Posts Tagged ‘Petra’

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Petra Cats

April 9, 2013

Posted by Kanga.

You knew it would happen, right? A post about stray cats during our vacation is traditional.

orange tabby laying on top of a garbage can

We saw this tom three times on our trips up and down the siq (canyon). He clearly has a territory that is his niche. There is a patch of bamboo and a large crack going away from the path area, so there is probably a whole ecosystem that provides for his needs.

Since we were walking out on the second day, we could stop to have a little chat with him.

bearded man petting cat

He was very sweet and very clean (except for his dusty paws). It would appear that he has a pretty cushy life just sitting around, licking himself, and watching the tourists go by.

man petting orange tabby

The cats in this region aren’t Arabian Maus, like our own Oliver and Bert. These cats have shorter legs, shorter spines, and rounder faces. They are very nicely proportioned, medium sized cats.

cat on man's shoulders

He even made himself right at home on DaddyBird’s shoulders.

We tore ourselves away and went further up the trail. This little female came running with her tail in the air when she saw us.

orange tabby with tail in the air

She also was happy to get some attention.

man petting orange tabby

Until the dog came…

cat at the base of a tree

And she had to take defensive measures.

cat in the tree, dog at the base of the tree

All the stray cats we’ve encountered in town have been very skittish and defensive. It was nice to encounter these two, who have it pretty good and can afford to be friendly.

If you would like to see all the pictures from our second day at Petra (222 of them) click here.

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Petra!

April 8, 2013

Posted by Kanga.

first view of the Treasury of Petra from the siq

Our first day at Petra started at 8 am. We met our guide, Abdullah Al Nawafleh, bought some hats to shield us from the sun, and headed in. To ease the experience we hired a horse drawn carriage. Abdulla negotiated it so that he could drive us in and another driver would come to pick us up at the other end around 2 pm.

The horse drawn carriage is a rough, rough ride. We were bounced down the path. Luckily, Abdullah stopped occasionally to explain the features along the way giving us a bit of a break. The path in is all downhill. We felt sorry for the poor horse who slipped occasionally on the rocks.

We had a marvelous time. The tour was informative and enjoyable. We had a few hours on our own, mostly spent in the Roman part of town. We started to climb to the Monastery, but I was not up to it. We came upon a trinket stall along the way and the Bedouin woman invited us to stop and rest on her bench. I took her up on the offer. She also offered us tea. We accepted not realizing that she would have to start a fire and make the tea for us. A couple of tourist police on their way up and a German couple on their way down joined us. It was quite pleasant. We bought a necklace from our host. She was very gracious.

Then we headed back to our rendezvous point for our carriage ride back to town. It was a bumpy ride back and a bit worse because there were no stops to alleviate the experience.

You can see all of the 390 pictures here.

Day two, we go in slow on foot.

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