Petra and "Confirming my Hero Status"

These pictures are mostly for my little brother, who is seven, and who obviously thinks I need my "hero status" in his eyes confirmed. But what can be cooler than a sister who has lived in 4 countries in two years and speaks 4 languages? Perhaps a visit to Petra and reenactment of the Indiana Jones film?!

Although I didn't run into any slicing knives or fireballs, I did have an encounter with something extra-terrestrial...

And rode a donkey up to the Monastary (up about 800 steps) which was one of the scariest things in my life (as there were steep drop-offs and I was on an animal with no quick way off if he fell!)

And climbed some amazing mountains and got some pretty sweet jumping pictures.




I do have two stories, though, that I will tell. The first is about a demon-eyed attack goat.

Yes, that apple in that goat's mouth was mine at one time. I was walking on a mountain and we came across a random little cafe-type place that sold water, tea, and coffee (although why anyone would want a hot beverage when it is 110 outside is a mystery to me) but which was empty...except for two visiting archeologist students from Canada and a herd of goats.

How cute, I thought, and went in to investigate--while eating an apple (all I had remembered to pack for lunch).

The baby goats were cute, and the white goat (with denomic eyes--but they were blue, not red) seemed to be more interested in me than I was interested in her, and walked up to me and jumped on me as I was talking to the Canadian girl. Realizing the goat wanted my apple, I screamed and threw it--right at the archaeologist! The poor girl screamed and ran away (as it had hit her on the shoulder) and the goat ran over and ate the apple.

She won, obviously.

The second story has to do with amazing free-style rock climbing skills that I discovered I possess.

The first day in Petra, we visited all the "normal" sites--the Treasury, the Monastary, the High Place of Sacrifice, etc. It was an exhausting day and I wasn't sure if I could endure another day like that.

The next day, however, I wanted to go on what I thought would be a simple hike above the Treasury which my friends had done the day before and which they had highly recommended. In addition to amazing views from above the Treasury (the Indiana Jones relic), the hike also included 3 Nabatean altars (which I am quite interested in), a water cistern, and broken pottery.
Clearly a must-do for one who studies the ancient Near East.

The hike started out innocently enough. As I had terrible eye problems which had escalated to the point of extreme pain the day before, I elected myself as guide. :) We started climbing some stairs that were cut into the rock face and soon found ourselves clearly not on a path and clearly free-style rock-climbing up some pretty steep rock faces. The only thing that kept us going was the thought that if we turned around, we would have to go down those sheer rock faces!

Well, after a heart-felt prayer by Lorien and some incredible maneuvers on all of our parts, we finally found the trail...right as it was ending above the Treasury!


Excited to find the trail, as we had only one hour to get back to the hotel before our bus left, we were more than disappointed when it ended with a large sheer rock face.

Definitely not passable.

(This is Lorien, looking worried when all of our "trails" dead-ended with cliffs)

We finally went down a "no climbing" zone rock slide and got back to the bus 5 minutes before it was supposed to drive away--with only a few scratches and very dirty clothes as proof!

By the way, for those who might try this hike at sometime in the near future, this is a trail marker.

A pile of rocks set up strategically and spread abundantly throughout the trail. Strangely enough, these were conspicuously absent the way we climbed up!