Wadi Mujib

We capped off last weekend with a trip to Wadi Mujib—the Grand Canyon of Jordan.

One of our fellow church members, John, is a Marine serving here in Amman, and he graciously offered to take Brock, me, and two other couples to Wadi Mujib in his car . . . a welcome break from crowded buses and smelly taxis!

For those familiar with Zion National Park in Utah, imagine The Narrows with 80-degree water—that’s Wadi Mujib. Unlike The Narrows, however, all the cool stuff happens right as you step into the canyon. None of this walking-two-hours-to-get-to-the-awesome-part business.  The voyage into Wadi Mujib is only 2km long (it ends at a 40-foot waterfall) and, since we arrived early in the morning, we literally had the entire canyon to ourselves.

It felt like stepping into another world. I can’t even begin to describe how happy it made me to get out of the city and spend time outdoors—especially when the outdoors entails 150-foot high canyon walls with the sun streaming through. The funnest part about Wadi Mujib, however, is climbing up and over small waterfalls on your way to the big one. There’s a series of about five smaller waterfalls (maybe ten feet high) that you have to scale, and each one has a rope attached to the top of it that you use to climb up the rock face (Indiana Jones, much?!). Some of the falls even had a smooth, slanted surface that you could use as a slide—so fun!

It wasn’t long before we made it to the big waterfall at the end, where we stopped to splash around for a while. On our way back down, we lied on our backs and floated down with the current. The water level wasn’t very high (for the most part, maybe a foot or so), which made for serious bumps and scratches on my booty—but (or should I say butt?) it was well-worth it!

I’m so glad that we got the chance to go to Wadi Mujib because we found out later that doing so was actually forbidden! Oops. We forgot that we needed permission from our program director to go outside of Amman, and that in order for him to approve anything adventurey, it has to be with a guided tour--which can cost upwards of $100! We only had to pay an entrance fee of 16JD (about $20). Not only that, it’s really good that we jumped on the opportunity when we did because Wadi Mujib will be completely closed for the season in a few weeks (winter is when Jordan gets all its rain, and rain means flash floods).

Luckily, we didn’t get in trouble because it was an honest mistake. NIIIIICE!!!!!  How many times in your life do you get to break rules and walk away scot-free? Unless you’re Casey Anthony, the answer is “never.”  So yeah. Boom dawgy.

As if we hadn’t had enough fun last weekend, Brock and his friend Weston planned a barbeque that night and invited everyone from the program. Brock made an awesome marinade and everybody brought their own meats. Weston’s apartment has a huge patio complete with a gardening plot--with no grills to barbeque with, these boys dug holes in the dirt, filled them with charcoal, and slapped oven racks on top. Ghetto Grillz. I was a little skeptical at first, but they actually worked! Weston's wife, Kami (aka the brains of the operation), figured out the perfect way to fan the coals, and before we knew it BY GEORGE WE HAD A BARBEQUE. The get-together ended up being a total success with great food, drinks, snacks, music, and conversation.

I wasn't able to take pictures in Wadi Mujib because the water would've completely ruined my camera, but John's camera was waterpoof and he got some great pictures! I'll post them as soon as I get them from him. And I do have pictures of the barbeque--I'll update my Facebook album soon.

Just so you have an idea of what Wadi Mujib was like, however, here's a couple photos I stole from the Facebook pages of my friends Mark and Coby (they've been in Jordan since June, and went to Wadi Mujib a couple months ago). !شكرا يا مارك و كوبي