SHALOM Nazareth! After a very organized check-out (literally hundreds of tourists in the same hotel) we headed south in the country’s Route 90. It was a surreal feeling actually setting foot and ejoying the vistas and meeting the citizens of a country that we’ve only seen through the media. It was interesting to hear from our tour guide about the birth of Israel and its current complicated geopolitical situation.
We drove to Jericho, one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world. It is located near the West Bank and the Jordan River. The city was taken by Israel during the Six Day War of 1967 (for history buffs, Netflix has a great movie about this war called Angel). Jericho is under the Fatah faction of the Palestinian National Authority. I don’t want to confuse you so I suggest you go in the internet and research about this complicated political situation that I mentioned above.
After crossing a guarded entry to the city, we did another obligatory stop in a souvenir shop whether you liked it or not (I’m beginning to think the tour guide and driver gets a commission from the sales of the stores). Overlooking the souvenir shop is Mount of Temptation where according to the bible Jesus Christ was tempted by Satan. More obligatory photo ops (not intending to offend my friends and relatives but I think their photo sessions are too much! detracting them from learning and reflecting how important this trip is – historically).
By the way, we learned that the Filipino popular singer, Rico Puno passed away (hopefully not a fake news). My brother-in-law took out his iPhone and played one of Puno’s songs – Buhat. We bade Rico farewell and Geva, the guide asked us if we wanted to hear any Israeli song. I started singing Hava Nagila and a few others joined me! Geva was surprised that we knew that song (it was very popular world wide in the 60’s).
We stopped at the Qasr el Yahud baptismal site where according to tradition, Jesus was baptized by St. John the Baptist. After the brief visit, all 15 minutes, we headed for lunch. I, and I’m sure others in the bus too, get irritated sometimes with the tour guide because he would give us a very limited time when visiting some of the most important sites but he would let us linger for an hour or so in the souvenir shops (commission?).
Lunch was much better than the previous days and the only complaint was the waiters were too slowwwww in refilling our salad trays (it was not done in our table) and our water pitchers. There were about a couple of hundred tourists served by only a handful of waiters!
The bus continued on to Bethlehem, birthplace of Jesus and King David. We attended mass (again) at the Church of the Nativity then headed to a very long queue that would be comparable to the interminable lines in theme parks. After standing in line for a good 90 minutes we finally reached the most holy spot where Christ was born. It took no more than five seconds to kneel and touch the spot as the Orthodox priest kept barking orders (in a low tone and nicer of course) like drill sergeants to keep the line moving otherwise it’ll take forever. Those with physical disabilities had difficulty getting up and had to be assisted.
By now, it was getting cold and the breeze picking up. Fortunately, our group was one of the last pilgrims to leave the place, hence, we avoided another pushing and shoving through the tiny door of the church. We walked back to our bus while being hounded by souvenir vendors yelling their prices and gradually lowering them as you ignore their sales pitches. One of them yelled, “No good Filipinos, I give good price, you no buy”! Sure buddy, your ware is half the price around the corner. A couple of our relatives bought leather travel bags 150 percent more than another relative! Haggle, haggle, and walk away!
We were exhausted and hungry after a long day. Some wallets thinner than others but we were all in good spirits. We reached our hotel past 7:00 pm and we went directly to the dining hall as the tour guide did the checking-in for us. Our room is tiny with nary a spot to put your toiletries. But you get what you paid for…
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