Petra is a big place. You have to hike several miles to get to the end and back out. You can wear yourself out even more and hike the 850+ steps up to the Monastery. We were wet and cold and decided that a better option instead of climbing stairs for an hour was to rent some nearby donkeys. The rain and the wind was so bad, even the donkeys didn't want to be out that day.
Unfortunately for Eeyore, I had five dinars which covered the cost of his services. We saddled up on our stallions and headed up the steps. If you had bet me that donkeys could climb a winding stone staircase cut into a cliff I would have lost my money. In case you are wondering, you can't really steer a donkey. It's a lot better to be the person on the donkey than it is to be the poor tourist trying to walk down past you. Eeyore would go out of his way to run people off his staircase.
To our extreme disappointment, we ended up at the top of the mountain in the clouds. When we first reached the peak, the monastery wasn't visible at all. After about 30 minutes of waiting, and trying to warm up, the cloud cover subsided a little and I managed to get a rather hazy photo. The mist makes for a eery effect, but it detracts from just how impressive the carved building really is.
The donkeys took us up the hill, but apparently a 5 isn't enough to get them to wait on you to come back down. The donkeys were gone and we had to hike back down on foot. The storm had picked up quite a bit on us, and what was a set of stairs on the way up became a series of rivers and waterfalls on the way down.
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