Around Eilat

Eilat is sometimes referred to as Israel's "Las Vegas". While there is surely some resemblance (desert, palms, hotels, partiers), Eilat is certainly more family friendly. Gambling is illegal in Israel, and I understand that "casino cruise ships" no longer frequent the port.

Here is a picture looking out the window from the halloway window at our hotel. On the right side you can see "King City", a Biblical theme park for kids. And, on the left, you can see the indoor ice rink.  

Here is Sammy gearing up for his first swim!

His mommy was there, too...

Sammy and Nicki in the (covered) kiddie pool. Sammy seemed to have fun, but mostly liked to stand and hold on to the edge of the pool.

We went to the Coral Beach Nature Reserve to snorkel in the Red Sea. Several "reef bridges" enabled visitors to walk over the reef. Snorkelers, like us, enter the water from the end of the bridge, then swim along the reef perpendicular to the shore.

Here's Nicki snorkelling. You can see the reef, as well as the buoy line which keeps visitors from getting too close.

We saw MANY brand-new Japanese cars being dropped off at the port. Ships from the East can reach Israel via Eilat. Israel's little slice of beachfront property on the Red Sea is quite strategic. Without it, the ships would have to sail through the Suez Canal in order to reach Israel via the Mediterranean.

Our seemingly ingenious crib-darkening apparatus proved to be no match for Sammy. Here he is "napping" in the hotel room. The crib is halfway in the closet, and the other half had originally been covered by the blanket in order to block out light. Needless to say, Sammy was quite proud of himself.

Here's the view from our hotel room's deck. That's the Red Sea with Jordan in the background, and possibly Saudi Arabia on the far right side.

We went back to Mount Yoash for sunset (had also visited the previous night--details here if interested). Here's Nicki soaking in the views. That is Eilat on the right side, and the Red Sea in the background.

And here is the checkpoint we'd stopped at the night before. We didn't need to cross it the second time, since the Mt Yoash turn-off is located just prior to the roadblock.

A sign let us know what we were looking at. On a clear day, you can see four contries--Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.

This bunker was built into the hillside, with views into Egypt.

Nicki, uh, I mean Sammy, wanted to ride a camel--so we did.

Here's proof of our adventure. At the end of the short camel trek, another couple asked us if Sammy had slept the whole time. We said "yes", wondering if perhaps they thought that we had taken part in the camel ride for him. In actuality, we were hoping he'd sleep through the trek since he'd had trouble napping in the hotel room.

After the ride, the guide made us some "bedouin bread".

Here's Sammy and me in the bedouin tent. Sammy liked playing with their tools.

Eilat is frequently used as an entry point into Jordan. Many people visit Petra from Eilat...and we decided to join in the fun. Here's Nicki (and Sammy) crossing the border into Jordan.

We grabbed a cab and headed to Wadi Musa, the town just outside of Petra. Here's a shot of some Jordanian scenery outside of the taxi window. The famed "Wadi Rum" is somewhere in the background. We didn't have time to explore the apparently beautiful desert landscapes of Wadi Rum.

There were many photo ops along the way to Wadi Musa, but I missed most of them due to not being able to stop the car. Here's another one out the window--there were many herds of goats to be seen.

Finally we arrived at Wadi Musa. That's the town on the extreme right side. Petra is in the middle-left somewhere.

After sunset, we settled into our hotel. This mosque was across the street. We'd be exploring Petra the next morning (to be continued...).