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Hello Dolly!

On the last day of our trip to the Riviera Maya area of Mexico, we were hit with a tropical storm called “Dolly”.  After hitting the Yucatan, this tropical storm then turned into Hurricane Dolly and hit the Texas coast.  At the time, there was a lot of conflicting information about the storm.  The hotel began by removing all of the beach and pool chairs and canceling events.  They then told us that the storm would hit overnight and would not be a problem.

In the morning I woke up early and headed to the beach to see if I could find some good photos.  Winds were noticeable but nothing that would cause alarm.

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Finally back!

Hello everyone!  Yes, this is still an active blog!  Things have been extremely busy lately, but the good news is I now have the material for quite a few new blogs.  The most exciting thing that occurred since my last post was we took a vacation in the Riviera Maya area of Mexico.  For those not familiar with this area, it is south of Cancun.  Cancun itself is located on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, close to its southern border with Belize. 

We stayed at an all inclusive hotel that had a good deal of wildlife so I had a number of photo subjects.  I also took several day trips and have photos from them.  In the next few days I will begin posting blogs about the different types of wildlife I saw there.  In the meantime I will share this picture I took early in the morning at the beach by our hotel.

Tel Aviv – last stop in Israel

Wow this has been a long series!  I hope everyone has enjoyed this trip to Israel, which wound up taking a lot more posts than I had initially intended.  The end of our trip was saved for Tel Aviv, which compared to the rest of Israel isn’t the most interesting of cities.  However, it is the place where most Israelis live and that was also the case with Nelya’s relatives.  As we were visiting from far away, we were shown hospitality that I had never seen before in all of our travels.  It is true that Israelis are not known for their hospitality to strangers, but if they know you they are the nicest people you will ever meet.

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Caesaria and Haifa

Our trip from Petra to Tel Aviv was a long one.  We awoke early in the morning and took a taxi from our hotel back to Aqaba, where we again crossed back into Israel.  Crossing back into Israel was a bit trickier than going to Jordan, as my wife was heavily questioned about why she is traveling to Israel.  After she gave a list of her relatives that live in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, they let us in.  From Eilat, we took a flight to Tel Aviv, where one of Nelya’s cousins picked us up at the airport.  Our time in Tel Aviv was very busy between seeing relatives and visiting places.  We were given the royal treatment while in Tel Aviv, and the friend of one of Nelya’s cousins was nice enough to take us on a day trip to Haifa and Caesaria.

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Jordan and Petra

We awoke early in the morning from Eilat and set out to make our trip to Petra, not knowing exactly what to expect.  I had read that the best way to get to Petra is to take a taxi to the border with Jordan, then cross the border, then take a taxi on the Jordanian side to Petra.  The border itself was very strange, as almost no one was there.  The soldiers at the border were no nonsense, but otherwise it was not particularly scary and everything went according to plan.  The only slightly intense moment was just after we crossed the border into Jordan – as there was nothing there.  Slowly a car pulled out of an almost deserted parking lot and stopped by to pick us up.

We set out in the taxi towards our destination.  The trip took about three hours and was quite scenic as we passed by numerous wadis.  Ahead of us awaited one of the most amazing places on this planet, immortalized in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Petra is still little known to most Americans.  However, as it has recently been voted one of the new wonders of the world, it is unlikely to remain a secret for much longer.

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Slumming it in Eilat

The drive to Eilat from the Dead Sea was long and dry.  Desert, desert, and more desert.  We stopped at a rest stop recommended to us by our Israeli relatives and really wished that we didn’t.  Other than an ice cream bar everything looked a bit scary there, so we continued our drive to Eilat.  Although the main reason we made a straight line to Eilat was to find a hospital for my wife’s toe, we were also a bit excited to spend two nights in this resort destination, rather than the one night we had originally planned.  We drove up to our hotel, and were greeted by what we had come to know as the traditional hospitality for foreigners in Israel.

The porters in front of the hotel worked very hard to ignore us as we pulled our luggage from the car, pulled Nelya with her limping foot out, and kept the kids from killing each other after the long car ride.  Eventually one of the porters was nice enough to approach us at this luxurious resort – considered the best in Eilat and by many as the best in all of Israel.

“You’ll need to move your car.”

“OK”, I responded.  But I’ll be able to move it much quicker if you could take our baggage to our room.  Sure enough, the baggage carts were there for a purpose!

I pulled my car over to the parking garage to park it.

“Room key”

“I don’t have a room key”, I responded.  “We just pulled in and I was asked to park the car.”

The guard reluctantly opened the gate and I attempted to pull in.  However just as I did several hotel workers pulled a supplies cart in front of my car, and by the time they had pulled it inside the gate had closed.  Also gone was the guard.  I sat, waiting there while I figured out what to do.  Luckily another car came out, who quickly honked – irritated that I dared be in his way.  I pulled back and the minute he was through I gunned it before the gate closed.  The car now parked, I went inside.

“They don’t have our reservations!”, Nelya shrieked – visibly quite upset.

As I mentioned, we were only supposed to stay Sunday night there.  However, due to the broken toe episode, we decided to stay there both Saturday and Sunday.  To make sure the reservations were done properly, we had one of my wife’s cousins call the hotel to make the change.  I then called the hotel to verify the change and also to inform them we had two children.  On the phone they were quite rude – “well, there’ll be a surcharge!”.  I agreed to the surcharge, as in some parts of the world it was common, and at the time I felt things were in order.

However, they were not in order – they now were insisting that we only had reservations for Saturday and not Sunday.  I insisted that both my wife’s cousin and I had called to book both, and he insisted that his operator wouldn’t lie.  He then turned and ignored us.  The only saving grace for us was my wife’s cousin, who called the hotel infuriated that they had treated his guests of honor so rudely.  After our cousin’s tirade, we were upgraded to a suite.

For those staying in Eilat, the name of the hotel was Sheraton Herod’s Palace and I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole if I were staying in Eilat again.

Eilat is admittedly a very interesting place.  It sits on a tiny slit of land on the Red Sea.  From the beach, Jordan (above), Egypt, and Saudi Arabia are all visible.  Although the towns and land are visible, the countries couldn’t be further apart.  It is possible to cross into Egypt and Jordan from Eilat, but the citizens on both sides have very little to do with each other.  Few travel between the borders other than tourists.

Eilat is a big travel destination for Israelis and the place is full of tourist traps.  Most of them are not worth your time or money, though the aquarium was nice.  It has an open viewing area where you climb a ladder down to the sea floor and can see the corals in the sea.

There’s also a lot of shopping there, including a mall where Eitan and Nathan had the chance to cool down a bit.

My biggest joy in Eilat was taking pictures of the sunset.  At just the right moment the mountains turn dark red (hence the “Red” Sea) and the place is quite beautiful.

However, after our short stay in Eilat the area had become old – we were sick of tourist traps and Israeli customer service and wanted to see something real.  Luckily, the next destination on our trip was to one of the new wonders of the world, as we prepared to go on our own “Indiana Jones” trip.

"Masada did that to my papa"

On the way from the Dead Sea to Eilat, we decided to stop off at Masada – the biggest tourist attraction in Israel.  The story of Masada is fascinating and continues to this day.  Supposedly all Israeli soldiers take their oaths at this mountain fortress – swearing the Masada will never be taken again.  For those not familiar with the history of Masada, it was originally built by Herod the Great but was later used as a fortress against the Romans by the Sicariis – an extremist sect of Judaism.  The Romans laid siege to the fortress for over two years, then built a ramp up to the side.  However, when the Romans entered the fortress, there was no resistance. Almost all of the inhabitants committed suicide rather than be taken captives by the Romans.

Therefore, this was the last fortress to fall under the Romans and marked the end of a Jewish State for almost two thousand years.  However, as I read into the story a bit more, it is not this simple.

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The Dead Sea – Enemy of Toes

Our stay in Jerusalem had ended, and the scariest part of our trip had begun.  We were to rent a car in Israel and I was to drive it.  There are places in the world where drivers are nice and orderly – Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Boston.  Israel is not one of those places.  Driving is aggressive and little compassion is given to poor Americans with no GPS.  Nevertheless, we rented the car, rented two car seats for Eitan and Nathan (I figured at least they would survive), and headed out of the Jerusalem traffic towards Ein Gedi – our destination on the Dead Sea.

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The lighter parts of Jerusalem

After our sad trip to Yad Vashem, we decided to spend some more relaxing time with our kids at Jerusalem’s zoo.  The guide book seemed to infer that this was a little zoo, but in truth it is quite large and well worth the time to visit.  There are a great number of animals and trams that take you to different parts of the zoo.  The zoo itself is in the shape of a loop, but takes quite some time to walk around.  As is typical with any outdoor area there, it was rather hot so make sure to bring something to drink – though of course refreshments are served there.

Our kids of course loved the zoo, and the next day Nelya and I set out to see some more sites around Jerusalem.

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One Last Day in Jerusalem

We actually spent a total of five days in Jerusalem, but I will describe it in three.   There are an amazing number of things to see in Jerusalem, and I advise at least five days to see a decent amount of things.  Even given what we saw, I would like to return some day to see sites we didn’t get a chance to see.  However, Nelya’s relatives were kind enough to (and actually insisted on) watching our children for two days so we could see some of the sites ourselves.  This was incredibly helpful for some places like Yad Vashem, which is no place for children (and where children under a certain age are not allowed).  Our first site was the Israel Museum – the most famous museum in Israel.

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