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Moses, Mohammad and I
Apparently nobody is hiking Mt. Sinai these days in the brutally hot afternoons, so for a Guam boy, that spells o-p-p-o-r-t-u-n-i-t-y . Finding a driver was easy, Mohammad was a local Bedouin, and he explained that in the heat of the summer they require people to not hike alone. His Bedouin friend who grew at the base on Sinai, Moses, met us a pass in the road on the way, although his village was nowhere I could see...and in the desert that is pretty far.
Moses and I set out up the 3780 steps of penitence with a 2200M rise to cover before sunset. The guy looked twice my age but wore sandals and moved effortlessly as he whisked up the stairs. (worked out well for him since he required regular hand rolled smoke breaks...). When we finally hit the summit I asked him to throw his hands up and say "let my people go", but he didnt seem to think that was very funny. Until he disappeared behind the church at the top and I smelled the unmistakable scent of weed... then he came back and couldn't stop posing and quoting scripture...
So there I was, tapped out at the summit of Mt. Sinai watching stoned Moses proselytize to thin air, hoping Mohammad was still waiting below in the dark. Then, on the way down he told me to get a head start and try to beat him. I had the only flashlight so figured no problem. Either that dude had a twin brother or there was a shortcut down a vertical cliffface but he was waiting for me at the bottom... or could it be....? Nah.
Next...arriving at the lost city of Petra during its naming as one of the New 7 Wonders of the World. Party time in Jordan even bigger then when Indiana Jones and the the Last Crusade came out.
Josephus Flavius Mancuso
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Living it up in the Dead Sea
Nothing like a good soak in the Dead Sea after a long day. Looks like its just in time too, in ten years it will be virtually gone. Checked out Masada (Herod's desert mountain fortress where the Jews took their last stand against the Romans), The caves in Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, and a killer lunch buffet at Jericho (no more walls but one heck of a rosemary chicken ...).
Today I'm in Dahab, Sinai (Egypt) diving the Red Sea and meditiating to some sort of mystical Egyptian music by the seaside. Tonight I hope to set out for the top of Mt. Sinai. If I start emailing that I was given a few tablets up there, send help.
Kol Tuv,
Joe
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