We took an hour long cab ride in the morning to the Dead Sea...which was totally trippy. We floated out of the water without even trying - took tons of goofy pictures with the ladies. Desolate landscape, beautiful hotels, and a giant body of water where the only living thing in it was use. You could actually see salt deposits where the water met the sand.
We paid three JD to cover ourselves head to toe in thick black mud taken from the sea floor. The locals claim that it tightens the skin. Not sure if that's true but it sure made for some funny pics! The sun was brutal - I busted out my SPF 70 sunscreen (the girls thought I must have stolen it from you...which is fair. Is paleness contagious?)
After a brief dip in the hotel pool we made our way to Al Mujib canyon. It wasn't part of the tour, but we threw the cab driver a few extra bones to cart four Americans in bathing suits a few extra miles. Our local guide told us at dinner the night before that the canyon was his favorite place in all of Jordan, and that was all the endorsment we needed.
The canyon was the most beautiful thing I've seen in a long time, and also the most dangerous. You go into the canyon in bathing suits, shorts, a life vest, and shoes. It starts off with a casual strtoll in the river (all against the current), with huge reeds and towering rock walls on either side. The water was so clear we could see pale yellow minnows darting between our toes as we walked on smooth, rust colored pebbles. The rock walls on either side were so high that they blocked out the sun in most places. The rocks were all this brilliant terra cotta color, and between the rocks and the reeds blowing in the wind I half expected a basket with a baby Moses to come floating around the bend.
After we'd been walking/swimming for about half an hour(the water was up to our waist in some places)we realized why the locals at the entrance of the river told us that we shouldn't go, especially not in the flip flops we were all wearing. The gentle river suddenly became what I like to refer to as "Silly American-Girl-Killing Rapids of Doom." We roudned a bend and came upon a rapid that would have easily been a class II back home. I suddenly wished very much for a helmet, shoes, and a raft of some sort.
When we got to the rapid, we realized we were in way over our heads. We also realized we were the only women on the river, so of course decided to show these Jordanians that women can do anything men can do. Then we all trtied to climb over the rapids and failed miserably.
Enter Ossama. Ossama deserves a moment of description in this little memoir here. Ossama was a Jordanian man, maybe about 50, who probably weighed less than me and wasn't much taller. he saw us struggling and managed to help us over the rapid. When we all had scrambled to the calm water on the other side, he looked at us with bright curiosity and in barely comprehensible English said "First time?" When we said yes, he had a hearty chuckle and then said "I come with."
And so began our three hour scramble over the rapids of Al Mujib using an archaic system of ropes, nonsensically placed metal bars, and a nice man named Ossama. The second rapid we got to was by far the worst. We had to use a rope that had been strung from the rocks a couple of feet above and parallel to the river. About ten feet above us was a series of powerful, two-tiered rapids. We had to climb backwards, hand over hand along the rope to a very narrow passage along the first level of the rapids. The whole time, water was rushing over us, and underground rocks were beating the few parts of our badies that were submerged. In order to climb over the second tier of rapids, we had to use a rope that hung over a huge boulder in the middle of the river with the river rushing over it. I went first and couldn't find a foot hold. I ended up just trying to use my upper body to hoist myself up. When I was almost at the top, I lost my grip on the rope (surprising with these man hands, I know) and splashed back down into the rapids. Truth be told - it was pretty freakin' scary. Luckily I managed to keep my right hand on the rope and waded through the current back to the boulder. Then I made the boulder my bitch (aka Osamma helped pull me up).
After four other similar death defying scrambles, we were all beat to hell with scrapes on our knees, feet, and elbows. Right around the time we probably would have rather not gone on, we reached the peice de resistance - the waterfall! We are at the waterfall's base, and climbed up some rocks to get into a cave-like indention behind the waterfall. Sitting in that cave, with torrents of water crashing down in front of us defintiely made the whole ideal worth it (until we realized that the little pinches we felt on our toes were actually crabs nibbling on us).
We rewarded ourselves at the end of the long day by smoking some delicious sheesha on the roof of Books and Cafe. Sheesha + moonlight + wine = heaven.
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