Days 7 & 8

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Shalom! Greetings from Israel! It has been another couple of very full days. Saturday morning we left the Galilee very early in the morning to make our way south. Our first stop was in Jericho which meant we entered Palestinian territory- which was without incident. We saw the traditional site of Gilgal along the way. Then we stopped at Qumran to see where the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered. After that was a stop at EnGedi where David hid from Saul in the caves. There is also a beautiful nature reserve with a series of waterfalls. This is where we ate lunch before heading to Masada. At Masada some of our group decided to hike the Snake Path to the top. We all made it- even in the mid-afternoon heat of 85 degrees F! However, we all chose to ride the cable car to the bottom--imagine that! After that, we all enjoyed a dip in the Dead Sea. After an ice cream break it was time to continue south another 2 1/2 hours to the southernmost point of Israel at Eilat. It was a long and tiring day full of adventure.

Sunday morning saw us getting up very early again for our trip into Jordan to see Petra. We had to leave our guide and bus driver in Israel for a Jordanian driver and guide. We are thankful that the border crossing went without incident because one passport hadn't been stamped at the airport when we arrived in Tel Aviv--but we'll tell you that story later.
Our Jordanian guide, Abdullah, was very informative and entertaining. After spending the first few minutes speaking to us in "broken English" he finally admitted he spoke perfect English and was having a little fun. He was an English Literature major and spoke better English than most of us! We sure enjoyed his expertise--Petra was his home town! Petra is everything you see in pictures and then some! It was a wonderful experience. After the 2 hour bus ride back to the border, we then, again, cleared customs and had a late dinner. After our meal we met together as a group to listen to Matt Candlish share with us. Paul Karpenko also shared what his family is doing in Israel. We are all enjoying this experience very much and the people we are traveling with are a great bunch. Tomorrow we begin making our way back north to spend the rest of our time in Jerusalem.