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After the busiest 10 days ever, I am on the plane home and reflecting. I really tried soak up the last days with my host family and have not been able to find time to sit down and catch up on my blog. About where I left off was right before an incredible journey to one of the Seven Wonders of the World—Petra. Not only were we to be gone for the weekend exploring South Jordan but we were also packed and ready to go to our host families immediately upon return. After minimal sleep, we woke up around 5 am and went on a 4-hour car ride (very long for Jordanians) to Petra. Once we arrived, energy was back to normal and we were ready for a 7-mile hike (little did we know that turned out to be 11 miles). Entering the tunnel to Petra was an incredible moment—all of a sudden you go from the 90-degree dry weather to a cool crevasse in the plateau. I had no idea that we would see reminisce of the Nabataean people before seeing the infamous Petra. We saw a less exaggerated Petra, influence from Egyptian empire with depictions of Gods & Goddesses, and images of caravans all carved into the red rock. Additionally, there was an intricate water system that somehow took water from outside of Petra into the inner Nabataean city through piping in the rock. Finally, we experienced the “Indiana Jones moment” of walking out of the rock tunnel and seeing the Forbidden Treasure of Petra. It really did look right out of Indiana Jones’ Last Crusade. Although we could not go in, we were sure to get plenty of pictures together (and with camels) in front of the ancient ruin. Unbeknownst to me, that was only the beginning of the exploring the Petra. We continued walking and saw plenty more incredible ruins into the red rock... ancient homes (basically holes carved into rock) and the ancient Roman market place that was still in tact. We then proceeded to one of the most difficult parts of the day… Climbing to the monastery. This was an incredibly hard walk. Not only was it was thousands of stairs through the hills beyond Petra but it was also boiling hot. I ended up going at my own pace, getting stopped by camels, horse riders, and local vendors. I finally made it to the top and came to the place where I have only dreamed off—a cat café. Maybe it was not intentionally a cat café, but there were too many kittens to count. We took in the monastery and then climbed all the way to the highest point at Petra and saw an incredible view down into Saudi Arabia. Exhausted, we began to descend and eventually made it back to the bus. Somehow we managed to swim at the hotel later, but truly it was one of the longest days ever. We hiked, we laughed, and finally saw Jordan’s hidden treasure.