It's been a busy few weeks, but thankfully I've been able to get out a bit. We were able to go to Bayt Bos, a small, formerly Jewish village perched atop a cliff overlooking southern Sanaa. The village stands overlooking the city, but behind it is the ridge which runs the western length of Sanaa. Up the valleys of this ridge are orchards and terraced fields, springs, streams, and flocks of sheep. Oh, and lots of rocks. All of this overlooks a valley that leads the only body of standing water I've seen so far - a reservoir and dam that has become quite popular with the local residents. There were several wedding parties and hundreds of kids swimming in the lake. As has become a custom for our trips, we crashed a wedding celebration for bit, before they drove off (to the beat of drummers in the back of a pickup) to the next venue of a multi-day wedding celebration.
Besides hiking, there have been some interesting times. 12 hours outside the customs warehouse trying to convince the best and brightest of the Yemeni government that, in fact, there was a plane landing in an hour that we had told them about. A sundowner barbeque at the Sheraton pool. And a small proxy war between myself and the Yemeni Petroleum Corporation. All in a day's work.
