Day Three: April 11, 2006: Israel Trip
We started off the day with an amazing kosher breakfast. There were fresh veggies galor, fruit, milk products, eggs, rolls... And Arabic coffee that isn't filtered but settles to the bottom of your cup. We were ready for the En Gedi hike.
En Gedi Hike
We drove back to En Gedi to the Wadi Arugot trail. They charged us to get in and the goal was the "hidden waterfall". Following the markers on rocks, the trail took us through desolate rocky land until finally out of the valley came a sweet water stream. We took breaks in the shade. The only annoyance was that two groups of rock-throwing big toddlers/mini adults had started out shortly before us. After overtaking the first one we ran into the next. It wasn't for long, however, because soon they took the red path while we took the blue directly on the stream. We just had to watch out for falling (thrown) rocks! We jumped over rocks, climbed with our hands and feet to keep on the path along the river. We finally reached the water fall at which point I fell in the water with one foot. What the heck, I thought, I'll walk through the water back. Amazingly enough, as I started to do this I realized that that was the whole point. The "missing" markings that we couldn't find were telling us to wade through the stream. The trip back was desperately refreshing and will most likely be the highlight of our trip.
The Dead Sea "Thing"
After our hike we went to the mineral baths to do the "Dead Sea" thing. We asked a worker there in which order we should do the "beauty/health" treatments. We started in the sulfur pool which was hot with lots of salt and sulfur (duh!). I made the mistake of dunking under so that my hair and face could "reep the benefits". My eyes however burned "like hell" (excuse the expression/no pun intended...get it sulfur...hell...). After sitting there 15 minutes, we went down to the Dead Sea shore and tried out the floating antics everybody raves about. I forgot my magazine, but still had fun floating about. After my husband floated off into oblivion, I got bored and decided to try the mud. I smeared the stuff all over my body with great delight. By the time I got it everywhere my long lost husband joined me and put the finishing touches on my back. He then started caking it on himself. With the typical persision of the perfectionist he is, he soon was black from beard to toe. After it dried, we jumped back in the salted water and rubbed and scrubbed till our skin was no longer negroe-toned (excuse me if that's politically incorrect-don't mean it to be taken wrong cause it felt REALLY cool to be black for a while!!). After the joy of it all, we had the joy of clean up-wet shoes, dirty bathing suits and luckily and nice nights sleep and unleavend breakfast to look forward to. Realizing that the feast of unleavened had arrived explained why we saw the guy at the beach running away with all the rolls he had left to give a bus full of Czechoslavakian tourists. Oops...we booked our trip during a really BAD time. They informed us that finding hotels, etc would be a nightmare...BIG OOPS!
En Gedi Hike
We drove back to En Gedi to the Wadi Arugot trail. They charged us to get in and the goal was the "hidden waterfall". Following the markers on rocks, the trail took us through desolate rocky land until finally out of the valley came a sweet water stream. We took breaks in the shade. The only annoyance was that two groups of rock-throwing big toddlers/mini adults had started out shortly before us. After overtaking the first one we ran into the next. It wasn't for long, however, because soon they took the red path while we took the blue directly on the stream. We just had to watch out for falling (thrown) rocks! We jumped over rocks, climbed with our hands and feet to keep on the path along the river. We finally reached the water fall at which point I fell in the water with one foot. What the heck, I thought, I'll walk through the water back. Amazingly enough, as I started to do this I realized that that was the whole point. The "missing" markings that we couldn't find were telling us to wade through the stream. The trip back was desperately refreshing and will most likely be the highlight of our trip.
The Dead Sea "Thing"
After our hike we went to the mineral baths to do the "Dead Sea" thing. We asked a worker there in which order we should do the "beauty/health" treatments. We started in the sulfur pool which was hot with lots of salt and sulfur (duh!). I made the mistake of dunking under so that my hair and face could "reep the benefits". My eyes however burned "like hell" (excuse the expression/no pun intended...get it sulfur...hell...). After sitting there 15 minutes, we went down to the Dead Sea shore and tried out the floating antics everybody raves about. I forgot my magazine, but still had fun floating about. After my husband floated off into oblivion, I got bored and decided to try the mud. I smeared the stuff all over my body with great delight. By the time I got it everywhere my long lost husband joined me and put the finishing touches on my back. He then started caking it on himself. With the typical persision of the perfectionist he is, he soon was black from beard to toe. After it dried, we jumped back in the salted water and rubbed and scrubbed till our skin was no longer negroe-toned (excuse me if that's politically incorrect-don't mean it to be taken wrong cause it felt REALLY cool to be black for a while!!). After the joy of it all, we had the joy of clean up-wet shoes, dirty bathing suits and luckily and nice nights sleep and unleavend breakfast to look forward to. Realizing that the feast of unleavened had arrived explained why we saw the guy at the beach running away with all the rolls he had left to give a bus full of Czechoslavakian tourists. Oops...we booked our trip during a really BAD time. They informed us that finding hotels, etc would be a nightmare...BIG OOPS!
posted by Hannah's Music at 2:24 AM
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