Living and Teaching in Abu Dhabi, UAE: Petra

Petra was definitely the highlight of this vacation. We spent two days in the town of Wadi Musa where Petra is and were lucky enough to have booked a hotel that was only a 5 minute walk from Petra. On the first day we left really early and at the entrance were convinced to take a horseback ride through the "Indiana Jones" trail, as the Jordanian men called it, and am very happy we did. The trail took us away from the Sik and up the mountains were we could see a panorama view of Petra. At one point we got off and did some VERY but well worth hike that took us to a spot where we could see the Monastery from above. The view was beyond spectacular! After the 2-3 hour horseback ride we walked through some of the site but by then there were too crowded, not too mention that we were very tired.

The next day we left very early again, 6:30 am. This time we walked in to the treasury and were able to get amazing pictures without tourists in the background to kill our shots. Since the day before we saw everything except the Monastery we decided to take a donkey ride up the 800 stairs that leads to the Monastery. The entire ride up was hilarious. Not only did my donkey keep on racing Jose's donkey up the stairs it also farted sooo loud it scared me! I'm not kidding! When we arrived to the Monastery we were the second ones to arrive and again got to take AMAZING pictures without anyone in them :). After the Monastery we decided to walk down the 800 steps and by the end we were so tired we called it a day and left.