Desert and Sea

To get to Eilat, you have to drive through about 200 miles of unrelenting desert. Once you get there, you are treated to views of the blue-est sea I've ever seen. (No, the Red Sea is not red.) But you can go even a little bit farther. The Red Sea of Eilat is famous for its coral reefs, and boasts an underwater observatory with a submarine that you can ride on to take it all in.

This is what the road to Eilat looks like:


A view of Makhtesh Ramon, a very large crater in the Negev desert. It was formed by uneven soil erosion and not by a meteorite impact.


Someone actually lives on its edge!


Another typical warning:


Check out the temperature outside. The highest we've seen was 39.5 degrees C. (That's like 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit.)


Eilat - the coral reefs begin right at the beach!


Kite-surfing in the Red Sea. The background mountains belong to Jordan.


The above-water portion of the underwater observatory.


Inhabitants of the Red Sea. None of these creatures were in a cage - they were all wild fish and mollusks and just happened to pass by (or sleep near) the observatory's windows.














The science center next to the observatory also has a program to breed sea turtles. They spend a few years after hatching there, and then are released into the sea.

Jaffa and Tel Aviv

Jaffa is not just any other old city, of which there are hundreds in Israel. Even by the standards of a country where cities dating from before Roman times are everywhere, this is an ancient place. It's been continuously inhabited for almost 10,000 years. For most of this time, it has been a port, with both commercial and military uses. In the most recent modern times, it has been absorbed and incorporated into the city of Tel Aviv (which is actually formally known Tel Aviv-Jaffa).

This is the quintessential view of Jaffa, with the Sea Mosque tower and the Andromeda rocks behind it. The Sea Mosque is the oldest mosque there, and the rocks are the ones where Perseus rescued the chained Andromeda from the sea monster.


Stairs to Kedumim Square:




St Peter's church:


Jaffa Light, in operation since 1865:


Views of Jaffa streets:










The Wishing Bridge - decorated with zodiac signs. If you touch your Zodiac sign while facing the sea and make a wish, it'll come true. (But it was closed when we were there - what does that mean?)


Perhaps in reference to the bridge, some of the streets in Jaffa have street numbers and signs decorated with zodiac signs as well:




The hill of Jaffa also affords the best views of the modern Tel Aviv and the Mediterranean Sea (the 4th sea we've been to in Israel):






This one is a special shout-out to my Indian friends. We came across it while walking around Tel Aviv's sea-facing boulevard.

Summer top 10

Arthur C. Clarke once said that no good trilogy should have more than four books. Similarly, no top 10 list should have more than 12 pictures. So here are my top 10 pictures from this summer (so far):

Tiger Iris

Barn Swallow family

Diamondback Terrapin turtle

Gray Catbird

Just a strikingly lit flower

Tree Swallow

Grasshopper Sparrow

Canada Geese

Gray Catbird

Barn Swallow chick

Bee doings its thing

Purple Martin