Trip of a Lifetime - Day 17

Things are really winding down now. Today we moved from the resort at the Dead Sea to our original hotel in Amman where we started the week. The two stops we made today were interesting. 

First, we stopped at the baptismal site of Jesus. Interestingly, this is not the same site as the baptismal site of Jesus we visited last week on the Israeli side of the river. The site in Israel is just south of the Sea of Galilee. The site in Jordan is just north of the Dead Sea. They're about 80 miles (130km) apart. If you're in sandals, that's about 30 hours of walking. The site we visited this week required us to stop at a military checkpoint for clearance. From where we parked it was a considerable walk to get to the river. We passed several churches on the way, including ruins of a church that was built on the site of Jesus' baptism during the 4th century. The mosaic map we saw at the Greek Orthodox Church in Madaba a few days ago indicates that this was the spot where Jesus was baptized, and the ruins at the site confirm this suspicion. When we got to the river there was a party atmosphere on the Israel side of the river, with people of all ages in baptismal robes splashing and playing in the water. The Jordanian site had tourists, but no one getting baptized. There was an armed soldier at the stairs, enforcing border security.

A reminder to visitors.

This is the proof that THIS is the actual baptism site of Jesus.

Here's the ruins of the original church, built on the site during the Byzantine era. There are more ruins under the roof in the background.

Video footage of the party happening on the Israeli side of the river. Crossing the river is against the law, and a guy with a machine gun on the Jordan side of the river will ensure it doesn't happen.

Our next interesting stop was near Amman. When the group stopped at a gas station convenience store for some affordable water and snacks, few of us went to a Jordanian McDonald's across the parking lot! We thought it would be closed, because it's Ramadan and everyone's fasting. We were surprised and thrilled when we discovered it was open. The menu was familiar, with a few differences. Everything here has to follow Halal requirements -- like kosher but for Muslims. They can't eat pork, so there's no bacon on anything. Also, everything is metric so there's no Quarter Pounder. They call it "The Big Tasty." I wish they called it that in the US. They have a "Ramadan Meal," which feels a little bit contradictory, but I suppose Muslims might enjoy it after the sun sets each night.

As an aside, when Muslims fast they don't eat anything, they don't drink anything (including water), they don't smoke or have sex or even take medications if the sun is up. The guideline was originally "if you hold up a black thread and a white thread and can't tell which is which, you can break your fast." Now there's a specific time of day that they can break fast. At dinner tonight our guide, Monteser, told us to go ahead and eat, because "I can join you in just ten minutes!" It was by the clock, not the amount of daylight.

Anyway, we ordered our Ramadan meals and headed for the bus. For someone who avoids McDonald's in the US, I was surprisingly happy to see it here. 

After a bit more time on the bus and a few hours in our final hotel, we ended the day with an exceptional dinner, family style, at a non-tourist restaurant that Monteser arranged for us. It was, again, exquisite food, and we left so much uneaten.

Tomorrow we'll do our COVID test, and at around midnight we'll take a bus to the airport for the journey back to the states.