Wadi Zarqa Ma'in

Last week I went hiking in Wadi Zarqa Ma'in (wadi means valley in Arabic), which is one of a series of cavernous valleys in the mountains just to the east of the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea, many with streams that lead directly into the Dead Sea. Our journey started on a bleak, dusty plateau, before descending into the circuitous path of the valley, where we followed a stream cut through the mountain past enormous boulders, one or two rock slides, pools up to my chin, the occasional palm tree and two abseils off of cliffs about 50 meters high, finishing at Hammamat Ma'in, a famous hot spring just above the Dead Sea popular with tourists and Jordanians alike. Below are some pictures from the day.

Near the beginning of our hike.

The first abseil. There's a waterfall on the left.

Me going down.

Behind the waterfall.

Looking out towards the Dead Sea above our hiking trail.

The second abseil.

Me going down.

The pool at the bottom.

Another pool near the end of the hike

The hot springs of Hammamat Ma'in, where our hike ended.

Blue Power

Although I thought the movie Avatar was utterly boring, I guess somebody liked it; I hear it made a fair amount of money at the box office. People love good guy/bad guy stories. I wonder, though, how many people who saw it are aware that it mirrors so many actual events from history, or even current events today. I, for instance, immediately thought of the similarities between the plot--such as it was--and the experience of Native Americans in the United States. Others I talked to thought of European colonization in Africa. These are past events. For many people here, though, the movie spoke to a current event: the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. To them, the blue Na'vi people represented the Palestinians, and the cartoonishly evil marines or contractors--whatever they were--represented the Israeli army.

I was reminded of this connection that some people here in the region made to the movie today when I saw the below pictures, from the British Sunday Telegraph. In them, some protesters in a village near Ramallah are dressed up like the blue Na'vi people, as part of a weekly protest against the separation wall the Israeli government has built. The pictures are from February, so it's old news, but I thought it interesting enough to pass along. I just put a few of the pictures below; to see the rest, click here.