It has been a long long wait to visit Petra

Previous post in this series is here..

Ever since we watched Indiana Jones and the last crusade and heard about Petra, my brother and me wanted to visit this place someday. He got a chance to visit Israel for work like 15 years ago and he saw Petra. Being a man of few words he just said "I went and saw Petra on a weekend. It was good". Was thinking of him when I walked through the site entrance that morning.

Finally after a week of traveling, we got to sleep from 10PM to 6AM. We could have slept longer but the entire group showed up at Breakfast right after it opened at 7 and everyone was giving a sheepish grin. No one could sleep longer and we were all hungry! The breakfast area in Le Maison hotel is awesome and there was a guy making pancakes and omlettes on demand. Given there were a total of 16 people in an area set for 200, things moved fast. 

Our guides had told us that we were to leave our bags at reception and walk through the site after exchanging the online passes for physical tickets. There was a horse ride for the first 1/2 mile included in the ticket (but you tip the guys who hold the horses) and a free shuttle from the last point back to the entrance. 

It was a 10 mile distance to cover. He told us that if we walk briskly we should be done by 1 or 1:30 PM and meet them at the hotel reception before 2 PM. We had to start driving latest by 2PM to see the sunset at our next stop..

When the group questioned it later that day, I reminded everyone that people can wait, the sun won't! 

We were the first tourists to enter the Petra site that morning as soon as the ticket place opened. San and me decided to walk even the first 1/2 mile instead of taking the horse.

There is a Madras trail in Petra!!! 

The idea was to go through the canyon and meet everyone at the Treasury building.. which is the face of Petra that is one of two highlights. 

A video of the first part of the walk all the way to the end of the roman road (execpt the approach to the treasury.. which is in the second video)

There were two well decorated camels (which you also see in all pictures) and a kid who bargained with us for taking photos and videos. We went with it and the kid did an outstanding job with the videos. 

This kid was really good. The artistic parts of the video were all taken by him on my iPhone 13. DO NOT MISS THIS VIDEO and if you do go to Petra, do pay this kid to take your video! 

The moon going down into the canyon was amazing. The Sun was still coming up when we were walking through the canyon.

We spent a good 30 minutes trying to hike the trail to the ritual site on top of the hill called the "High Place of Sacrifice". The map did not clearly show how long that trail was and there were no markers or signs to tell us we were on the right track. Once we went high up and did not get a comfortable feeling, we decided to come back down. Either we missed a turn or it was not a short distance hike as suggested by the map. 

this is my friend doing a victory pose when we walked up the sacrificial high place..

The plan was to go all the way to the top to see the Monastry. This is the second highlight of Petra. 

In between the group stopped and said "we dont want to go up to see the Royal tombs". so I ran by myself and got a few photos and ran back.  Missed seeing the Church and tiles but my BIL and friend went up for those while I was running back. I got a short break to catch my breath, eat some well deserved Parle G biscuits and we were off to go up. 

Then there were the cats and kittens.. lots of them everywhere. They smell food in the backpacks and jump up from every gap and crevice. We later asked one of the locals why so many cats in Petra. He said "out here we either eat animals or let the inedible ones go..it is a desert!". Guess cats were inedible for some reason in those days and that worked in their favor. You can see them in the second video. will add a separte slidshow for them in the next post..

We did buy some Myrr and Frankinsense from one of the shops. The guy selling had a beautiful turban and he let me take his photo. Told him I could buy the same cloth, but would not look good in that turban. He said I could pass for a local because of the copper tone in my skin. Didn't know what to make of it.

We got to see a very old living pistachio tree on the walkway. Then there was an attempt at a bench photo.. Had to squeeze through the gap to get this one..

The shops were cute.. after we had bought stuff another store vendor showed us photos of Sadhguru in his shop and was marketing his shop as Sadhguru certified! We told him we already bought incense and walked on..

Once the entire team made it to the end of the colonaded street and saw what an earthquake does to large stacked columns, we took in the view from the Nabatean cafe.

By now other tourists who had taken the golf cart and mule service had beat us to this point and enjoying drinks. We were already late. 

So we started hiking up the steps to the monastery. . . 

There are close to 900 photos from just Petra alone between the iPhone and Canon DSLR. Here are a select few in slideshows. A lower back sprain is killing me. Before this break is over, want to finish writing about this trip. So the rest of the photos will show up every now and then on FB! 

and another slideshow in portrait format..

The monastery and leaving the site.. another story!

Patriarchy at its dumbest..

The previous post in this series is here..

Have already mentioned Queen Hatshepsut in detail in the post on Karnak temple's sunrise visit. 

After we left the Valley of the kings and the various tombs, our next stop was the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut, which was way outside the original city. 

San finally takes a moving selfie.. that turned out pretty good!

It was literally carved into a mountainside with three visible levels and chambers and corridors that went six deep (when I zoomed in with my iPhone through a restricted gate).

This is one of the few places you can see her beautiful face carved as is without a Pharoh's fake beard and head dress. 

She went to the land of Punt and got back a lot of interesting plants, animals and riches by trading. They are currently guessing that this is somewhere in Somalia or in the Indian ocean as warm water fishes are portrayed in the murals. you can see it in the video highlight.

the usual kings and gods at the entrance.. here she has the fake beard in place..

The temple itself was beautiful but it pained us to see most of her relief on the wall carvings chiseled out completely. Not sure exactly who did this. They think her stepson did it. No matter who did it, it was a dumb move to not celebrate this lady and her accomplishments. 

You see the typical murals of the various gods blessing what was once Hatshepsut's carving.. 

This temple is a good 1/2 mile or more in from the ticket gate and they do have a golf cart service to take us to the ramp that goes up to the temple entrance. 

There are side temples for the jackal headed god Anubis, the godess Hathur and their most beloved giver of live, Amun Ra. We went in and out of those hallways and sanctums in 30 minutes. 

Again when we came out, there was a market and you had to go through it to get to the parking lot for vans. We were back on the road. It was getting tight to squeeze everything in.

A video highlight..

Thousands of years.. the pharoh's are gone. their gold is gone.. their mummies and tombs and temples mostly destroyed.. a few preserved with great luck.. but male chauvinism and keeping women down... that survives the ages!

Did I say the clock was ticking.. We still had three stops before the airport..

Channel Islands National Park

It has been only 22 years since we started planning a trip to Channel Islands National park. San and me made a trip to Catalina island (before kids) and wanted to visit this national park and see the foxes. 

Finally we made it over the weekend. It also served another purpose.. to get some stuff from the little one's dorm room so we can vacate her a little easier in two weeks from her dorm.

We started driving at 4:40 on Friday evening and were stuck in horrible non moving traffic for almost an hour. Made it to our hotel at 11:15! This is a ride that is supposed to take under 5 hours. Woke up and pretty much made it to the Ferry. 

The Ferry ride was smooth, there was no sun to be seen, which turned out to be a blessing once we were on the island.

We saw a lot of dophins swim along the ferry on the way. We also saw a lot of Pelicans and sea lions. 

We walked close to a mile with all the camping gear to the campsite on Santa Cruz island. Then started a hike to Smugglers cove. It was 8 miles round trip and reasonable elevation.

The kids in the group decided to go Kayaking for 3 hours and did not join us on the hike! Apparently a must do activity, especially if you are camping overnight. 

The island is full of dandelions and what looks like a large dandelion (we have that here also on the hikes near Santa Cruz.. the purple flower that bursts out into this).. it was a nightmare for me given recent allergies. Handkerchiefs were not enough. Walked with a small towel around my neck to breathe through.

one softball sized weed thingy.. okay.. if you see the photo below you will get the idea.. the entire island is full of what we call weeds. That is about it. It is a weedscape.. and it is not great for folks with allergies. Claritin was being laughed at by these plants.. you could tell ! You can see regular dandelion in the foreground for a size comparison.

The views though are spectacular!

Given San's condition, was not sure how she will fare, but she walked slowly and steadily and made it all the way. Having driven the entire trip with only a 10 minute break the previous night and doing the carrying business, I was equally tired. So we crashed at 7:30PM. The rest of the group went on to chat, play cards etc. It was lights out for me. Woke up at 6 AM thanks to the birds and the water dripping on me from the inside of the tent (this tent did not have a lot of ventilation.. so while it kept us super warm, our own breath condensed on the inside of the tent walls!). 

the animals are tagged on the island ! Every raven had a number on it. #11 and 13 visited our camp!

Two galleries of photos from the trip..

 

Packed up everything after breakfast and we took the stuff to the loading dock. They have lock boxes where we can leave stuff and hike near the dock. So off we went on another 5 mile hike to the top of the bluff to see more views. San and some friends decided to skip this one and stayed on the beach instead. This was a steep climb at the onset of the hike.

Apparently the previous weeks folks spotted whales from the top. We were not that lucky. Had a great time with the group, doing yoga poses and walked back down to a cave. Sat there for a few minutes listening to the waves and it was time to say bye to the place and get back on the ferry. 

Did try to do a toe stand on that small piece.. given there is no room to put my fingers on the ground to bend down, it was a risky proposition. Removed my shoes and used all the balancing skills to get this there.. given recent family experiences, San would have left me on the island if I had done anything stupider (that a word?)

lifted off but only slightly, given the winds and the rough floor.. my photographer was really patient and waited for what was an eternity clicking away to get this one pic!

surprisingly the rocks inside the cave were not wet! Not easy to sit on, but dry!

With a stop at UCSB to grab stuff, we drove back again with a 10 minute break. We had lunch plans with the kid but she was too busy studying and we wanted to get back in time to celebrate a friends 50th and we made it in time. Thankfully no major traffic jams on the return!

It was a memorable trip. We had a lot planned for this summer but San's muscle tear put a ? on everything. Glad that we made it. 

and yes, the foxes in Channel islands are so cute! 

A video highlight of the entire trip.. (we celebrated two brithdays during this trip as well!). 

If you don't want to spend the night camping here, you can still hike to Smugglers cove and back if you get the first ferry in the morning and take the last ferry out!