Far from the sky
The Dead Sea is the lowest point on the earth, or in more romantic words, the farest point to the sky. It really doesn´t feel anything different than in any other place in the world, the sky is just up there pretty far and you breath without problems (well, the 45º can be a problem sometimes) but still the feeling is there. The Dead Sea separates Jordan and Israel and Palestine, so in front of you, in the Jordanian side, you have Palestine and Israel and in the car you tune palestinian and israeli radio stations.
There are some remarkable things in the Dead Sea that can shock a European like me. First of all, the road is full of military check-points. I don´t know exactly why, but I guess the proximity with Israel entails some sort of security…you can actually swim to Israel if you want/can to do so. Other interesting thing is already in the “beach”. We choose the cheapes option to swim in the Dead Sea and we were sorrounded mainly by Jordanians. They tend to swim with their clothes, and of course, usually only man do so, the women stay outside and dry taking care of everything. Even, some of the women wear a burka under the 45º sun. Appart from ethical considerations, you wonder how can they survive with that clothes. After a bath, wearing only my swimming trunks and in the shadow I was about to melt due to the sun and the heat so, what about the same heat but without bath, with all your body covered and wearing only black clothes?. I guess they get used, or they just cannot complain (how can they if they are “forced” to wear that!?). Appart from all of these, the uniqueness of the Dead Sea is provided by it amount of salt it has, that allows you to literally float…quite wierd feeling, but worthy to try once in your life.
Just one more experience from yesterday…drive in Jordan. Although we always have the image, and for someone who has been in Morroco or Egypt, the expierence of caotic traffic in the arab world. Drive here was actually pretty easy, just keep your eyes open and honk several times to communicate with the other drivers.
