Israel, Day 12: Eilat

Today was a free day... IT WAS SPECTACULAR! We started out by getting to sleep in! (I hear a choir of angels when I woke up this morning.) I woke up and went down to breakfast at 9:45. Then at 10 we were given a "tour of Eilat". Basically our tour guide showed us how to sneak into the big fancy hotels to steal the services: internet, the pool, the bar, the restaurants, private beach access, etc.

Then we went to a jewelry manufacturer to see the biggest manufacturer of the Eilat stone in the world. Eilat stone is a semi precious stone that is a result of copper mining, secondary copper mining materials: malachite, turquoise, pseudomalachite, azurite, and chrysocolla. They are blue and green and are found in copper mines after mining is finished.

The stones are easy to cut, shape, and polish making them one of the cheaper semi precious stones, yet they have the beauty of the higher end of semi precious stones.

After that we headed south along the coast to the border with Egypt to see the border crossing. I would have gone across the border to get the Egypt stamp in my passport but there is an incredible entry tax that I didn't want to pay. We saw places where you could ride the dolphins of the Red Sea, rent scuba equipment to see the coral reefs, rent boating and fishing equipment, and even go dune buggy riding. I decided I wanted a relaxing day on the beach so I grabbed my swimsuit, my towel, a book and my computer and headed to the nicer beaches in front of the 5 star hotels on the north side of Eilat.

Probably the best day I've had since we got here. :) So amazing!

It was amazing, I finally got time to be lazy. I laid on the beach on a beach chair, listened to music on my iPod, and just vegged. Then I went to lunch at a restaurant on the boardwalk called CafeCafe. I had a Halloumi salad (Halloumi is basically cheese curds... SO GOOD), and a coke.

My Halloumi salad, bread, and a coke. Next to the beach. So wonderful!

Afterwards, I walked along the boardwalk for a while looking in the different shops in the area. Then I stopped in a small store, grabbed a beer and went back to the beach to relax in the sun again.

This has been by far the best day we've had yet. It was a wonderful 72 degrees here (when the sun was out), the water was warm, and the food was excellent. I really wanna stay here! :D

The view from the hotel at the end of the day. :) Eilat is amazing!

Look for another blog post either later tonight (so for you between 4 and 6 pm), or sometime tomorrow. We're going to Petra, Jordan tomorrow and it's going to be a long day, we may not get back to Eilat until 10 pm.

That's all I've got, ta ta for now!