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Continuing on where we left off last week… Part TWO of our day exploring Petra, Jordan.
(If you missed it, you can read Part ONE here)
After taking in the view of the Treasury from above, Charles, Tarek and I made our way down from the overlook and headed northwest to explore the rest of the historical site.
If you look at the map of Petra, the pink location pin was where we were located across from the Treasury (#4 on the map) and the purple location pin was where we were headed…
Up the A’dir Mountain to a lesser known landmark in Petra called “El Dier” or The Monastery and also to see Petra’s very own Grand Canyon.
If you can find the blue dots next to numbers 14, 15 and 18 on the map, those represent the whole BUNCH of steps we would have to walk up in order to get to The Monastery and the Grand Canyon.
Tarek had already given us a heads up on what to expect so we were ready to make the trek.
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^^ Right where the steps to go up the A’Dir Mountain begin, we made a quick pit stop at the restrooms.
Snacks eaten and bladders emptied, we were approached by a Bedouin about riding his donkeys up the steps.
When we learned that the walk up would take about a 45 minutes by foot vs. less than 15 minutes on the donkeys, Tarek (who thankfully knows how to speak Arabic) let the man know we were interested and helped to negotiate a pretty great deal for the ride per person.
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Unfortunately, I have no photos to show for the donkey ride up the mountain because I needed both hands to hold on for dear life.
Right before we went up the stairs, the Bedouin told us to “trust the donkeys” because they knew the way and were the most sure-footed animals he knew. And then, the Bedouin proceeded to walk BEHIND us, not lead the way. He basically just gave the donkeys a pat on the rump to get them going and let them make their way up the mountain on their own… With us on top of them.
It was the most bumpy, scary, exhilarating animal ride of my life because the stairs we were climbing are carved out of the side of the mountain. This meant that if you fell off the stairs, it was a straight drop down.
And these donkeys, for some reason, felt more comfortable walking on the side of the stairs close to the edge as opposed to close to the mountain wall. There were moments when we were so close to the edge that I could look over and see my life flash before my eyes.
^^ My donkey. As crazy as the ride was, she got us to the top in one piece. Thank you Lord and Buddha.
Another crazy thing that happened as we were jostling up the mountain… I didn’t realize that my clutch had somehow unzipped itself and both my and Charles’s passports fell out!
To be on top of the donkeys with no idea on how to stop them so we could grab our only way of making it back to America… It all kind of happened in slow motion as I watched them fall out and down onto the stairs with me yelling “our passports!” I was soooo scared they would fall over the edge of the steps but luckily they landed closer to the wall.
Once Charles and Tarek realized what had happened, they also started yelling “Passports! Passports!” This was the one moment that I became super thankful the Bedouin was following behind us and not in front because he stopped, grabbed them and gave them to us when we got to the top.
PHEW! You can best believe I put my clutch and passports in Tarek’s backpack after that for the rest of the day.
^^ Once off the donkeys, we walked in the direction of the Grand Canyon.
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The view of Jordan’s Grand Canyon was absolutely breathtaking.
(And a little scary at the same time with only rope and a rickety wood railing standing between us and the expansive landscape.)
You can’t really see it in the photo above but, to the bare eye, we were able to spot the Dead Sea waaaaaay in the back.
It was a moment that made me realize I need to travel domestically in the U.S. more, especially considering we have our Grand Canyon that I have yet to visit.
^^ Love this photo of us that Tarek took. Definitely a “framer”. <3
We had initially thought to stay at the Grand Canyon, rest our legs, and watch the sunset but the Bedouin there casually recommended that we make our way back down the mountain before it got pitch black dark.
“Because that’s when the wild dogs came out.”
O_O
Uh, okay…
Taking this into consideration plus the fact that we had about 2 more hours of solid daylight left, we got up and began the long journey back down the mountain to the main entrance.
But first, a quick stop to see The Monastary on our way back.
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After making it down the mountain, we were approached by another group of Bedouins to ride their camels back to where The Treasury was.
And Tarek worked his haggling magic again which resulted with us on top of the camels less than 10 minutes later.
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If I had to choose, I would pick the camel ride over the donkey ride.
My camel was super chill.
It walked at a leisurely pace, getting distracted by the grass every once in a while along the way to snack on.
Like I said, my kind of ride haha.
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By the time we made it to where The Treasury was, it was pitch black outside. So we had to use our phone lights to find our way through the winding ravine back to the main entrance on foot.
As we were leaving, I checked the “health app” on my iPhone and saw that I/we had walked over 12 miles which equated to about 27,000 steps and had gone up and down 57 floors while exploring Petra.
We came, we saw and left this amazing place with sore bodies and super perky buttcheeks.
An experience well worth the physical endurance.
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After grabbing gyros and fries for dinner, we hopped in Tarek’s car with two things at the forefront of our minds:
Sleep and the Dead Sea.
xo, Setarra
P.S. Linking up with Wanderful Wednesday.
P.P.S. More of posts about Jordan HERE
P.P.P.S. Wishing you a Happy Valentine’s Day filled with love, whether for yourself or someone else.
