day 9: skipped a few

so as many were wondering what befell me, i feel it necessary to inform my audience of the circumstances surrounding my sudden disappearance. it was entirely due to my inability to reach an internet terminal. oh, and a smoking rocket that crashed through the cloth ceiling of a bazaar booth that i needed to diffuse using but a handful of hummus and a live scorpion.

from the wall to now much has happened, as you can imagine. i will attempt to reconstruct an achronical account of my travels.

-hiked a bit around Ein Gedi, an oasis and nature preserve west of the dead sea. my first experience in a desert ecosystem under conservation. saw a few yellow-spotted rock hyraxes climbing nimbly along the branches of the stout trees and chewing on the green leaves. we bathed in a waterfall nestled in the cavity of a massive wall of cream stone.
-drove to Masada at 2:30 am after a night in the bedouin tent. watched the sun rise over the desert horizon, plunging the hazy blue sky into a brilliant pink that baked the hills of sand surrounding the remains of the ancient fortress.
-caroused the stone alleyways of Jaffa, the old city of Tel Aviv, where hanging plants and creeping vines peek over the arches and walls of the dwellings of artists, who have taken up residence behind the ornate wooden doors. house cats prowled the granite fortifications above, stepping carefully over roots and brushing past forests of leaves.
-ate shakshuka at where else but Dr. Shakshuka in Jaffa. so authentic i nearly bursted out the HaTikvah. an excellent sephardic dish that is like an omelet in a thick spiced tomato sauce.
-more on eating, sampled a Jerusalem bagel in the old city, a much longer and thinner cousin of the NYC version, sprinkled all over with white sesame. once purchased, one pulls open the steaming bread and sprinkles in some zaatar.
-stayed a night in a "bedouin tent," which besides being a nice replica of one was part of a complex owned by israelis in the camel-riding tourism business and was more like the disneyland version of a bedouin camp. i stayed up all night with some of the group, smoked nargilah (hebrew for hookah), and hiked up a tall hill behind our camp with three others to find a sky brilliant with stars and a desert military camp ringed in orange lampposts. we were treated to a show by a group called Jaman, whose musical leader played haunting melodies on a number of indigenous instruments from around the world accompanied by his two bandmates on drums. they were also extremely adept at capoeria and played a mean shofar. like, mean enough to leave all the cantors in NYC in the dust.
-coated ourselves head to toe (as for myself, i did this literally) in dead sea mud, let it dry and crack in the sun, then bathed in the briny green waters. i enjoyed the sensation of floating up straight and watching my feet hover above the seabed, which was white with salt. all around us, the brown faces of arid mountains.

and probably more, but i can't think of them right now. when they come i shall post of them.
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