Eilat
Man, I hate when a server error eats your first, unsaved draft of a post.
So the reason we left later Thursday evening rather than the morning was that Anna's boyfriend Jack and two of his friends were able to come and bring their van, which saved us a load of money in bus fares to, from and around the city. The drive was long and uneventful, even though we took the 90 highway, which parallels the Dead Sea and the eastern Israeli border. It would have been fun to see the Dead Sea and the Negev, but it was too dark to see much besides the lights on the Israeli and Jordanian coasts of the Dead Sea and a few vague shadows of mountains. But we did pass a sign for Mount Sodom. :)
We got into Eilat late, and it took a while to find a place to stay, but we finally rented two rooms for the six of us and crashed at about 3 am. We woke up at 9, and Anna, Maddie and I went in search of food and to check out the beaches. I haven't been to Cabo, but I imagine the coast of Eilat is a lot like it. Beachside shops, bars, street vendors, cafes and restaurants were all decked out in "tropical" style, which mostly means palm trees, thatched roofs, and marine plant and animal life as the universal decorative motif. We walked down the beaches toward the Egptian border, and finally found the dive centers. I found out you need a logbook to prove you've dived in the past six months to do the bigger dives, but it turned out okay, since Maddie begged me to do the dive with the dolphins with her instead. We hung out at a cool little beach for the rest of the day and then rejoined the guys for dinner. There was a pretty cool beach party that night, but Maddie and I went back to the rooms pretty early so we could get enough sleep.
The dive was fun. The water was warm enough that everybody wore spring suits, and I felt vulnerable having my legs so exposed. With all the coral around, I had to be more careful than I usually am not to touch or bump anything. There were striped fishies and the huge urchins that walk across your hand, and also weirder stuff like Cassiopoeias and monster sea cucumbers. The dolphins were cute as hell, especially the three-month old baby swimming on its mother's back, all of them totally unconcerned by the humans swimming around. Nobody's allowed to apporach or touch them unless they come to you, which they won't unless they know you. Fortunately they do know some of the instructors that accompany groups, and it was funny to see them circle around and tip their heads at the instructors. It's amazing that they can recognize certain humans with all that dive gear on, but if someone they don't know gets close, they swim away.
Anyway, it wasn't all joy. I cut one of my toes pretty painfully, fought the urge to deck Jack's most annoying friend, Maddie battled congestion the day before diving and we both had to repeat the fact that you can't drink before a dive about fifty times. Anna got sunburnt, and by the evening people had started getting tired and sniping at each other. Still, it was a pretty awesome way to spend Rosh Hashanah break. :)
So the reason we left later Thursday evening rather than the morning was that Anna's boyfriend Jack and two of his friends were able to come and bring their van, which saved us a load of money in bus fares to, from and around the city. The drive was long and uneventful, even though we took the 90 highway, which parallels the Dead Sea and the eastern Israeli border. It would have been fun to see the Dead Sea and the Negev, but it was too dark to see much besides the lights on the Israeli and Jordanian coasts of the Dead Sea and a few vague shadows of mountains. But we did pass a sign for Mount Sodom. :)
We got into Eilat late, and it took a while to find a place to stay, but we finally rented two rooms for the six of us and crashed at about 3 am. We woke up at 9, and Anna, Maddie and I went in search of food and to check out the beaches. I haven't been to Cabo, but I imagine the coast of Eilat is a lot like it. Beachside shops, bars, street vendors, cafes and restaurants were all decked out in "tropical" style, which mostly means palm trees, thatched roofs, and marine plant and animal life as the universal decorative motif. We walked down the beaches toward the Egptian border, and finally found the dive centers. I found out you need a logbook to prove you've dived in the past six months to do the bigger dives, but it turned out okay, since Maddie begged me to do the dive with the dolphins with her instead. We hung out at a cool little beach for the rest of the day and then rejoined the guys for dinner. There was a pretty cool beach party that night, but Maddie and I went back to the rooms pretty early so we could get enough sleep.
The dive was fun. The water was warm enough that everybody wore spring suits, and I felt vulnerable having my legs so exposed. With all the coral around, I had to be more careful than I usually am not to touch or bump anything. There were striped fishies and the huge urchins that walk across your hand, and also weirder stuff like Cassiopoeias and monster sea cucumbers. The dolphins were cute as hell, especially the three-month old baby swimming on its mother's back, all of them totally unconcerned by the humans swimming around. Nobody's allowed to apporach or touch them unless they come to you, which they won't unless they know you. Fortunately they do know some of the instructors that accompany groups, and it was funny to see them circle around and tip their heads at the instructors. It's amazing that they can recognize certain humans with all that dive gear on, but if someone they don't know gets close, they swim away.
Anyway, it wasn't all joy. I cut one of my toes pretty painfully, fought the urge to deck Jack's most annoying friend, Maddie battled congestion the day before diving and we both had to repeat the fact that you can't drink before a dive about fifty times. Anna got sunburnt, and by the evening people had started getting tired and sniping at each other. Still, it was a pretty awesome way to spend Rosh Hashanah break. :)
2 Comments:
Just using the next blog button. Those dolphins sound cool. I've never been to Israel but it's interesting to think that you can go to a place called Eilat that might be like Cabo. I always think of desert when I think of Israel. I have a daughter just about your age who's college freshman and another who's a senior in high school.
Hey, thanks for dropping by! I still mostly think desert when I think of Israel too, but even though I haven't been to Cabo, I've been around some of Baja California, and the contrast of desert mountains and seas in both Baja and Eilat look very similar to me.
Thanks again for the note! :)
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