Zagharta

Going to Lebanon is such a personal experience I am not sure how to
express it. I have dreamed about going to Lebanon for over a decade,
and have searched online since 2004. Last summer I spent 12 days,
my goal for this year was to visit the town that my family originates.
The journey unfolds little by little. When asked where my family is
from, I would say Tripoli. This spring my Great Aunt Joanie told me
it’s actually a town outside Tripoli called Zagharta. On my way North
to Zagharta a friend asked do you know what area exactly in Zagharta
they lived – I laughed and told him I will find out this for my next
trip. This makes more sense since it’s a Maronite Christian town while
Tripoli is more Muslim. I took a picture by the town sign. I walked
around and pretended to find the places they left (a home & church)
and we continued to make stories. I told them I that my grandmother
spoke about a river that she would go to when she was a child. So they
took me to the small river outside of town I took a few minutes to say
a small prayer. I am not sure what to think that I am the only family
member to set foot in Lebanon since my great grandmother Sadie last
visited in the late 60s. I feel them with me at several points in my
journey. I wonder what I am doing here, why I am even here, and as
I told my cousin Chloe, is my life supposed to change now that I have
been to the river? She told me I sounded like I was reading the gospel.

The rest of this Lebanon trip will follow at another point.

Danna Reserve

Jordan has many great places for hiking and camping. With some
friends we took a short two day hiking trip to Danna. In my typical
10 day vacations, I normally don’t have time to head off to the
smaller treasures of a country. This time I really felt like I was
in the middle of no-where and its was really beautiful!

I think this one of the most remote places I have been to in my life
–maybe? We had two guys/two girls, we could not share tent for
camping. So we took separate rooms in a small hotel which was
very friendly and charming. My friend asked which one will I marry
to share a room, I told him I prefer Brazil citizenship over Jordan.
We hiked two trails the first day and not one other person was on
the path. One trail involved some rock climbing and scoping out old
caves. The pathway we figured out was small piles of rocks, this
meant you were going the right way. Some of the paths, I wonder
how did they decide this way? The second path was a very nice
steep climb – watch out for hienas and wildcats . The hotel provides
dinner, luckily because there is no where else to eat. When we were
late for dinner, they called up to make sure we were coming. At
dinner the lovely ladies kept saying “eat more, eat more” which was
good because we were starving from 4.5 hrs of hiking that day. After
some tea, we all laid around. At one point a guy started playing some
drums to invoke a little dancing. Of course I accepted. After a deep
night sleep and some breakfast, we walked down to the valley. As
we walked down in the morning sun, we knew walking back up
would be SO much harder. We sat on the rocks for hours changing
rocks to change our views, I felt this is as peaceful as the beach
which I love. I imagined one day what the Grand Canyon will be
like when I go to visit. I stopped to take a picture of a nice Bedouin
and his cute donkey. He did not ask for money and we offered him
some water up the hill. Once we got to the top, I took the ladies
water hose and soaked down my legs and my arms a bit. I was
surprised they leave the water hose on for so long, but they live
close to the a spring so they don’t have to limit their water use
unlike much of Jordan. Next we went to the springs to drink some
fresh water. I saw a taxi guy wearing 9-11 T-shirt, I asked why. Then
he asked for my phone number … Jordanian men. Back to Amman...