4 States at once? Try 4 countries!

Last week we traveled with Pardes to Eilat, the southernmost city in Israel. Although we didn't actually spend much time in the city proper, we hiked a great deal in the mountains of the area and we stayed at a kibbutz about 30 minutes north of Eilat. I tried for a while to write a description of what a 'kibbutz' is, but found that I was babbling and going on for far too long. So check this article out if you want to learn more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibbutz



Kibbutz Ketura, were we stayed, was founded in 1973 by a dozen Young Judea (a popular Jewish youth movement) eighteen-year-olds. Today it is the home of over 40 families and the kibbutz primarily produces dates. It is an incredible story in of itself, (as you can see from the picture, who would think that you can make things bloom in the desert?)
In addition to prestine date palms (picture), the kibbutz agriculturists also maintain an "experimental orchard", which we were able to tour. The woman who runs it is a world-renoun Ph.D., who is obessed by the question, "What will grow down here in the desert?" One of the kibbutz's claims to fame is that they are currently sucessfully growing a 2000 year old seed which was found at the archeological site of Masada!

There is much more to say about the Kibbutz, however I again refer you to its website for a more eloquent and accurate summary:

http://www.ketura.org.il/hist.html

The best things about staying at the kibbutz were the opportunities I had to speak with different kibbutz members. The first night, I joined a friend of mine, Matt, who is a student with Jenny and me at Pardes, to the home of Matt's uncle, Steven. Steve was a very nice host (in the home that, of course, he didn't own) and we spent several hours grilling him about why he had chosen, as a twenty-year-old, to move from Brooklyn to the middle of a desert in the middle-east in order to farm for the rest of his life. We also inquired about how life works on a kibbutz, with respect to work, family, finances, etc. The second day I met another member of the kibbutz named Michelle. She had spotted me in the dining hall at breakfast and was transfixed by a black, glow-in-the-dark, constellation t-shirt that I was wearing. Michelle must have been really into astronomy, or more likely, astrology, because she couldn't stop looking at my shirt and asking about it. I told her that if she really liked my shirt then I would be happy to trade it to her for a 'kibbutz ketura' t-shirt. Needlesstosay, my constellation t-shirt has made aliyah.


The hiking was astounding. That's me, very small, in the picture. We traversed canyons, cliffs, gorges, and wadis - all of which displayed a variety of limestone, sandstone, granite, sulfur, and more geological compositions that I can't recall.
Along the trails we encountered archeological inscriptions, wild ibex, sand dunes (see video),
and best of all, a view over the Gulf of Eilat which included the Red Sea, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia together. Take that, Four Corners!



By the way, this is my beautiful wife during her first time at the shores of the Red Sea!