A visit to the city of Kerak and an RPCV friend from Belize followed our time in Petra. The weekend begins on Friday in Jordan and we suddenly found ourselves scrambling for transportation since Friday is comparable to a Sunday in Belize. Very few buses run so we were concerned we would not be able to visit our friend Laura who has begun a second Peace Corps tour here in Jordan just after completing her time in Belize. We got lucky and found a couple who was also trying to leave Petra and would share a taxi with us – cutting costs tremendously. We had a great conversation with our fellow travelers who have been on the road for 7 months now and recommended some great activities for future destinations. When we arrived in Kerak, we saw Laura come around the corner as we removed our bags from the taxi. It was great to see her and we walked through the Kerak Castle while we caught up. After touring the castle, we attempted to get a falafel sandwich, but the sandwich shop was closed for Friday. So, we traveled onto the home of a PCV couple who graciously offered to have us stay with them for the night since a woman in Jordan cannot invite a man into her home. We had a great night chatting with Dan and Andrea, who also made us the most wonderful dinner of spaghetti with fresh vegetables; thank you both for such a wonderful visit! Earlier in the week we walked through the produce market in Amman and immediately fell in love with the deep purple eggplants and the zucchini and squash and bright tomatoes, so having dinner with these fresh veggies was great. Eating a home cooked meal with such flavorful vegetables was a welcome change from dips (not to say we don’t enjoy them).

On our final day, we returned to Amman and then visited the nearby town of Salt where we heard there was lovely Ottoman architecture to be explored. Perhaps we are not as into architecture, because we were a bit disappointed, but still glad to see a new place and take a nice walk.

It is now time for us to move along to another Arab country and see some more ancient structures, like the Great Pyramid. “If we have time, maybe we’ll see the Sphinx” (this reference is continually lost on ginnie, but Ant likes to quote it from a song).

Al Hub as-Salam!