JORDAN: BETWEEN BEDUINS, ANCIENT TEMPLES AND DESERT

JORDAN: BETWEEN BEDUINS, ANCIENT TEMPLES AND DESERT     

     

Lately #Ryanair has opened new routes to Eliat (Israel), on the border with Jordan. The journey is not the most comfortable: the military airport of Eliat is 40 minutes from the border of Aquaba. No fear and desire to move like Moses to the land of Canaan. The bus takes us to the border. Strangely this time I travel with a group of friends. Thanks to a big discount, we paid the flight 1 euro: P.

The taxi drivers at the exit of the border between Israel and Jordan jump on us and ask us for a few dollars more to bring us to our driver a few miles away. Jordanian taxi drivers are not so happy to bring you to private drivers and they can even appear hostile. The advice is to pay them when they ask and go.

Petra is immortal. Its beauty is preserved eternal, carved among the red rocks, in the middle of the valley, protected by the desert dunes, as evidence of an ancient people, of a hospitable culture, of a place full of secrets, magical. The night excursion (Petra by night) is interesting - about twenty dollars, not cheap as the rest of the complex - you will have the opportunity to walk and stumble through the canyons of the valley. You get to the temple, the famous one, the one you see at the cinema. There is a small show of flutes and traditional music and suddenly the temple lights up, becomes colored and the night becomes less dark and paradoxically more mysterious.

In the morning, have a big breakfast - there are many hotels right on the doorstep of the historic complex and at a good price - then go to discover the monuments of Petra: the Treasury (Indiana Jones’ Temple), the Nabatean Theater and the Tombs of the Kings. One last thing, arm yourself with a camera, water, a great desire to walk and negotiate with the numerous street vendors.

You can also decide to "rent" a guide and a battered donkey but I prefer to feel the ground under my feet and enjoy every step towards the monastery at the top. The trip from Petra to Wadi Rum is perhaps the most interesting part: the houses of the Jordanians, the streets, the police that stops you and smiles and the sunset ... ah that I can not tell you, you have to see it with your eyes. A mixture of warm colors that join the sandy desert, sometimes rocky. And precisely those rocks, reflecting the last rays before twilight, take on the strangest forms: sometimes they become sphinxes guardians of the desert, other times camels and others sleeping humans.

We arrive at the Wadi Rum reserve and they load us on a Jeep without a license plate and uncovered. The cold of the desert is more penetrating than the Milanese fog, but far more fascinating. The desert at night, its starry sky and its mysterious howling. In the Bedouin camp we find a rich dinner of meat of course and an endless amount of tea to mind. The rooms / tents - that of poor and wandering people have very little now - are very comfortable to be in the middle of nowhere, and I say nothing.

When the night goes down, everything is gone. But on the other hand there are all in heaven. And then I give you some advice: if you have to pee, get away from the camp with a torch-cell phone, stop for a moment and raise your eyes to the sky, millions of stars are watching you.