Make like a Cork

23:42

The Dead Sea... wow! I have very much enjoyed this trip 'til now, but the Dead Sea is hands-down the most fun I've had. It is like nothing I've experienced anywhere else... it really and truly is impossible to sink. You lean back, you sit in the water, you don't sink. If anything, your feet fly up. It's a sort of hyper-buoyancy that even enables you to stand in the water... without touching bottom. It is not necessary to tread water, unless you actually want to go somewhere.

The salinity of some 30-33% means that it's a good idea to stay in the water no more than 15 minutes at a time--it can actually burn your skin after awhile--but it is also what keeps you from sinking. It was a hoot, watching a bunch of full-grown adults giggling and laughing as they experienced this unique body of water... especially those who were still concerned they were going to sink. You would expect the water to be really salty and gritty, but it's not! If anything, it's quite slippery. If you ever get the chance to go, do. The experience is worth the drive (it's a good distance from Tiberias).

As I said earlier, we went through the West Bank today... another rather volatile area I had no idea we'd be traveling through; but it was fascinating! We stopped in Jericho for lunch, and went to a shop where they made hand-blown glassware. Amazing stuff... he banged two goblets together to demonstrate how strong the glass was. The area is definitely Palestinian... the shop owner had pictures of Arafat up all over the place.

Not as much to report today... the distance between the places meant that we didn't have quite as many stops. In a way, that's not all bad... my entry name of "Overload" yesterday really wasn't much of an exaggeration!