From Jordan- The Dead Sea Experience

We have now been in Jordan for about 2 1/2 days, and already I love this country. It is small and not overwhelming...hot but not unbearable....and the sites we have seen already are spectacular. The first night we arrived we got out of the airport and on a bus to the city. We found our Couchsurfing host's apartment with no real problems (for once!) and were welcomed with a barbeque party on the roof of the apartment, that also has an amazing view of Amman. Melanie and Adel, our hosts, were so friendly and welcoming and introduced us to their friends- we felt right at home!

One of their friends we met that night invited us to go to the Dead Sea with him the next day. It was definitely on the top of our list for things we wanted to do here, and it worked out perfectly going with our new friend Rami. It is easiest to go by car to the Dead Sea, and many of the hotels charge an entrance fee to use their pools and beach for the day. We went to the Dead Sea Spa Hotel and paid 20 JD (about $25) and spent the day hanging around the pool and floating on the sea.

The Dead Sea...it goes all the way to Israel/Palestine!

I have seen so many pictures of people from their Dead Sea Experience, and I must say- no picture can ever show the true experience of being in this water. The feeling is so strange! Your body really does naturally float on the top, and it is quite hard to get back down to standing. The water is also different, much more oily. It has an extremely high salt content, causing the floating. If you have a cut it will burn like crazy!

The other thing you have to do at the Dead Sea is put on the mud- they say it is a great skin treatment! So we treked over to the right area and covered ourselves up in slimy brown mud from the bottom of the sea, and had a great time while doing it. Our skin didn't get much softer like it is supposed to, but that was probably due to the chlorine from the pools we spent the day in.

There's the mud!

We are heading into the desert tomorrow at Wadi Rum and Monday will go to Petra (the number one thing to do in Jordan!). Updates from both places as well as today's trip to Jerash and Ajloun Castle to be up when we get back!