Escape to the South - Part 2

(Due to time constraints, I didn't have time to add pictures, but I will add them later.)

This is the second installment in the “Escape to the South” series, and it will chronicle the events of last Saturday. Again, we traveled to the south for a weekend of rest and relaxation outside of the classroom and under the hot desert sun.

Saturday we woke up to an amazing sunrise over the mountains on the east side of the Dead Sea in Jordan. One interesting aspect of this sunrise: the glare it produced off the Dead Sea was unlike any I have ever seen off of any body of water. It was as if the sun was reflecting off of a mirror. I wouldn’t realize until later that day why this was the case.

After breakfast, we grabbed a bagged lunch and loaded into the bus for our excursion to Masada. Masada was the last stronghold of Jewish fighters against the Roman armies. The ruins now seen there were built by Herod as a winter retreat, and it is the most complete surviving ancient Roman siege system in the world. We ascended the mountain by cable car because the only other route of ascent was quite treacherous – the Snake Path. Among the ruins still remaining are portions of the outer wall, the siege ramp, a swimming pool and several cisterns for holding water.

While these ruins were quite impressive, what most caught my attention was the massive expanse of land that surrounds Masada. The view from atop this mountain was truly breath-taking. Take a look at some of these pictures.

After descending the mountain and spending an hour or so on the terrace at the gift shop to eat lunch and buy souvenirs, we loaded up again and proceeded to a beachside establishment on the shore of the Dead Sea for a couple of hours of fun in the salt, I mean, sun. This experience has been one of the highlights of the trip, and I would recommend that if anyone is ever coming to visit Israel, a trip to the Dead Sea is a must. Floating in the Dead Sea is probably about as close as one can get to being weightless on Earth. It is literally impossible to sink and quite hard even to submerge your whole body. Unlike ordinary saltwater, the water from the Dead Sea has an indescribably salty taste (as you might expect), and it is also very bitter. When walking on the floor of the sea, at times you are walking on sand, at other times you are walking on a solid sheet of salt, and, best of all, at times in pure Dead Sea mud. The mud was by far the most interesting of the surfaces because sinking thigh-deep was a frequent occurrence. The consistency of this mud is as well indescribable, but I will do my best: soft, oozing, sticky, dark black and nothing like Georgia red clay. Another great thing about the mud is that it is full of minerals that are good for the body which makes it very popular to apply to the body: basically people dig deep into the sea floor extracting massive globs of mud and slather the mud all over their body. Sounds like some good clean fun!

Well, after a couple hours of swimming in the salt and playing in the mud, we departed for our lodging. When we got back, everyone got cleaned up, we ate dinner, enjoyed a class on media talking points and retired for an evening of rest.

Included in this evening of rest were some games of spades and the fellowship talent show – I bet you didn’t expect that from this group of intellectuals, huh? We saw Joel dislocate his shoulder and wrap his arm around his head. We got to see Zander’s drawing of Ram (who has now taken on this mythical, all-powerful persona – somewhat like our own personal Jack Bauer) ripping of someone’s head, and we saw Sandy’s interpretation of a raindrop, among others. Well, in the end, Zander received the prize – a keychain.

After the talent show, we retired for the night in preparation for the next day in the South.