The wake up call was at 2:45 AM. Yes, you read that right. Breakfast at 3:30 AM was really to much for me to handle. I can’t wait to get back to my intermittent fasting. Airport security was 3 different scanning stations. Now that I am mentally prepared to be felt up every time, I am okay with it. Thank you Martha Cole.

Some how or another, Peggy and I ended up in 1st class on Egyptair. There was one other couple from out group here too. Everyone else is at the back of the plane. At first I thought it was because we flew Business Class to Egypt but other people in our group also fly Business and they weren’t there. I guess it never hurts to flirt with the guys at the check in desk.

I have never seen such chaos when we landed. The Gate 1 rep wasn’t there when we got off the plane. He finally showed up but apparently it was his first day on the job and he was not clear on how to get our visas. It took us almost 2 hours to get out of this very quiet airport in Amman. No porters to take care of our luggage. We had to schlepp everything to the bus. I said to Peggy that I would not have been surprised to have to load them on the bus ourselves. This is not the Gate 1 and certainly not how we were treated in Egypt.

When we got on the bus, our new guide, Mohammed, informed us that our rooms would not be ready for 4-5 hours. He gave the bus the choice of going to the site that John the Baptist baptized Jesus or go out to lunch. The bus choose the former.

It is situated on the eastern bank of the River Jordan, north of the Dead Sea. The archaeological site consists of two distinct areas: Tell Al-Kharrar, also known as Jabal Mar-Elias (Elijah’s Hill) and the area of the churches of Saint John the Baptist near the river. It features Roman and Byzantine remains including churches and chapels, a monastery, caves that have been used by hermits and pools in which baptisms were celebrated, testifying to the religious character of the place. The site is a Christian place of pilgrimage.

We walked down to the River Jordan and across the narrow river is the West Bank of Israel. Pilgrims were dressed in white baptismal gowns and were “dunked” 1 by 1 in the water. Many of us walked down the steps on our side of the river and put our hands in the water. For some reason it felt like the right thing to go. The whole experience was over shadowed by guards on both sides of the River standing there with Uzi’s. Our guide said that there are 3 legal places to across between Israel and Jordan and this isn’t one of them. There is clearly a fence in the River dividing the 2 countries. He said that if someone tried to cross there, they would be shot. A definite reality check.

We left there and checked into this beautiful resort on the Dead Sea. We were greeted by this gentleman in the lobby serving us lemon drinks.

There is a ritual at the Dead Sea where you get in and float around first. Because of the high salt (10x saltier than the ocean) content you are very Bouyant and you float on your back. It is so difficult to get up that the life guard has to lift you by your shoulders so you can put your feet down. You get out and then go to the mud urns and cover your body with mud. This is special mud from the Dead Sea that turns black when it dries. You then go back into the sea and wash off the mud. Apparently it is suppose to be good for your skin. You are not suppose to stay in the water for more than 10 or 15 minutes or it can really mess up the electrolytes in your body. No mud for me. I just got my feet wet.

After our “dip” in the Dead Sea, Peggy and I had a wonderful lunch at an Italian restaurant called Luigi’s.

Checking out of the hotel in the morning to explore more of Jordan.