Aqaba

Hey everyone sorry that I've been lazy with the posts I'm hoping to be updated with everything by the end of tonight. Friday night the group slept at a hotel in Aqaba, a resort town on the Red Sea which I think is like the Jordanian version of Eilat. They told us that the hotel was a "5 stars hotel" which I assumed meant 5 Jordanian Stars, putting it somewhere on the level of a Motel 6. I was totally wrong. The hotel was amazing. The rooms were very nice and it had two pools and even a private beach. We spent most of Saturday at Aqaba before we got back to Amman late Saturday night. It was my first time in the Red Sea and I was immediately struck by the fact that there are jellyfish everywhere. Luckily, they were non-stinging jellyfish but that didn't stop me from getting really tense every time I swam near them. The other amazing thing about Aqaba is that you are actually at the crossroads of 3 countries. From the beach at our hotel I could see Eilat and Egypt, and if I were to have driven/sailed south a little while I would've been able to see Saudi Arabia. At around noon I went on a snorkeling trip with some people from my group. It was amazing to look down and see beautiful coral reefs filled with color and bustling with fish, and then look up and be surrounded by mountains and desert and hear the call to prayer ringing in the background. I hadn't been snorkeling since I was a little kid and I really enjoyed it. The water was warm and clear and both the fish and reefs were beautiful. My favorite part was swimming into a school of fish that would swim in a big circle around you. However, I decided to stop snorkeling after I found myself in a minefield of jellyfish which really freaked me out. Even though I was pretty sure that they would not sting me, I didn't want to test my luck and I felt pretty uncomfortable being there nonetheless. In order to escape the minefield I had to effectively play Cube Runner with jellyfish and by the time I was out of the minefield I was ready to hang up my snorkel for the day. I spent the rest of my time there jumping off of a small pier into the Sea which was really fun especially when I would jump into the school of fish and then find myself surrounded by a rotating circle of fish. All in all I would say that Aqaba was a nice break from Amman and a great compliment to Wadi Rum which was the other half of the trip.