Sinai Peninsula

The Sinai Peninsula is part of Egypt situated between the Red and Mediterranean Seas. We overflew this area on our way to Aqaba, Jordan. The sparsely populated northern part of the peninsula is populated by terrorist organization, Al-Qaeda. While flying over this area, pilot's receive a NOTAM advising that flights remain above FL260 due to the threat of surface to air anti-aircraft missile fire. Yikes. 

We visited Jordan during Ramadan. Things were very quiet in Aqaba during the day but the town came to life at night. We walked to the night market in search of Deb's fiber (yarn) our first night here. We didn't find any fiber for sale at all, just finished products.

Walking through the city of Aqaba, we were experiencing our first time in a Muslim country. On our walk, we were serenaded by the sound of the Imam's call to prayer. It was fascinating but honestly we found it a bit haunting hearing the call blaring throughout the entire city. 

Petra is an amazing archeological site dating back to around 300BC. This once great city contains tombs and temples carved into sandstone cliffs. The city was lost during the 7th century and rediscovered in 1812. Several Bedouin families still live in the caves around the city today.

Deb started on a mission when we were in Greenland. She decided to find a way to purchase yarn in every country we visit so that when we got home, she could weave a wall hanging with something from each location. It's a great idea and it gave us a reason to get off the beaten path in each country. Sounds easy (and it was in places like Iceland and Ireland) but it turned out to be quite challenging overall. In Jordan, we were unable to find the raw yarn so Deb purchased the traditional head wrap in the photo which she will deconstruct when it comes time to weave.

This is our tour guide in Jordan. At one point on the bus ride to Petra, we were delayed for some reason (don't recall why). When one of our group apologized to him for the delay, he responded with, "it's OK, we have no chicken to carry." Sort of like, "no big deal, we're not in a hurry." We all thought it was hilarious. So hopefully you're reading this now with no chicken to carry - it might take a while to read through every country!