Eilat on the Red Sea

We spent two nights in Eilat, a resort town on the coast of the Red Sea. This link to the Google map shows just how close to Jordan and Egypt Eilat is. The red "A" is the center of town in Eilat. That white line on the right running north/south is the Jordanian border. The white line curving around on the left is the Egyptian border.


"I think we should make a right"

The first night we checked into our hotel right before dinner after a full day of visiting the previous sites and driving south. The next morning we rose early and took our bus over to the border crossing to Jordan, where we left our beloved guide Mickey behind to make the day trip to Petra (click here for the blog entry for Petra). Mickey, being an Israeli Jew, was not allowed to go into Jordan; he met us back at the border crossing on our return. At the border, we got off our bus, walked across the border, met our Jordanian guide on the other side, and got on a Jordanian bus for the day. After coming back from Petra, we did the same in reverse. That was one long day.

The next morning the members in our group went in different directions. Some went to the underwater "Oceanarium," with a view of the Red Sea life under the surface of the water. Some went scuba diving, some went snorkeling. I was with the snorkeling group, along with Mari and Mark Collins. That was way cool, but unfortunately I didn't get any underwater pictures. My camera would have gotten wet, and that's not a good thing.

One thing I didn't realize at the time, but found out by looking at the Google Map, was that the place where we went snorkeling was no more than a mile or two from the Egyptian border. See that little round thing sticking out into the water and the cluster of buildings adjacent to it in the satellite photo? That's where we were. I don't know, that just kind of seemed fascinating to me, with all the news reports of the tensions in the Middle East. I guess that explains the tanks.