Jordan is a land without much water. The air is clean and fresh and the people are very friendly. We arrived in November, which is the beginning of the rainy season. However, the weather was absolutely lovely- warm in the day and cool at night with a nice breeze.

Our bus stopped at a scenic overlook to take pictures. These charming boys all came out and shook our hands and said "Hello," and "Welcome to Jordan." But when we took their picture, they suddenly got very shy. When we were mostly back onto the bus, a tiny little girl came running out of the house and presented a small nosegay of desert flowers to Alicia, the only teenage girl in our group.

Here is Ghassan ("call me Gus"), our guide in Jordan.

Here Gus is expounding on the Eqyption influence of this rock cut tomb at the entrance of Petra.

Petra is an amazing historical site. Petra means rock in Greek. In Arabic it is called Saba, which also means rock. It is a hidden city built in the rocks by the Nabateans, an ancient Arabic people. It flourished from 300 BC until 100 AD. It was strategically located at the intersection of caravan routs and became very wealthy. The Nabateans were very good a managing water and cut many water channels to bring water into the city. We had only one day to visit Petra; we could easily have spent a week there.

To get to the city of Petra, you walk through this cleft in the rock, the "Siq," for about a mile. The notch in the rock is an ancient aqueduct, which brought water to the city.

Finally you get to the end of the Siq, and you see...

This magnificant tomb, the "Treasury."

It is a long uphill walk back to our hotel, so I hitch a ride on a local horse.