TUESDAY 7/10/12

CAESAREA

We drove to mount Carmel, got lost and never found it. What a shame, that was one place I wanted to visit as it is the location of one of my favorite bible stories. The story of Elijah vs. 400 of Baal's priests, when Jehovah is on your side you're always the majority and Jehovah always wins.

We then drove south to Caesarea, the town that Herod the great built. Visited the amphitheater that is still being used to date. Walked in the hippodrome where charriot races used to take place. Later it became the roman circus where gladiators used to fight against each other or against wild beasts. We then saw the ruins of the break wall that was man made and was used to create a man made harbor. We saw scuba divers getting a closer underwater look at the ruins, maybe next time.

Walk by the Hipprodrome and a little wave will get you wet

Participating in a metal charriot race

Those Romans loved their fancy baths
 

Ruins of Caesarea underwater

Underwater divers looking at more ruins

 A view of the hippodrome from afar

Drove back to the David Hotel and waited for our taxi to take us to the border crossing in the afternoon. Again we got to see much closer the division between the Israel and the Palestinian Territory. By the way the border crossing is so much better in the afternoon than in the morning, but don't make the mistake of taking a picture with the taxi driver at the border crossing cause you will raise red flags. 5 Israeli officers were reviewing our pictures I guess we looked like spies, you know a regular 007 type. A kind, Argentinean man, that worked as a baggage handler heard that we spoke Spanish and helped us move through the line quickly. 

The wall dividing Israel and Palestinian Territory

Our taxi driver Firas

 We crossed the border and Mustafa was already there waiting for us on the other side. He took us to the cheap hotel we booked online, you definitely get what you pay for. The hotel was half hostel and half hotel. Of course our room was not available cause the water pipes burst so we got moved to another cheap hotel. Another dump! They had a little restaurant in the hotel, I had the traditional plate which consist of a bed of white rice, charcoal grilled chicken and yogurt sauce. Chicken and rice were good but I could do without the yogurt. After dinner there was an Arabic dancing show by the men. We'll show you the video later. After all that excitement, it was time for bed.