Saturday February 11, 2006 – Low Sodium Please

We joined a busload of tourists to visit Masada and the Dead Sea (the lowest point on Earth at 410 meters below sea level - and dropping each year) at 9:30 in the morning. It took about an hour and fifteen minutes to schlep us to Masada where we had thirty minutes in the gift shop where our guide had arranged “special prices,” then a rushed hour tour of Masada. We really could have used an additional thirty minutes up there to wander on our own to absorb everything, but we were unfortunately at the whim of our guide. I didn’t make any friends when after he announced that we had to head back to the aerial tram, I asked, “Do we get any time to walk around on our own up here?” He answered that we “were on a very tight schedule,” etc. etc. I countered with, “Well you arranged it so we had thirty minutes in the gift shop and only an hour up at Masada, which was the whole point of our trip.” He retorted in defense that “breaks were very important since we were part of a group” and that “we had seen all of the important things.” Unsure if I could rally the troops for a mutinous rebellion, I felt I had made my point and joined the forced march back to the bus.

The stop before the Dead Sea was a gift shop and Kibbutz that our guide also miraculously had a five percent discount on. We crammed an unassumingly tasty lunch down in fifteen minutes so we could again board the bus for the ten minute drive to the Dead Sea (Ein Gedi). Our guide warned that you aren’t allowed to swim in the Dead Sea to prevent salt water from getting in your eyes (requires flushing with fresh water for 2 minutes). Additionally, consumption of the 27% salt/liquid combination could land you in the hospital. We were given strict instructions to just sit back into the water – no diving, no splashing…and float.

The “sand” near the water is a mixture of salt balls and extremely uncomfortable hard/sharp sheets of salt. The buoyant floating sensation on the water was actually quite astonishing – feels like you are sitting on a couple noodles with water-wings on your arms and legs. We topped the experience off with a Dead Sea mud bath – of course I had to overdo it. Two days later I was still Q-tipping out mud from my ears.