Israel - Red Sea, Negev Desert & Jaffa

I think it's about time to wrap up these Israel posts. Need to catch up?

Israel - Tiberias & Golan Heights
Israel - Tzfat & Tel Aviv
Israel - Jerusalem
Israel - Masada, Dead Sea & Eilat

I last left off in Eilat, where we packed up small overnight bags for some camping in the Negev Desert. Our second to last day started early with another amazing hike at Mount Tzfachot. It was a pretty steep, but fairly quick climb to the top, and once again my breath was taken away by some incredible views.

At one point we could even see pieces of Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt at once. So insane.

From the very top of the mountain, we all sat down for a short ceremony of sorts. A few people on the trip deiced to get bar mitzfahed, and some others decided to take on Hebrew names. After spending a lot of time talking to the trip leaders, I decided to take on the Hebrew name Yael. I chose Yael for a few reasons: the story behind the name totally embodies a woman's strength, a quality I really wanted to take home with me from the trip. It also literally translates to mountain goat, a graceful, strong, family-oriented animal. Lastly, I really liked how it was written in Hebrew :)

(Not my picture)

Our hike earned us some serious relaxing and fun time in the form of a boat cruise and snorkeling in the Red Sea! This was pretty unexpected, and the weather was totally on our side. It was in the mid-80s and sunny (it was blizzarding at the time in Boston) -- life was pretty dang amazing in this moment.

The snorkeling itself was lame, but it's still pretty awesome to say I swam and "snorkeled" in the Red Sea!! We also were on the border of Saudi Arabia, which was pretty cool. In case anyone is curious, here's a map of where we cruised:

After our boat cruise, we stopped for lunch and I ate my final falafel. So sad. After lunch, we made a pit stop on the way to our campsite at Kibbutz Lotan. Kibbutz translates to "gathering" or "clustering" and is an Israeli collective community that was traditionally based on agriculture. The kibbutz we visited was very cool -- it's an integrated, holistic community that is nearly 100% independently sustainable and hosts an ecological research center.

Bike run washing machine

Sun oven

Herb garden

I seriously think I would like to live an environment like this for a short period of time. I took a brochure...so maybe I will!

And finally, we were off to our campsite to have dinner and settle in for the night. We stayed on a Bedouin campsite (I have no idea if this was a real campsite or a tourist attraction), which means we all -- yes, all 40 of us -- slept together on the floor under one roof. It was quite an experience.

Our tent

According to Wikipedia and our tour guides, the Bedouins are an Arab ethnocultural group, semi-nomadic and descended from nomads who have historically inhabited the Arabian and Syrian Deserts. Prior to the 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence, when the Negev became part of Israel, an estimated 65,000–90,000 Bedouins lived in the Negev. Today, nearly 15,000 Bedouins remain in Israel.

Dinner at the campsite was one of my favoritse of the trip. We all sat around small fire pits and ate out of a huge communal serving bowl. I wish I had taken a photo -- it was delicious chicken, rice, pita, hummus, and vegetables galore.

Before calling it a night, a small group of us trekked into the desert to do some star gazing. It was pretty cloudy so there were only a few stars to see. Still, it was really nice to lay down, stare up at the sky, and reflect on the trip in near silence.

We spent some time at the campsite roasting marshmallows around the firepit, and eventually crawled into the tent for sleep. 

Here's an embarrassing photo of me sleeping with the lights still on! Clearly, I was exhausted and earplugs are miracle workers.

We woke up early to start off our last day in Israel with a hike up the Ein Avdat Canyon. Once again, more beautiful views:

The whole group!

Obligatory jumping picture #1

Obligatory jump picture #2

Way up high

At the top!

And finally, it was time for the moment we were all waiting for. Riding camels!! My mom thinks it's hysterical that I did this because apparently as a child I was deathly afraid of camels. These guys were pretty cute, but they were definitely scared of their trainers. I hope they are treated all right...

We named him Charlie

After camel riding, we re-boarded the bus for a trip back to Tel Aviv. We had one more quick stop in Jaffa before heading to the airport. I wish we had more time to explore Jaffa -- it was SO cute and felt like the Brooklyn to Tel Aviv. It was very artsy and looked like it had great restaurants and shops. At least we got to catch a sick sunset!

Floating tree

And finally, it was off to the airport where we had 27 hours of travel ahead of us. It wasn't as bad as it sounds -- I was a little drunk, had my own seat on the flights, had a good beer in Brussels, and watched a ton of movies.

There was some whiskey to go with all that coke

That concludes my Israel recaps. So glad I'll have these to read forever and ever! In case anyone is interested, a girl on the trip put together a nearly 20-minute video compilation of photos, videos, etc. Ch ch check it here: