Aqaba, day/night 1

We never made it to Petra. We missed the morning bus, so we decided to come to Aqaba, which is only about 1 hour from Petra, so we thought we would go there once we got to Aqaba. It is very hot here, but the Red Sea is beautiful. We got in around 7:30 pm local time, and the sun was just setting. Driving through the mountains and desert was surprisingly beautiful. We saw Bedouins camping and lots of donkeys, sheep, and goats. We even saw a couple people riding bikes! Once we got to Aqaba, we found a hotel and now we are going to get some dinner and ice cream.

I was surprised that it was about 15 degrees hotter here than it was in Amman, it is nighttime and it is probably about 95 degrees with no sun. I am NOT looking forward to tomorrow's heat. Also, everyone is wearing the veil here, so we will probably not get to go swimming unless we can find our way onto an American beach or an American hotel pool. I don't think there is a pool in our hotel, but there is a very cool rooftop deck that you can see the Red Sea from.

So far, so good on the sunburn--we've been wearing SPF 85 (!!!) and haven't gotten burned. On the bus, they wouldn't let us bring water, so that was a treat travelling for 5 1/2 hours across the desert in an only sem-air conditionned bus from probably 1985, but we're keeping a positive attitude and looking forward to walking around on the beach.

Thank you guys for reading and leaving us comments, it really means a lot to us because we are so homesick and miss everyone!!!