Laura’s abroad in Amman, Jordan until Dec. 19.

Still smelling the salt of the Dead Sea on my skin, I’ve returned from a trip through the south of Jordan. This is the Jordan of legends: the awe-inspiring Petra, sunrises over Wadi Rum, sunsets over Aqaba’s sparkling aqua water, quiet valleys in Dana, and the salty depths of the Dead Sea. I fell in love with Jordan during this trip and I don’t know how I’ll ever leave in just two more months.
Here are the top 5 best adventures from this week:

1. Exploring Petra:

I can’t believe I’ve lived in Jordan for two months and only just now visited its most famous attraction, the rose-red city of Petra, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. My friends and I hit the Siq just an hour after sunrise and blearily made our way through the long, narrow passage that serves as the entrance to the city. The rock’s marbled colors shone in the early morning sun and I don’t think my photos do it proper justice. After a while we came to the most-photographed place in Jordan, the Treasury, which is an ancient temple carved straight into a rock face that was featured in an old Indiana Jones movie. Inside we saw the carved bowl where they collect the blood from sacrifices. As we made our way through the valley, we were flanked by hundreds of massive tombs carved into the rock face. We passed the massive amphitheatre and walked along the colonnaded Roman street. Finally we crossed a creek and started the steep climb up to Petra’s second most-famous monument, the Monastery (which is another misnomer because it was also a pagan temple). Along the way, we passed Bedouins who had set up camp in caves and were hawking their wares to exhausted tourists fighting off the morning heat. Out of breath and out of water, we finally reached the Monastery, only to be tempted to continue on to the edge of the mountaintop just beyond it. There we clambered over the rocks to see the sweeping, desolate valley below, with some of the most jagged and dramatic rock faces I’ve ever seen. There I sensed the captivating mystery of Petra and I left the mountaintop very humbled.

2. Sunset and sunrise in Wadi Rum:

Just before sunset in the vast desert of Wadi Rum, all my classmates and I climbed in the back of Jeeps and held on for dear life as our Bedouin drivers tried to out-run each other across the sand dunes. The drivers took great delight in pitching the Jeeps over steep sand dunes and listening to us scream as if we were on roller coasters. We stopped to watch the sun drop between the rock formations and cast the entire desert in a golden, reddish glow. The next morning, my friends and I got up at 5 a.m. to summit the mountain behind our Bedouin camp. I’m glad it was pitch black because I don’t think I would have had the courage to rock climb if I had been able to see what I was doing. I blindly followed my goat-footed friends as they shimmied up the rock face. From the top, we shivered in our fleece jackets and watched as the distant horizon began to glow yellow. The black and blue desert turned rosy orange, and we saw a herd of camels silhouetted against the rising sun as they were being driven across the valley floor. When the sun finally crested and our stomachs began to growl, we decided to head back down the rock face. Going down, however, was much more terrifying than the scramble up. If it hadn’t been for the bravery and patience of my friends, I think I’d still be at the top of that rock praying for the tour bus to magically appear and take me down.

3. Snorkeling in Aqaba:

After worrying about modesty for months, you can imagine how excited the other students and I were about slipping into our swimsuits to enjoy the aqua waters of Aqaba. As Jordan’s only sea port, it’s a bustling commercial zone, but also a major tourist destination. After leaving the deserts of Wadi Rum we piled into glass-bottom boats and scooted around the beautiful waters of the Red Sea. We saw amazing coral reefs and even a sunken Lebanese ship. My attempt at snorkeling, however, was a bit of a failure. I gashed my foot on the boat as I jumped off, and then proceeded to swallow copious amounts of salty water. Nevertheless, it felt amazing to wash the desert sand off in such wonderfully warm water. I felt like I was in Hawaii! I did feel awkward, however, when we returned to the beach because all the local women were floating around fully clothed and wearing hijabs. I tried to wrap my towel around me as best I could, but I could still feel the stares.
4. A night at the eco-lodge in Dana:

After leaving Aqaba, we bused over to the Dana Nature Preserve south of the Dead Sea. Upon reaching a tiny village, we left the tour bus behind and piled ourselves and our luggage into truck beds. We bounced for 10 kilometers until we reached the Feynan Eco Lodge, which looked out of place among the simple Bedouin tents that dotted the hillsides. With it’s creamy adobe walls and graceful archways, the lodge would have been right at home in the glossy pages of Sunset Magazine. The lodge is a relatively new experiment in sustainable tourism. I enjoyed the delicious buffet of gourmet vegetarian food. There is no electricity in the lodge (except in the bathrooms), so at night we lit our rooms and the back deck with candles. We sat and played cards, enjoying the darkness. Around 9 p.m. our program director led a group of us on a night hike up the Wadi. After hearing howling in the canyon, he advised us to carry a large rock with us in case we are attacked by coyotes. I thought he was kidding at first, but when he started searching on the ground for a sharp one, I quickly did the same. Despite the scare, we made it back alive to the lodge several hours later. I felt bad though because on our way back we lost the trail and ended up trudging through a Bedouin camp. We saw men curled up in sleeping bags guarding their flock of sheep. That night I fell asleep to the lovely smell of candle smoke.

5. Floating in the Dead Sea:

As a California girl, I’ve been to dozens and dozens of beaches. But the Dead Sea is nothing like I’ve experienced ever before. When I took my first step into the water, I instantly became aware of its high salinity because the gash on my foot (courtesy of the boat in Aqaba) started stinging immensely. My friend splashed water into her eyes was blinded (and cursing) for the next five minutes. But, the amazing thing was that as I walked further out, my feet just floated upwards. It was impossible to stand in the Dead Sea. We just floated on our backs like we were swinging in hammocks. It took absolutely no effort at all to just bob around, but it was extremely difficult to make any headway swimming mainly because I couldn’t keep my body submerged deep enough to fully swim. After enjoying the novelty of such a salty sea, we all headed to the beach to slather ourselves with mud. The Dead Sea mud is famous for its therapeutic properties, but mainly I just felt dirty and itchy as the black mud dried on me. I will admit that we all looked rather ridiculous as we stood around awkwardly on the beach for 20 minutes waiting for the mud to harden. I’m not sure if the mud worked any miracles on me, but I think my skin may have been a tad softer when I returned home that night to Amman. The only change my host family noticed was that I was a bit tanner and smelled like salt.

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