Jesus Wuz Here

The morning after our Petra adventure, we decided to take the day to drive to the Dead Sea. I don't think we knew at the time what we were getting ourselves into. Thankfully, my friend Heather is crazy about seeing everything remotely possible. I owe most of what we saw to her! We drove across the Wadi Majib which is basically the grand canyon of Jordan.

 You can see the dam in the middle of this picture. We got to drive across it. The pictures don't do this place justice. It really was breathtaking. We hit it at the perfect time of day, just as the sun was setting.

The roads were super curvy, especially as we got closer to the Dead Sea.

We got to the Dead Sea around 9:00. We had reservations at the Hilton but once we got there, the hotel staff was very rude, wanted to charge us extra, wanted us to pay for a cot, etc. We decided to try another hotel. Man are we glad we did! We went next door to the Marriott and seriously, they treated us  so well. We basically were like, "Look, it's late. It's not a weekend. We need a room. We need breakfast included. We can't spend tons of money. The guy offered to show us the room before we agreed to book it. It wasn't cheap, but it was better than the Hilton. Our room was amazing! Three huge beds, massive balcony overlooking the pools and Dead Sea. We were shocked. They even included a wonderful breakfast. Seriously, I need to write them a letter. They saved us.

 The view from our balcony: Several heated pools, hot tubs, etc. There was even a 'no kids allowed' pool. Guess which one we chose ;) Straight out in the distance is the Dead Sea!

Beach on the Dead Sea

Our Balcony

This looks like a normal picture....but we are floating in the Dead Sea! Just like Jesus! LOL ok, so I don't know if Jesus actually did that but it was awesome. You always hear how you can't sink in the Dead Sea....and you really can't. It's the weirdest feeling. Actually, it's hard to keep our legs under water. They keep getting pushed back up. You can literally sit Indian style and not move. It's so awesome. We met some Asian guys who had all the props taking pictures with them. They were reading a newspaper and drinking coffee while floating around, haha. We borrowed their newspaper and took some pictures but they are on Laura's camera. I'll get them soon. 

Also, a lot of the large rocks at the bottom are completely encrusted in what looks like rock salt. So strange. This was really one of the coolest things I've ever done. It's just such a bizarre feeling not being able to sink.

After laying by the pool, we went to see Jesus' baptismal site before we drove to the airport. Apparently  this site has only been open to the public on the Jordanian side for 10 years or so because it literally borders the Israeli side and was considered a military zone. It certainly feels like one. You have to go through a checkpoint and then you buy a ticket (lol) and a creepy guy takes you on a tour. We met an American family that actually lives in Dubai on our tour which was cool. There are a lot of churches near the site. I think there was a Russian Orthodox one and of course the John the Baptist one. It's not a built up area at all, just churches and the Jordan River. You have to walk on a little path through some trees to get there.

The absolute coolest thing is that once you reach the actual spot where Jesus was baptized, you are literally 6 feet from Israel. You feel like you're at the DMZ. This is what it looks like:

So here we are facing Israel. Bizarre. This is where Jesus was baptized. Unreal. We saw some people fully submerging in the water.

Me touching the water... Apparently it's 50% sewage....But you still have to touch it of course!

That about sums it up. I'm sure I've missed something but it was just an incredibly surreal feeling being there at all. I would highly suggest going there if you ever get the chance. It's incredible.

We flew out of Amman that night at midnight. We go back to Dubai at 5:00 am and we were all at work at 730. It was a looooong day but so worth it!!! Also, big shout out to Laure for driving basically EVERYWHERE on this trip. We couldn't have done it without you!!