4/20/09 Official Day 1

4/20/09
The day started off at breakfast with everyone talking about lack of sleep due to the time. Except for Sam, and he can sleep anywhere, anytime.

We met our driver at 0900 and we were off to Masada. On the way he pointed out many things, like how we were going xxx below sea level, the Bedouin Shepherds, and how they live in cardboard type houses some a little worse than the border town housing.

And then we stopped, saw a camel, and you can see who was the one to take on this camel!

Onward to Masada, it was Amazing! We rode a tram to the top, if you don’t know the history take time to look it up. We stopped at Ahava beauty products, products made from the Dead Sea, we had lunch at one of the many Kibbutz’s we past, and at one of the beaches along the Dead Sea where you could sit in a hot spring tub, or coat yourself in mud, or just float. We did none of the above. We then stopped at Qumran National Park. John the Baptist stayed here once, and the Dead Sea scrolls were found in a cave in 1947 by Bedouin Shepherds.

On the way back to the hotel we drove thru the Ultra Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, very different. The men don’t work they do nothing but study the Torah all day, the women work. The women also cut their hair and wear a wig so they will not be attractive to others. They ride a separate bus than men…I’d do real well in this group!