Petra, Jordan. November 13,2014 This is the stop I have been waiting for and the primary reason for this cruise . Few ships stop in Aqaba Jordan. It is understandable because of the unease over the volatility of the Middle East. this is such a shame because Jordan is a wonderful country which is very stable, progressive and fairly prosperous . the only port is Aqaba which is squeezed between the Sinai peninsula and Saudi Arabia with the port of Eilat Israel just a few miles to the west on the Red Sea. I had procured a private driver and we left at 7AM before all the ship's buses. Basem,our driver, made the 100 miles in about 2 hours. the weather was absolutely perfect , in the 70s with a light cloud cover to block the strong sun. the scenery on the way was very much like southern Utah with its red rocks and many hills and valleys. the valleys here are called wadis. The road was as modern as any in the USA, probably better. The only differences were the many camels, goat herds and bedouin villages we passed.  Petra is a city dating from before the time of Christ carved out of the walls of a canyon by the Nabateans . It was a secret city of up to 40,000 entered only via a kilometer long slot canyon called the Siq. The width of this siq varies from about 10 feet wide to about 20 feet. The height of the walls is around 100 feet high and the stone is striated with many colors of white, beige, black, pink, green and red. It was wondrous. As we walked along frequently the only sound was the clip clop of the horse drawn traps carrying some of the tourist who didn't want to walk the 45 minutes to the start of the city. while they Looked like they were having fun I think they missed out on an important aspect of the journey. As we neared the end we could see parts of the iconic treasury coming into view. This is the facade used in the Indiana jJones and the Crusaders movie where Harrison Ford and Seam Connery ride out on their horses. It is astounding to imagine the difficulty of trying to carve these buildings as the facades are so intricate. One mistake and it is ruined. In front of the treasury, besides the many tourists were jauntily dressed camels and donkeys which were offered continually by the Bedouin tribe which is now the proprietors of the different cafés and stalls along the route. they lived here in the caves until they were moved out by the government 30 years ago. they now have a village about a mile away. there are many different tribes in the Bedouin world and they are quite protective of their turf. It couldn't tell one tribe from the other but Basem assured me that he could. We walked for 4 hours through the city looking at the remains of the many tombs and caves and streets of columns. As the sun moved the colors of the rocks changed. we didn't use a guide, it was more fun to just imagine what it was like. I always forget most of the details anyway. We got as far as we could and then turned back. I think we covered around 5 miles total and it had gotten rather warm.  Basem was waiting for us at the entrance and we were off now towards Aqaba but this time to Wadi Rum. this is a protected area lived in by Bedouin and around 430 square miles of desert, and mountains. T E Lawrence of Lawrence of Arabia fame lived here for awhile and we saw a spring named for him. We transferred to a 4 wheel drive vehicle to travel in the sand and our driver was a Bedouin named Aouda . He was from a family of 34 children, his father has 3 wives, and he himself has just one wife so far with a 7th child on the way. they still do dowries of camels and such so I was teasing him that he was going to need a lot of camels. We drove through the desert admiring the ever changing hills and dunes , passing wild camels . the silence was amazing. As the sun set we sat on a hill watching it sink behind a mountain. Only a hour back to Aqaba and the mother ship.  Petra and Wadi Rum did not disappoint .They are now up there with Macchu Pichu and the Taj Majal and the golden palace in Bangkok for my favorite world sites. Jordan is a special place.I would definitely like to return here to see more.