My feet are sore, my shoulders are stiff, yet my spirit soars like an eagle. And while now physically in Aqaba, part of my mind is still a bit on Petra. Here’s an explanation why – followed by some neat pictures:

• got up early enough to get to the Treasury before the crowd and vendors;
• made it up to the high place of sacrifice while Aaron’s tomb was catching and reflecting the morning light;
• met some wonderful people along the way;
• made it up to the Monastery on foot;
• found a local who was impoverished to the point of selling rocks in 2004 now running a trinkets table, and doing much better/
• made some good deals on stuff for the wife & kid (see above and elsewhere);
• had enough batteries and memory cards too capture it all;
• got fantastic pictures of the Treasury and Monastery, with and without tourists in the view;
• did it all in about a 10 hour period, with 4 bottles of water and only 1 blister;
• found ZuZu – the wonderful camel I rode back in ’04;
• gigabytes of photos and video to be posted over the next couple weeks; and
• had energy to climb up to one of the tombs that was closed in ’04, but ran out of daylight.

I think the best way to approach this for now is to provide you some of the images now, with some short descriptions now, and spend the next couple of weeks describing each place in Petra in their own post – probably aided with some korny but kool YouTube. It is the only way to do this new 7th World Wonder justice.

That said, if you have a though, question, or are just curious – comment here and/or use the contact form to ask me a question. I’ll be glad to answer any question you have.

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   Triclinium/Obilisque Tomb the first of many tombs.
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   Bab as-Siq, something big and special just bofore the Siq.
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   View of Treasury from the end of the Siq.
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   The Treasury at Petra
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   1 of 2 Obilisques at the High Place of Sacrifice
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   Colonades at Petra – built by the Romans, viewed by centuries of civilizations.
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   Ultimate stair climb - the one mile uphill climb to the Monastery
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   The Petra Monastery and Me, or the big reward at the end of the 1 mile climb.

Of course now the trick is figuring out how to stitch together the dozens of 3 minute clips I have into a cohesive video or three.

Until then, enjoy now what I enjoyed yesterday – keeping in mind that at one point, it did lead me to an Elijah moment (and NO I’m not talking about bringing down fire on my foes either!-)

Now if you don’t mind, I have to buy a second suite case to bring back all the spices I purchased earlier in the day.

Tags: Jordan, monastery, petra, treasury