Catching up with our readers

Hi everyone,
Some of you have asked why there haven't been any recent posts, so I just wanted to let you know that it's because we moved from our aprtment in Jerusalem to the house rented outside of Haifa, and the house has no internet access. Everyone is fine, and Duncan and I have arrived safely back home in the States, but it may take Jerry a while to scrounge up some internet access in a cafe or someplace where he can make further posts about the final week of the trip that he, Debra, Steve, and Janet will experience. Not to worry, though -- Jerry is still able to download all our pics onto his computer, so I'm sure there will be more to come. The blog is misleading because we have probably taken hundreds of pics per day, but can't get them all up at once, so you'll see more soon...

After the blur of travel, it's hard to remember what all we did since the last pics taken at Caeserea. We tried to visit the Chagal windows at the famous Hadasa hospital and the Baha'i Gardens in Haifa, but both were closed due to religious holidays :( We did get to see the Carmelite Monastery in Haifa, with it's altar built on top of the cave in which the prophet Elijah was said to have lived. We also visited the Ashkenazi Synagogue in Sfvat built by Rabbi Akiba (?), the founder of the Kabbalah (please excuse my spelling if it's off -- I've really been thrown for a loop because the English translations of Hebrew are phonetic, so the names of street sings may be spelled differently than what's on the map, etc).

Our last two days in Haifa we spent exploring the beautiful country side of the Golan Heights with two guides from a touring company called Israel Extreme. (This terriroty is technically disputed with Syria, but there has been no recent aggression). We went to a National Park called Yehudiya and hiked down into a gorge formed by the earthquakes that occur about every 200 years. We hiked over huge volcanic rocks and rapelled down a 2 story waterfall (and when I say "we" I mean everyone but me, who chose the ladder). Then back up the steep canyon and through the ruins of a Turkish village which looked like a bunch of stone square rooms without roofs, and with huge thistles growing out of the window openings). Besides the amazing boulders and beautiful vistas full of wildflowers, there were tiny ancient pottery shards everywhere! Pottery seems to be just part of the dirt all over Israel. They are as ubiquitous as the army -- at several points, we could hear the Israeli army having target practice in a neighboring valley.

On the way home we crossed over the river Jordan, which looked like a weed-choked fifteen-foot wide stream at that point, and visited Cappernaum, the Church built on top of the Synagogue where Jesus supposedly preached by the edge of the Sea of Gallilee, and where he reportedly walked on water. Seems like all of Israel's holy sites just have layer upon layer of monuments and houses of worship built on top of each other -- it's boggling.

The next day another guide took us to Alma Cave, where he had us swing out on a Tarzan rope over the gaping stone pit in the ground and slink down into a pigeon-dung covered pitch-black cavern below (and when I say "us", I mean everyone else -- I hung out in the warm, windy field above to soak in more scrubby trees, volcanic rocks, and wildflowers). Then it was up to the border of Lebabon, where there are huge caverns carved by the Mediterranean into towering chalky white cliffs. It was called Rosh Hanikra, and it's a tourist hot spot for a good reason! We were supposed to kyak into the grottos from the Sea, but the water was too choppy, so instead we walked down into them and saw how the turquiose water carved out unpredictable chambers that looked like places where pirates might store their treasures. (There is a legend that a bride who was set to be married against her will cast herself off the cliffs there and you can still hear her sighs, and Debra noted that this type of legend seems to appear in many places where there are impressive cliffs, such as the waterfalls in Hawaii, or even at Noccolula Falls in good old Alabama!) We ended the adventurous day by heading back to Tiberias to a restaurant on the Sea of Gallilee where we sat on the water and had a great meal of locally raised lamb, duck, and fish grilled traditionally over open charcoal pit fires. A yummy way to end Duncan's and my trip!

So now we're glad to be home -- I missed our kitties and American burgers :) I'm noticing that even though Americans might be on "orange alert" in terms of security these days, it's nothing like the intensity of perparendness you sense everywhere in Israel. It is a huge relief for me to be back in a part of the world (Alabama in particular) where people can generally assume others are friendly, smile and say hi to strangers, and go about their business with a relaxed kind of freedom that perhaps only we Americans have the luxury of taking for granted. It's also a stark contrast in terms of religion -- as Duncan put it, even if America has a Bible Belt, Israel is the real Bible Belt Buckle!

OK, that may be my last post, but I hope to hear more from our fellow travelers soon. As most of you may know, however, they are headed into the Negyev Desert to pow wow with the Bedouins, so don't worry if they don't post here for a few days. Love to all!! Jem