The next morning, we woke up early and were some of the first visitors to Petra around 7am. The sun was already high in the sky and it was going to be a hot day, so we wanted to hit the trails early.
This was our fourth trip to Petra, and the first trip without visitors. We previously went with the Bobrowski's in 2015, Nathan's parents in 2016, and my parents and brother in 2017. This morning, we were in the park by ourselves! We saw nobody on the horse trail leading to the Siq.
We saw nobody on the Siq trail...
The sun reflected amazing colors on the rocks with beautiful shades of oranges, reds, and browns.
We were the only people at the Treasury! Such a bizarre feeling, but really amazing to have the place entirely to ourselves, aside from a few people working there.
In past trips, we hiked to the Monastery, so this time we wanted to do something different. We have wanted to see the overlook of the Treasury building, so we put the boys on donkeys and off we went.
Passing the old coliseum.
The trailhead began at the Royal Tombs. From there, you go up many, many stairs. Once you get to the top, you trek back along the tops of the tombs, and end you are met with a beautiful overlook of the Treasury.
Starting the ascent.
This time around, the boys were big enough to be a little scared of how close the donkeys were to the side of the cliff, and a few times they asked to get off and walk. It was a really strenuous hike, so we told them to stay on until we get to to the top, and they could walk down if they wanted to.
Trekking back along the tops of the tombs to get to the overlook
Pretty spectacular view fo the Treasury! And still nobody in sight, this was about 10:30 in the morning.
They had a tent where you could rest, enjoy the view, and have some snacks.
Heading back down. I loved the color and textures of the ground we were walking on.
The boys did great and they decided to ride the donkeys most of the way down too!
What an incredible view of Petra. Unbelievable that it was so empty!
At the bottom, we said goodbye to our guide (who by the way was wearing jeans, a sweater, sandals, and did not have a sip of water the entire morning)...these men are so strong!
We explored the tombs for a while and had a snack. Check out all the coloring of the walls. The black is from fires they burned to keep warm. Believe it or not, it gets quite cold here in the winter time. Our first trip to Petra in 2015 was right before Christmas and its as freezing, and quite empty then too.
A vendor was selling rocks. Times were tough for the people here. The guide was telling us that the park had been closed for 3 months and only just re-opened the previous month. They were very happy to see visitors. In their entire lifetime living in this area, this is the first time Petra had ever closed down for an extended period of time.
Watching the sheep.
When we got back to the Treasury around 12:30, there were a lot more people there than we expected to see and it was getting somewhat busy. We decided to get some cokes, a couple small souvenirs, and Benjamin got coal eye liner and his head wrapped like a Bedouin.
You can't tell from the picture, but there were a lot more people there compared to the morning, we especially noticed a lot of people coming in as we headed out. It was super hot, so we were thankful to have been down and back by now!
Map of Petra.
We enjoyed ice cream on the way out. Smeared coal and ice cream on his face...it was such a fun day!
A few days after we arrived, Eliza turned 2! This past year Eliza has learned to do many new things. She is so active and loves to play outside and at the park, being read to, singing and dancing, playing hide-and-seek with her brothers, and counting to 10. She likes singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Baby Shark, and her version of the ABC’s. Eliza is very expressive. She is talking up a storm, and we are decoding more and more of her language each day. She is a sweet and easy going, but very independent. She picks up on how to do things quickly and likes trying to do things on her own.
Eliza loves being part of the party, which sometimes makes naps challenging, but she is generally still a good sleeper. She sleeps about 10.5 - 11 hours at night and between 1-2 hours during the day, though her daytimes naps really fluctuate and are sometimes even shorter. She is a great eater and likes just about everything she is fed. She especially loves fruits and veggies, meats, and spaghetti, and of course sweets of all kinds. She is eats well with utensils and is getting good drinking out of a regular cup. She will drink anything from a cup except for milk, which she very stubbornly will only drink from a bottle. Eliza is wearing size 3 clothes, size 7 shoes, and size 5 diaper.
We were still in quarantine for her birthday, but we are able to walk around our neighborhood so we enjoyed some time playing outside. Our friends who sponsored us were so nice to pick up cake, balloons, and a gift for her.
We didn’t have any matches, but we all sang happy birthday and she knew it was something special to celebrate her.
We enjoyed cake and she opened her gift, which was a baby doll. She loves baby dolls and at any point during the day, she may have 3 or 4 in tow. It was a fun day celebrating Eliza, and we are excited for what the next year has in store for her.
While the borders are still closed and internal tourism re-opened, we decided to take a weekend trip to Petra and Wadi Rum. We just took the boys and Eliza stayed home with Tes. It is very hot this time of year in the desert, and Tes was happy to watch her while we were away. Our plan was to visit Shobak Castle, one of the crusader castles, on the first day, however when we got there it was closed because they were repairing the road to the top. This is as close as we could get from the visitor center.
I love how the Jordanian flag flies proudly every where you go!
Cute kitties at the visitor center. According to Benjamin, who ran back to the car in tears, these cats were not so cute anymore because they stole his nutella sandwich, haha!
Next stop was Little Petra, which is about 15 minutes north of Petra in the town of Wadi Musa. It is a Nabataean site, just like Petra, with buildings carved into the walls of the sandstone canyons. It is much smaller than Petra, and on this day we had the entire place to explore to ourselves!
We checked into the hotel in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day in the pool!
These boys are little fish!
View from our room.
It was a great first day, ending with a beautiful sunset!
