a Geographer's Place

To complete the Traveler-tourist circuit, we had to visit Jerash. While we also wanted to drop into Ajloun, that wasn’t in the cards. There has to be some give and take on a circuit like this, and you also have to account for those unforeseen instances  so very common in fieldwork  (surprise meeting with the government concerning your research, for example). So off to Jerash we went, via a few backroads that afforded us fantastic views of the landscape surrounding Amman. More than a few times there were remarks about how European the physical landscape looked, noting that the barren-of-houses-yet-green-of-agriculture hillsides is actually how Amman proper looked before the population (refugee and immigrant) surges occurred. En route ,  we stopped for coffee (“Hot Strawberry” for me—like hot strawberry milk…yummy!) at a roadside petrol station called “Integrated Market”. True to its name, the place had snacks, drinks, paper towels, dish soap, mops, pliers, frozen foods....

Here begins the Traveler-tourist Circuit experiment. Each day or so another post will come online, detailing our experiences and a play-by-play of what we did. So... …on to Petra... After picking up our guests at the Amman airport, we drove back to the apartment for the night. We awoke early, leaving about 8:00am and taking a leisurely drive to Wadi Musa (the town at Petra’s gate). En route we drove on part of the King’s Highway, and attempted to visit Karak Castle. We found ourselves driving through a couple souks, and getting lost in the process. Very lost. We finally found a main road and, in the interest of time, decided to push on and explore Showbak Castle. Side note on “Highways” and signs: I use “Highway” in King’s Highway loosely. It’s not a very well-maintained road, but it follows the Roman Via Nova Triana , meaning it follows a pretty well-traveled route. Oddly, however, not many tourists take the road. Maybe even though it is a beautiful drive, people a...