June 6, 2009 – Day 163 – Amman, Jordan

Aha! Some excitement today—we went to the Dead Sea! Two mini-buses and a taxi later, we were bobbing and floating around the saltiest body of water on the planet, all to the tune of $10.

Rock salt

The mini buses cost about $0.60 each and the taxi—private taxi– took us from the bus drop off down to a part of the beach just past Amman Beach (where you have to pay entrance fee) where we got in for free. He waited on us for about an hour and a half while we were playing in the mud and water, and got us into some “free” facilities (hoping the fence) to rinse all the salt off, then took us back up to the bus drop off, but first he bought us both bottles of water and soda! He didn’t speak much English but he was a really nice guy and really made our time even more fun.

The free beach with Palestine over the water

Lindsey unmudding

Mud... I hope

The Dead Sea is really awesome! But the water does make your skin itch and burn after a while and makes your feet turn red. There is some trash and glass around the edge in some places but not much and it doesn’t take a lot to just keep an eye out for where you’re walking. The salt is really hard and you can really scrape (or maybe cut if you step on it just right) your feet but floating in the water it really fun!

Lindsey showing off proper floating technique

Saben playing in the water

The second you lift your feet off the ground your legs pop right up to the surface and put you onto your back. And the water is warm like a bath (all the bodies of water here seem to be just that warm!) and perfectly clear. We had quite a fun time even though we got there a bit late in the afternoon. When we got out, our skin was oily and definitely too salty to just brush off. What a fun afternoon!