Today we went to Massada and the Dead Sea. To get to these places we had to travel through the West Bank, one of the most confusing pieces of land in the world according to Barak our tour guide. It was cool to travel through and see how the green grass quickly became desert and also how this land is so widely fought over.
We then made a stop at a local gas station to ride camels. It was very interesting to see how a Palestinian man and his son made a living on allowing people to take a picture with his camel.
After the exhilarating camel rides we went to the visitor’s center at the base of Massada. We watched a short video about the history of the mountain and the courageous Jewish people who had to take their own lives so they could escape being slaves for the Romans. Then we took the cable car up to the top of the mountain. At the top of Massada we learned about how the Jewish stronghold fell. Barak our tour guide took us down to the bottom of a former well where we sat and talked and listened to Adam give an amazing speech.
The Dead Sea was one of the coolest experiences. I have never floated in my life before the Dead Sea. Here, we all put mud all over our bodies and we quickly became all soft. We proceeded to go into the sea where we all complained about stinging but then after time we all enjoyed floating, except for Brooke who got water in her eyes and couldn’t see. With our bodies stinging from the salty water we decided to return to the bus. After showers and fresh clothes we went to a restaurant around the corner from our hotel. We had a family style dinner with salad, pitta, pastas, meat, and amazing desserts. Its been a fun couple of days in Jerusalem. We are excited to go to back to the village tomorrow and spend time with our families.
Ben