Parting with the Red Sea

After our day out at Petra, we spent the rest of the week lying around on the beach and by the pools. Wednesday, we lost Egypt because it was so cloudy you couldn't see across the Sea. We thought we'd get a storm that night but we didn't. Thursday through to the end of our stay, we had cloudless skies and higher temperatures.

Thursday, we swam in the Sea. I kept forgetting it wasn't just a lake, but the seashells would remind me. It was the most incredible blue, and you could see straight down to the bottom. Andrew saw parrotfish, chickenfish, a trumpetfish, and lots of sea urchins attached to the rocks. There were lots of lifeguards at the resort, and they would follow you, in a good way, to keep you out of harm's way. When we wandered past the hotel border on the beach, a lifeguard came with us and found better shells than any of us did. When a group went out to swim off the dock (made in Canada dock btw), the lifeguard came out instead of staying by his chair. I was impressed by the staff. They presented an outstanding level of service.

Our daily routine was essentially: breakfast buffet y 9:30 followed by a wander past the shops and marina in the property next door, which led to a wander on the beach; suncream, swimsuits, Elizabeth would find a shady spot to do hw, I would park on the beach with a book, Peter and Andrew would swim or pingpong; about 4, head to the pool bar for a beer and afternoon pizza before going up to the sunset deck to watch the sunset; email on sunset deck; dinner about 7; tv in hotelroom (channels in arabic, french, german, russian, and english).

Elizabeth made a small impression. Wednesday when it was threatening to storm, we had our pre-dinner drink at the lobby bar. The waitress wanted to know E's name so we told her. While we were waiting in the lobby for the bus back to the airport, A&E took a quick trip back to say goodbye to the beach and the waitress came over to ask where Elizabeth was. The immigration agent at the Aqaba airport (the one working beside the one dealing with us) looked at Elizabeth and called her "Barbie". Then he wanted to know what her real name was. No end of teasing about that one, right Barbie?

I met Baba Ghanoush. I had met his friend Tabouli and his cousin Tatziki before, but I met a new cousin who's name might be Mammoush. I'm not sure though - he was anonymous most nights and then his nametag changed, but he was a tasty combination of pureed roasted red pepper and couscous and I'mnotsurewhatelse. The food at the resort was really good. I'm not sure how we'll cope without waffles drowned in Nutella with whipped cream for breakfast...

Jordan was beautiful. I would like to go back to see the Dead Sea and the desert. We were in the south surrounded by rocks. I am told that up north in Amman it is green and lush, almost too green according to the driver who took us to Petra, and I should like to see that too. We didn't see any of the unrest that was happening in other parts of the Middle East. The protests on Friday in Amman were a regular Friday thing from what we understood. It's a beautiful part of the world. Too bad so many of us are scared off of travelling there because of the unrest. I'm glad we found a quiet part so we could go and discover.