Day 11, Tuesday, March 13, 2018 - Bethany and Dead Sea

Another beautiful morning, waking to the sound of the Rose Finches, the Jordanian national bird.

After breakfast we walked down to the hotel beach and walked into the water just over our ankles. The bottom is very pebbly and difficult to walk on - will wear Tevas when swimming this afternoon. The water is quite a way down in the hotel complex, 1200 steps, .5 miles and the equivalent of 15 flights of stairs!

This was an easy day. We didn't leave until 9:20 to visit Bethany on the Jordan. This is where Elijah is said to have ascended to heaven on fiery chariot - we saw the hill from which he ascended. We also saw the cave where John the Baptist stayed for protection against lions and other wild creatures. We saw the spot where Jesus was baptized and where he took his robe off to go into the water. The Jordan River is now several hundred feet to the west.

Before the peace treaty between Jordan and Israel in 1994, there was a large no-mans-land and nobody was allowed near the Jordan. Since then, things have relaxed considerably and at the Jordan River there is a place to go down on the Jordanian side where there is a line of floats about 10' out, a space of 10' and another line of floats about 10' from the Israeli side. There were many pilgrims immersing themselves in the river on the Israeli side although none on our side.

Near our side, 2 Jordanian soldiers with automatic rifles were sitting watching their smart phones. When I asked our guide if I could take a photo, he thought it was not a good idea, especially as they were not at attention to their job. During our entire trip in Jordan there has been "Tourist Police" on our bus for security - apparently this is standard for all group travel. Our Israeli guide said that Israeli school groups always have an armed guard when they go on school trips.

When we got back to the hotel, there was a lecture and Q&A with a Jordanian Roman Catholic priest that was quite interesting. He spoke about the terrible refugee crisis in Jordan with 3 million refugees from various conflicts in the area. Jordan is one of the few countries willing to take them. This has increased the population from 6 million to 9 million people. The priest has been very involved in helping resettle the Christian refugees from Syria and Iraq. He was also very complimentary of the Jordanian kings saying that they were very humble and worked hard to improve the lives of the Jordanian people. The priest did not think that democracy was necessarily such a good thing considering what has happened in other middle-eastern countries.

We went down to the shore for a swim in the Dead Sea and to get a coating of Dead Sea mud, what people do when they are here. The water is so saline, that you need to be careful not to get it in your eyes, nose or mouth. I had the obligatory photos taken - see below.

 
Mosaic of Elijah ascending to heaven on a chariot

Where Jesus was baptized - he disrobed under the little shelter


Pilgrims going into the Jordan

Floating in the Dead Sea

Yes, that is me. No, the umbrella isn't growing out of my head

About as low as you can go!



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