Day 10 Dead Sea

We went back to the Dead Sea today. Since we were not able to get in and actually float last time, we decided to go back again. This time we went to Kalya beach or Qalia as they spell it. It was really quiet different from the on the other day. The sand looked like regular sand instead of salt and there were not salt rocks or salt pillars in the water. There was however lots of people and lots of good dark Dead Sea mud! It was amazing how hard it was not to float. Actually you couldn’t help but float, but the water seemed to want to push you into a laying/floating position. But even when you were with your feet below you, you floated when staying completely still in the water. The water is 8 times as salty as the ocean. And believe me it was salty. They say the mud can cure arthritis and aching muscles (I hoped it would help my blisters ☺) but it did feel like acid aftershave. Any cut or rashed area burned. But it was well worth it! We loved it. I of course covered myself in mud…. Twice. I let the first batch stay on for probably an hour and it dried hard as a rock. Darrel of course did not want anything to do with putting the mud on him. I did get him to feel of it. It was incredibly soft and pliable and warm. I thought it felt great in my hands and on me. I did run into a few difficulties though. While looking for some mud I hit a soft spot and immediately sunk down to mid thigh it was like quick sand, I had a hard time getting out and Darrel not daring to get in the mud just laughed at me. Then another time I had put on my shoes and one leg went in about 8-10 inches and came out without my shoe! I found it but the mud did not want to give it up, I had quiet a fight to retrieve it. Again Darrel just giving me this… you got yourself into this mess, you can get out sort of smirk. My skin does feel good and tight and soft now…. Except for the sunburn and it feels good and tight and soft and burned.
It was neat to go down below sea level and go around the curve in the road and see mountaintops that were below sea level. The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth. It was interesting to see the landscape change so quickly. Jerusalem is pretty, lots of trees and then you go another 15 minutes and it looks much like New Mexico, rocky mountains and fur trees and then it becomes just rocky mountains near Jericho and then dessert. And all of that within 25 minutes of Jerusalem. We saw lots of camels, sheep and shepherds, goats and goat’s herds men. Lots of Bedouins, they are Muslim nomads. They live in the dessert or near dessert areas in makeshift shacks and they move around to graze their sheep, goats or camels.
Since we were very close to Palestinian areas on the highway to the Dead Sea we went through military checkpoints, but as soon as they heard our accents they waved us through. Though some of the young soldiers (18-21 years old, mandatory service for all Israelis), carrying M-16 type rifles were friendly. One came up to the car and the first thing he said when he heard our voice was… “I’ll trade you my gun for your car! It’s very nice, yes.” He was cute. Wanted to know how much it cost and how fast it was. (Darrel’s rental car is a Mercedes Benz C-120 sports car) I’m glad it is not red, I wouldn’t be able to contain him.

We walked down to the pier to have dinner and the waves and sunset were beautiful. There was a guy down there entertaining people by juggling and telling jokes and walking on his hands, reminded us of Pastor Joe ☺ and Jonny wrapped up in one guy. He loved it when the audience participated. He was really good though we could not understand a word he was saying…. Actually we did understand two words: Las Vegas and Obama. Who knows what he was talking about, but he was entertaining to watch.

Have I mentioned that Obama is in the newspaper every single day. On the front page everyday there is his smiling face. Tel Aviv is a very liberal city so I am sure the articles are positive though I wouldn’t know since they are all written in Hebrew. Tel Aviv is the gay/lesbian capital of Israel, so we have seen a little too much of that. I could tell you stories, but…. I think I will pass writing them down on here. Tel Aviv is a big city much like New York. I think it is dirty and such … diversity. On one corner you have two nearly naked girls holding hands, on another is a rather large guy in a Speedo, on yet another corner are hesetic Jews covered from head to toe with clothing, girls wearing head coverings and guys sporting lots of hair, draidles (little locks of hair hanging down in front of the ears) and black suits with white shirts and black hats and on the last corner are Arabs with the women only showing their eyes or their faces the rest of them covered in mostly black and the men with their robes and heads covered. Darrel and I are in the middle gawking at them all. ☺☺☺

Back to Obama, he was in Jerusalem yesterday, the same day that we were there. Though he was their earlier in the morning. I have the newspaper article that tells of his visit. They have a picture of him at the Western Wall. They say he put a piece of paper in the wall, onlookers tried to find the one he put in, but the one they pulled out thinking it was his was written in Spanish. Sadly, I have no doubt it was a curse and not a prayer as it was not offered to God.