israel post 11

Finishing up Thursday, May 2 -- at the Dead Sea!

The Dead Sea is also known as the Sea of Salt...its surface and shores are 1,388 ft below sea level...it is the lowest point on the Earth! With 33.7% salinity, it is also one of the world's saltiest bodies of water. It is 8.6 times as salty as the ocean! This extreme saltiness makes it a harsh environment for animals and plants, so there is nothing alive in the Sea. What does exist in the Dead Sea is a whole lot of black mud. They use this mud to create beauty products that are supposed to be top notch. Often, doctors all over the world will send their patients with skin problems to the Dead Sea and put them on a daily regimen of soaking in the water in order to heal themselves.

The Dead Sea was interesting to be in! Because of the high salt content, all we could do was float! Nothing would sink. We had to walk in just a little, and sit down, and then the rest was up to the water. They called in corking -- bobbing around like a cork! It was a very weird feeling indeed! Lots of people were rubbing the mud all over themselves, from head to toe...Chris and I were just happy to cork!

The Dead Sea from an upper road...

The beach at the Dead Sea...it would have been helpful if they'd had a handrail to help you get into the water, as the mud was super slippery...

On the beach, there was The Lowest Bar in the World...

Here we are, floating! We hadn't started to cork yet...it was actually a good ab workout to lie on your back flat. You had to work hard to keep balanced. Then we discovered that if we pulled our legs in to our chests, and held them there, we could just bob around and it was way more comfortable! In this photo is me and Chris in the middle, our CEO Kris at the top, and Neeley at the bottom...

That's all for Thursday!! All we have left now is Friday! I don't have those photos sized yet, so I'll work on that this evening and post more tomorrow!!!