Jericho and the Dead Sea Mud

The Dead Sea is an awesome place that I hope all of you get a chance to visit someday! On Sunday morning we left early to go to Jericho. We were on our big "love bus" that could fit a group twice our size, and it gets a little scary on some of those roads. They are narrow and really, really curvy. Like hairpin turns with no guard rails over three hundred foot cliffs scary. My roommate does not like those parts at all ; ) We had to pass through an Israeli checkpoint to get to Jericho and we played our official checkpoint song, "Security" by Otis Redding. Because we are a big bus full of mostly white tourists, we just fly on through. First we hiked down one side of a canyon and up the other to visit the monastery where St. George lies. The hike was really steep but it was pretty and not too hot yet. In the monastery we took some pictures in one dark room where a single shaft of sunlight acted like a spotlight. It may have been a little "tacky" to set up shots like that, but they turned out cool! We turned and hiked back to the bus, and though it was hotter and steeper going back, we all made it. We drove into Jericho for lunch and stopped at the most touristy place you could imagine. It reminded me of a rest area on the Ohio Turnpike, with the added benefit of a couple of huge stores selling Dead Sea salts in every possible cream, lotion and soap. I walked out into the parking lot to see my friend Kristen atop a camel, trotting around the parking lot. Apparently a guy was selling rides on his camel for 15 NIS (like three USD), and I was the next one in line. It was a little like riding a horse, only higher and bumpier. The man who owned the camel encouraged me to pretend to swing a lasso around my head and whoop like a cowboy. I (mostly) declined.
After lunch we drove to a beach on the Dead Sea. It was so nice to see a big body of water, it made me miss Lake St. Clair. However, the Dead Sea is way cooler in some respects. I imagine most of you have heard that because the saline content is very high, people are really buoyant in the water. It is hard to describe just how buoyant that really is. When I was in water up to my hips I just kicked my legs off the ground and laid down, like I was in a bath tub. My whole body floated with zero effort from me. I could even roll over and float on my stomach just as easily. The bottom was sandy with big pockets of the famous Dead Sea mud, which was a little tricky because I sank in up to my knee a few times. It was hard to get out too, because the sand abruptly gives way to rocks right before the beach, which are slippery and uneven. After floating under the bright, hot, clear blue sky, we decided it was time for the mud treatment. There was a little hole dug into the sand down the beach a ways where we scooped mud out by the handful and rubbed it all over ourselves, until we were literally covered. From toe to forehead, I was a mud lady. We took pictures and then sat in the sun to let it dry, the dark brown goop tightening and then cracking like bread crust in an oven. When it was dry we went back out into the sea and rinsed off. My skin was slippery smooth, like a baby's. It was amazing. Of course, we had to rinse our faces in the freshwater showers on the beach because if you get that salt water in your eyes or even on your lips it stings like anything!!! But even the super-sensitive skin on my face liked the mud.
After we got back we tried to practice basketball at the YMCA but couldn't get a ball, so I went home and napped before dinner, then headed out to the Citadel to watch the World Cup final. I was cheering for Italy. At the Citadel they always reserve a table for our group, which can sometimes be 20 or 25 people. Last night was no exception and we kept having to pull up more chairs. It was a great game, though by the end I was practically falling asleep in my seat. The singsong chants of "Italia, Italia! Italia, Italia!" followed us home. I collapsed into bed, looking forward to a good night's sleep.. and then Molly called me at 1 am. What's an eight hour time difference between sisters, after all?
peace and love.
Dead Sea and second protest pictures up tonight?