads beyond. But only for a little while. And we got some good pictures out of it, such as the one located on your right (see? Pretty.)
Luckily a tour guide was on his way to meet up with his group, and offered to give us a ride to where we were actually supposed to be. We thanked him heartily, bought our tickets, and started walking in the proper direction.
I have so many pictures of Petra that it's best to look at my facebook; there's no way I'm going to put them all on here. But I'll include a couple good ones.
To begin with, you enter Petra by walking through a ravine, carved between impossibly tall cliffs in stripes of red and orange and mustard. They seem to narrow the further up you stare, so that the sky is just a tiny slit of blue high up above:
After thirty minutes or so of twisting and turning through these smooth walls, you finally see the exit ahead - and peeping through the narrow slit is the Treasury, the most famous and best preserved of all the carved buildings in Petra.
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Once you enter the city it's a panorama of carved building faces, many of them so eroded that it looks like they're slowly melting off the cliffside - like they were carved from sugar or glass. I guess it makes you realize how old they are, that the rock would have time to be shaped and subsequently effaced like that.
We wandered around Petra for a few hours - befriended a small boy and played catch with rocks (kids, don't try this at home) - took a quick power nap on top of a high cliff - and, oh yeah, climbed a HUGE frickin mountain to see an ancient monastery at the top! It took probably 45 minutes, and I don't even remember if I took a picture, after all that work. But we were there, and probably never will be again, so how could we not?
And besides, my favorite thing happened there, on top of that mountain, by that monastery.
It started to rain.
It was the first rain I had seen in months.
And it was beautiful.
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