That one time I went rappelling down waterfalls...

As promised, I shall now tell the epic tale of my journey through Wadi Feid. By journey, I mean an ecohike that lasted more than 13 plus hours and consisted of waterfalls, climbing down rock faces, walking through a canyon at night for 2 hours, and being saved from certain....danger by a former member of the Jordanian special forces.

Lets talk about the beginning: we woke up at our hostel in Petra at 4:45 am on a Saturday. The blasting call to prayer entered our room, waking up most of us. By most of us, I mean everyone except me. I did not sleep that night. The dogs and cats were playing out some version of West Side Story and I couldn't fall to sleep with all their noise. One dog literally did not stop barking.

We piled into the car, with some of us sitting in the trunk of the truck. I sat in the front seat, sleepily watching as our car went further into the wilderness. There were several moments where we teetered near the edge of cliffs. But our skilled driver never took his hands off the wheel and kept his eyes on the road.

When we arrived, we packed our backpacks with provisions and put on our gear for rappelling, which consists of a belt, a helmet and some caribeners. We began walking, our caribeners clinking and our eyes watching the ground to prevent slipping on the path. Before we knew it, we arrived at a giant rock face. To our horror, we realized we had to climb down it without any equipment. I went first, crawling crablike and searching and grasping for any place for my feet and hands. I willingly trusted my life to Ibrahim, a guide from the Jordanian special forces who explores canyons in his free time. I gave him my hand and he willed me down.

After this little adventure, we walked to the first waterfall. As I strapped in, our guide Hakim told me about The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy and the quoted famous phrase, "Don't panic." With those reassuring words, I leaned back and managed my way down. Getting to the bottom felt empowering and I was ready to move on.



This was the next set of waterfalls. (I didn't take this picture...I didn't bring a camera). I banged my knee pretty bad on this one, but no sizeable harm done. In comparison to the other waterfalls, these are babies. But my knee is still bruised. It also made it difficult to walk.

The next waterfall passed without much trouble. I will mention here that to get to the waterfalls, there was a lot of climbing over rock faces, hoisting our bodies over crevices, and wading through water. Needless to say, it was no walk in the park.


It was waterfall number 5 that will go down in history as the scariest moment of my life. This time, we didn't really go down into the waterfall, but rather rappelled down the side of the cliff. This cliff did not have the nice curve you can slowly slip/walk down, but rather plummetted like a sheet. A completely straight drop that you had to stand on the edge of back wards and step into nothing. Needless to say, terrifying. My stomach flips just thinking about it.

So, I was a bit nervous, what can I say. I made my way down, but my weak and bruised knee was not cooperating. Also, I was not distributing my weight properly. So friends, I slipped and lost control.....going down a cliff. Not a great place to lose control.

My entire body twisted, I yelped and my head slammed against the side of the rock. I looked down at my hands and saw blood pouring down. I touched my nose and realized it was not my nose that was bleeding, but my head. This all happened in the matter of seconds.

It took all the strength in my wobbling legs and arms to reach out to Ibrahim and have him literally pull my body up. I sat in shock, touching the back of my neck, which was covered in blood that came pouring from the cut in the head. Well, I thought, I am going home. It is over. So long, Wadi Feid. It wasn't until he strapped me up to go down the cliff once again that I realized that wasn't a solution. There were two options: complete the trail....or complete the trail. Or you know, call in an air lift.

Since I could not do that cliff, due to psychological terror, we decided to climb down the rock face on the side and walk/slide down the valley. We got to the next waterfall, where Hakim told me my membrane had coagulated (?) and that I should be fine. I just couldn't get my hair wet.

We are rappelling down....waterfalls. And I can't get my hair wet. Also, we figured out that my helmet had been broken and that is why it got cut so bad. Did I mention I never signed a waiver?

ANYWAY, we decided I didn't have a concussion. I did the next few waterfalls, slowly getting back my courage. And my friends, I would need all the confidence to face the next waterfall.

This was one of the last waterfalls. If you look carefully, you can see a tinnnyyy person. This waterfall is about 60 some meters, a little more. It is the size of a 20 story building. And every single one of us rapelled down it. The hard part of this waterfall was the endurance you needed to withstand the sun and burning rope. Plus, by that time, all of our muscles ached, especially our arms.

But we made it down. And in true Jordanian fashion, there was tea waiting for us. Do not ask me how they got tea there, only God knows. I just drank it happily and we walked on to the next waterfall. Which you can see right here...

This one was not so bad since we could break it up into two parts. It also is about 70 meters lon g. Once we got to the bottom, we got to eat our sandwiches. After 12 hours of not eating, they were delicious.

My dear readers, if you think the story ends here, you are terribly, terribly mistaken. We were told that it would take us about 1 hour to get through the canyon if we moved fast. But by moving fast, I mean marathon lightspeed fast. After about 30 minutes, night had fallen and strapped with lights on our forehead, we had to climb over more rock faces, avoid huge things of mud, dive under trees and avoid sharp plants. Very very sharp plants. One smacked me in the middle of the face, allowing blood to now pour from the front of my head. Hakim told me I was just a mess. Like I needed to be told.

1 hour turned into 2.5 hours. We sighed our praises to God when it was over and sat at the top of the wadi, admiring the stars (absolutely no light pollution). We could see the lights from Palestine, which were several hours away from us. And naturally, there was tea.

My head is fine, the cut did not get infected and it hardly hurts. It is merely a bump now and an excellent testimony and proof that I did this journey. We got home around 2am and woke up the next morning terribly sore but invigorated to be alive.

Arabic class was the easiest thing in the world that day.

Best,
Liz

Memory and Beirut

Hey!
I am going to blog about my super eco-hike in the wilderness of southern Jordan...where I rappelled down 12 waterfalls and cut my head open. But I don't have the energy to do that just yet (just wait, it is epic beyond all comprehension).

To tie you over....here are some pictures from my trip to Beirut. (Yawn, so boring I know)

It is midterms, so I will just be typing little comments by the pictures. I think they tell the story of Beirut much better.

Spring break is coming up and I have a few days in Amman where I will update my blog a few times...then I am off to Cairo to become further indebted to this blog.

A beautiful view of the city--the guy who picked us up from the airport took us to this obscure spot to see this amazing sight. Every Lebanese person I met was so welcoming, really taking us in to see their complicated city.
Here is the Al-Omari mosque. Originally the site of The Church of St. John the Baptist, it was converted into a mosque during the Muslim take over. At night, it lights up the city with its intriguing, but haunting blue dome. A statue near the mosque--you can see the bullets holes...obviously not originally part of the statues. They are markings of the trouble times in Beirut, including the most recent conflicts in 2006 as well as the Civil War. There are many signs of the rocky history of this city. Abandoned buildings and statues like these, as well as many memorials, remind you of this. It is like Berlin in this respect. Here is one of the more famous abandoned buildings. I was hear late at night (I won't say how late...). It was perhaps the best time to see this haunted place. If you can believe it, this is the Holiday Inn. During the civil war, it served as the perfect site for target practice. It remains a towering memorial, a site that no statue or history book can ever trump in terms of expressing the devastation of war. In my opinion, it should never be torn down. It expresses to me the sadness and emptiness war brings.

Anyway, sorry for that little poetic bit at the end. I plan on going back to Beirut. I will post a link to the Facebook album shortly. Where you can learn more about what I did!

Love,
Liz

Good Jordanian Eats

Alright, making two post entries in one week should allow my guilt to go away. As I have heard from various fronts, everyone wants to know about what I have been eating.

I live in a apartment, so I don't have a host parent making me an exotic dish every day. However, our landlady makes us delicious lunches and dinners on occasion.

For breakfast, I eat zeit and za'atar, which is a mixture of olive oil, thyme, and sesame seeds. I will spread this on bread. Then I may have a few figs, dates, or dried apricots. I also have some instant coffee. They just don't do American coffee, but they love Nescafé. There most be 10 Nescafé stands on the UJ campus.

For lunch, I might just have zeit and za'atar again. That is how much I love it. And at about only $1, you can't go wrong. Or, I may have shishtowak, which is grilled chicken, sometimes wrapped up in a pita. If I am eating lunch with my Jordanian friends, we will have falafel, hummus and bread served with some pickled vegetables. Lunch at the university cafeteria usually consists of chicken, rice, and several soups. Nothing of particular importance. Sometimes I eat straight up rice and baba ghanoush, which is delicious and tastes a little like macaroni and cheese for some reason.

There is the ever popular shawarma which I have only had once. It is delicious, but not a friend to digestion. Basically, it is the junk food of the Middle East. Not recommended if you have a stomach which can't handle grease, like mine. I know some guys who eat like 5 shawarma a day. I am pretty sure Sam would be one of those guys.

Dinner! In addition to the tasty foods I just cook for myself or my flat mates, we occasionally eat out or are served meals. I mentioned before mansaf and maqlouba. Here are pictures of both. I have to say I prefer maqlouba and most anything with lamb:

MANSAF
MAQLOUBA
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Kibbeh is another favorite of mine. It is beef and various spices rolled up and fried. Sorry I have no pictures, I am usually too busy eating it.

Tabouleh is another wonderful Lebanese dish. It is a side salad, made up of parsley, lemon, bulgur, cucumbers, tomatoes, ect. It is very refreshing and delicious.


Our landlady/mom makes a delicious maqlouba, cabbage leaves stuffed with meat, and about any dish that you desire from around the Middle East. She will often serve us food from Libya as well. She said that the Libyan food does not at all reflect their leader. She also makes us a lot of lentils and rices, one came with the tasty green sauce you see in the picture below:

Desert is a tricky one, since I can not eat knanafeh since it has cheese in it. But everyone says it is good. Baklava is not actually Middle Eastern, but it is tasty here, as well as other filo dough deserts. A lot of their desserts are dairy heavy, so I do not eat them.

My favorites so far? Maqlouba.
Now I am hungry......

Spectacular Views

Hi all,

I feel like I have not updated this blog enough, but that is mostly because I have been doing many things. And I get overwhelmed with how much I can feasibly tell you. And then I put it off.

Last weekend, I was quite the tourist. I went to Umm Qais, an old city that can be traced archaeologically to the Hellenistic, Omayyad, and beyond. Built from basalt rock, the ruins are completely black. The most stunning of which is the amphitheater. When we arrived, we ate at a beautiful restaurant that looked over the Golan Heights, the Sea of Tiberius, and Syria. The food was ok, but the view was stunning. The museum also was excellent. The museum guide gave the tour to Ally and I completely in Arabic, which I appreciated and understood for the most part. He was such a nice person and showed us some interesting things.




If you go to Jordan, please go to this place. It is worth the 3JD you pay and the madness it takes to get there. And it is madness. To get back to Amman, we had to have the tourist police call for a bus. Most of the "companies" they called just flat out refused. In the buses, the played the Qu'ran. It was extremely soothing. I don't know if there are many religious texts that sounds so beautiful while reading.

SPEAKING of religion (such a smooth transition there), I also went on the Biblical tour of Jordan. Now, next to Petra, Biblical sites are the other main tourist attraction and income for the country. But I can not tell a lie. I did not really enjoy the tour all that much.

First, we went to Bethlehem beyond the Jordan, where Jesus was baptized. This is very cool to see in theory. You could see the original stones and marble steps where the baptism took place, which is neat. But they reconstructed a lot of stuff around it. I found that mostly unnecessary and a detraction from the sight. The Jordan river is also essentially a little muddy creak.

Anyways, after that we went to Mt. Nebo, where Moses took the Israelites. It is a nice view, I will not deny. It just felt very overblown. But again, this is a huge source of tourism. I can not really judge. There were also some awesome mosaics there as well.

The second leg of the trip I found more interesting. We went to Madaba where a mosaic dating back 1500 years is located. It depicts a map of the Holy Land designed to guide pilgrims. Sadly, a lot of it was destroyed in the iconoclast. It is beautiful though and extremely remarkable.

The last sight, of which I will provide a photo, was Herod's Palace. This, as the story goes, is the place where the head of John the Baptist was ordered. And from this view, you can see why it was located here. I mean, poor John, but at least he had a nice view in the end. You can see the Dead Sea and the palace can be seen from Bethlehem.


Alright folks. I am boring myself here. I think I may post about food soon!!!

Salam,
Liz