Escape

City life, wherever it may be, requires an occasional escape. Amman can be as taxing as any city on one’s sanity and the belief in the true goodness of life.
Jordan has many places where you can escape to what sometimes feels like another planet. The landscape can switch from concrete, tar and humans to endless rock, sand, and sky in a short bus ride.
Annah and I took a vacation in the Dana Nature Reserve south of Amman where we hiked through a wadi (similar to the Grand Canyon, but without the water and not so Grand) and stayed in an eco-lodge where electricity and hot water is produced with a giant group of solar panels on the roof, and the whole building is lit by candles.
In a place where the sun rarely hides, solar power seems to be the best bet for the future. It was strange to see a village like this, which was so advanced in its earth-friendliness, in the middle of a canyon in Jordan. I kept thinking, “Why don’t we have places like this in our national parks?” The question hit me even harder when I was taken behind the scenes to see the solar setup. All the brand new solar technology came from Outback Power Systems in Arlington, Washington. It all came from the US.