We got on the ferry without incident. It involved a little more waiting in a steaming waiting room than we would have liked, but during out wait we re-united with the Kiwi couple from our felucca journey, so it was nice to see them again.
We got on the ferry and staked out a very cool seating area all to ourselves, which was great. Yay VIP section. After a pleasant ferry trip we arrived in Aquaba. The town's name is pronounced "ack-uh-buh," and every time I heard it I thought of my cousin's toddler magic shows where "abracadabra" came out sounding more like "ack-uh-buh." Thinking of you, kiddo!
We wanted to get a mini bus for all five of us to get to our hotel, but they wouldn't let us. One cabbie said he'd take all five of us, though...and all our luggage. We filled up the trunk, and then piled four of us plus more luggage in the back seat, with Roland and even more luggage in the front seat trying to navigate with a bad map and a driver who spoke no English and didn't know the neighborhood. During all of this, Ben is hanging out the back seat window because there's pretty much no place else to put him!
After a wild ride we find our hotel (a dump, but cheap), grab some dinner, and then crash out at about 2AM. I was still, incidentally, running on 2 hours sleep because of the Sinai trip.
The guys decided they wanted to spend a day in Wadi Rum, which is where Lawrence of Arabia hung out, and also a very scenic hiking spot. I was up for more scenic hiking and another day with my Aussie mates, so off we went. We had some confusion with a cabbie trying to convince us that the bus wasn't coming so we should pay him a bunch of money to take us, but we eventually sorted it out. We couldn't get a bus all the way to Wadi Rum, but we caught one to the nearest major intersection, where we caught a minibus to the visitor center and got our ticket to enter the park. Then we hitched a ride (along with a German couple we met on the bus to the intersection) with a villager, because there were no cabs to get us to the rest house in the desert. He was a really funny old guy who spoke just a little English. He was really excited to have Germans in the van, for some reason. He also complimented me and the Aussies on our excellent English, which was funny.
We hopped out at the rest house and got ourselves tents for the night, then it was off to the desert for a hike. We hiked for a few hours, saw some gorgeous desert scenery, including a canyon with some cool petroglyphs. We found a great spot to watch the sunset, which was gorgeous, then it was back into the village for dinner. We had made plans to eat at this local place (not the rest house, which was way overpriced), and the guy made us an awesome meal for a few bucks. Can't beat it. Falafel and salad and hummus...mmmmm...
After a quick night's sleep we got up this morning and headed for Petra. We spent the afternoon there today, and I'll post more about that later, but suffice to say it was gorgeous but a lot of hiking. After 48 hours that include 2 hours of sleep, climbing a mountain, hiking in a big sandy desert, and hauling my butt all over an ancient city, I am ready for a hot shower and dinner, so I'm outta here.
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