Wadi Rum| Jordan, Day 5

Day 5 - Friday, October 6, 2023

I'd discovered a tasty breakfast treat that seemed to be a pistachio paste. That combined with scrambled eggs on the breakfast buffet and a plate of pastries made for a nice breakfast.

We had a shorter stop at Little Petra. It was nice because it was still very beautiful but so much less crowded than Petra. This is is an archaeological site located north of Petra and the town of Wadi Musa. It is also a Nabataean site, with buildings carved into the walls of the sandstone canyons.

On the drive to Wadi Rum, we saw a dog get hit by another vehicle. There was a collective "no no no" from the bus. The dog did get up and walk away afterwards, so hopefully, he wasn't hurt too bad.

It was very hot as we first stepped into the Arabian desert, but I think that was mostly the transition from being in the air conditioned bus. We ate lunch at the very crowded Visitors Center where we shared a simple falafel "sandwich". All of our sandwiches were really just wraps.

Wadi Rum is also known as the Valley of the Moon. It is a valley cut into the sandstone and granite rock in southern Jordan near the border with Saudi Arabia. Wadi means river valley, and this is the largest river valley in Jordan.

We were doing 4x4 Jeep tours of the desert, and our guide had explained that they were really pickup trucks. We got in the back with 2 other Americans, from Evanston.

It was interesting and beautiful scenery. We climbed some sand dunes, and my shoes were very filled with sand. We dropped off the people at the first camp and then rode in the pickup trucks to Yasmina Luxury Camp.

The rooms here were surprisingly nice for being in the middle of the desert, but there were many bugs in the room.

I found three scarab beetles and several ants. After encountering all of those bugs in our room, I decided to skip a shower for the night.

We went to our desert backyard to admire the view before heading back to the check-in area for dinner.

They had asked us to come a little bit early because there was a pre-dinner show involved in unburying the food.

There were flies everywhere in the dining area, which made me a bit hesitant about what was safe to eat.

We ate quickly then went back to our room. A DJ show started after dinner, and there was loud music for a couple of hours. I was hoping our room would be far enough away that the noise wouldn't be too bothersome, but it definitely was. This was not ideal since we had the earliest pickup time yet for the next morning's tour. We did take an opportunity that night to admire the desert night sky and see what stars we could see.