The Dead Sea and Ein Gedi

This past week I took a trip to the Dead Sea and Kibbutz Ein Gedi. The Dead Sea is a little over an hour south of where I'm staying and Ein Gedi is about 20 minutes past that. My cousins Abbie and Chen, along with my Aunt Vivian and my Mom all came along.

We stopped at a place called Mineral Beach and decided to spend the afternoon there. It was beautiful. We staked out a good umbrella area and started enjoying the sun.

The Dead Sea is just what it's described as. It's very dense, SOOOO salty, and filled with rich minerals. The Sea is so salty that literally nothing can live it and it's impossible to sink in it. So we floated around and enjoyed the sun.

After we felt sufficiently salty and wrinkly we went to find some good mud to lather on. We stumbled and fumbled through the water, before finally deciding to just float over to a good spot. What you do is grab a handful of mud from the ground (in the water) and start lathering. Once we felt we were covered enough we went back to our umbrella area and let the mud bake on our skins. After the mud is rinsed off your skin feels silkier and smoother than ever.

My arms, legs, face, all felt fantastic. I went back in and filled up a few bottles of mud to take back with me for an at home mud mask.

After showering we loaded back up and drove to Ein Gedi. We walked around the Kibbutz and looked at the botanical gardens. I realize as I'm writing this that I feel like this day is better served by pictures than stories. So here is a link to my facebook account which has all the pictures from the day.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=58394&id=1072533536

The day was so much fun. I came home drained, a little sunburned, and could still taste the salt on my lips. In a few days I'll be heading to Eilat with my Mom for snorkling and enjoying the Red Sea. More to come!