Monday
LOCATION: Petra, Jordan
APPEARING: Christian
I met Christian the night before, and he decided to join me for the drive to Petra. We woke up early in Amman, drove to the castle in Kerak, and then to Petra-- entering the siq in the afternoon.

As we entered, the flood of tourists ran against us, and as we pushed further towards the monastery, we were greeted by an increasingly empty archeological site.

Up beyond the monastery we saw only stark landscape. An abandoned-seeming hut, that in busier times perhaps is used for tea and selling trinkets. And back there we met Mohomman, a middle-aged man who gave us tea, and suggested we just keep walking out the back entrance, towards Little Petra. And while we were there, would we tell his two boys to stop wandering out in the hills and come back home with the firewood?

All went smoothly until we got lost in the desert. Luckily, a trio of young beduins (a Petra guide off-duty, and his friends) were out making tea and eating a snack. Which they shared, before driving us back to the beduin village in 35-year old pickup held together by duct tape.