#mitzpe

[koenji]

שנה טובה ומתוקה! ♥️

A pomegranate-like vessel exposed in an archaeological excavation at Tel e-Nasbeh (Israelite city of Mitzpe מצפה), Iron Age (approx. 3,000 years ago). Photography: Clara Amit, Israel Antiquities Authority.

[petarmali]

Finding peace. #israel #mitzpe #crater #vw #volkswagen #beetle (at Mitzpe Ramon - חוס״ן)

[danicalifo]

Mitzpe Ramon

Next day brought the believe I felt better. Actually I did. In the morning. We left Jerusalem pretty late already but still had plenty of time to reach the destination point.  The first ride we got was from a driver who asked me to take a back seat (because of a religious directive as he claimed). He was nice. He said something about hitchhiking difficulties on our further way. Then there was a guy who almost didn't speak English and gave us just a very short ride. Then we were picked up by a totally non-speaking woman and a baby. But she was friendly trying to choose the best and furtherst spot to catch a next car. She was a kinda afraid for us, too. She dropped us somewhere where we stuck for a half hour maybe what is weird because we never before and later waited longer than 10 mins. But there we met another hitchhiker, a local guy from a village nearby. He played flute and shared some tasty pastry.

He was very friendly! He even denied a ride from a driver who offered a single seat saying we are nice people :D Are we? Really? Then we got a ride for all 3 of us. At the next spot we met 2 other guys trying to hitch a car. I just raised my thumb up and we got a big car. (Maybe it still easier with a girl, even in Israel? :D) There were 2 Arabs, teachers, pretty talkative. We left them by the highway. Not reaching the main road of it a next and last car (finally) stopped for us. The back of the car was filled with bottles of water and borrowed one. A guy was very curious about couchsurfing trying to find out details, how it works, what motivates people doing this and so on. He also told us stories about an area, geography of it, different titles and beduins. We said goodbye to each other just across the street from our hosts' place.

This time we were hosted by my nationals, a couple - Igor and Olga :) Shortly after arrival they took us to the main sight of that area, Makhtesh Ramon, a giant crater. I've never seen something like that before! I've never been by any cater. We cought perfect time to meet such a place - sunset - the last sun rays on the edges of the crater while the valley was already foggy! Look at the colors:

Next day I was totally blown away. Couldn't go anywhere because of the illness. I got raised body temperature, drunk that ginger tea the whole day (and I must confess I still don't hate it), didn't have appetite but in the evevning Igor convienced me to eat garlic. So, I was brave enough but with tears in my eyes))) And I became a garlic girl for next 2 days... Egh... But I guess it helped because next day I was already up to visiting an alpaca farm!!!

I remember I got sooooooo excited about that when Aron red that there's one in this area. I've never seen these cute animals before.

In my imagination they were smiling, fluffy, softest and kindest creatures. Maybe I thought also I was going to hug them and they would just stroll around me... Ah, this was so beautiful and peaceful. In my mind. This is what happened in practice:

The question is rethorical, sure. Answer is obvious :D Yeah, they were found to be not that accurate, not that smiling, not that smart :D Alpacas really demaned for feeding. And they are very gregarious by behavior. When we got fodder in paper glasses and I offered it to on of those who browsed around freely, others came and emphatically asked for the fodder pushing each other. And one of them was with ugly teeth (what was completely unlike to what I dreamed about :D). In the end, thay scared me completely and my hand just threw the glass on the ground. Then a horse came. It got a little bit angry that alpacas (best friends of the horse, I guess) didn't leave any food. 

Aron said it was a pony not a horse. Alright, maybe it was :D Not in my world!

Then we walked back to the town passing by another local sight - a camel shaped mountain:

In the desert weather changed pretty fast. In the end of the alpaca tour the sky was already covered by big grey clouds. And in the evening when we decided to visit a local jazz jam session (what was maybe the worst I've ever heard) it was raining. It wasn't good for us because it meant floods in the valley down the town, which means road blocks, which means no beautiful spots and exploration. Anyway we still had next morning to see what the night had brought.

[swag1000litia]

Negev