We kicked off our day with a 4:00 AM wake-up and a sunrise hike up Mount Tzfachot. All of us were pretty tired, but once we reached the summit, we all realized the early wake-up was worth it.. The view was amazing: we saw a huge span of the Red Sea, and we could see Jordan to our east, Egypt to our southwest, and, in the distance, Saudi Arabia to our southeast. We took countless pictures of the sunrise, and some people placed tefilin and davened.

After descending Mount Tzfachot and eating breakfast at our hostel, we headed back to the pier of Eilat for a day of water sports. In the morning, we all got on a boat and sailed out into the Red Sea, where we swam, snorkeled, and dove into the clear waters. Afterwards, we returned to the pier for lunch, then went back on the water for banana boating and tubing. Both activities were great, but the tubing was definitely crazier. The tubes kept bouncing up and down on the water as we held on as tight as possible, with people falling in the water constantly. Tubing was most certainly the highlight of the day for me.

After returning to the hostel and refreshing ourselves, we headed to Eilat’s Ice Mall. The Ice Mall gets its name from the large ice skating rink in the center of the mall. Some of us rented skates and went ice-skating, while others went on a zipline-esque ride around the top of the building or strolled through the mall’s stores.

To end the night, we relaxed at the hostel, with some people going to do a little Tae Kwon Do and others (quite tragically) straightening their hair. We also started packing our bags and preparing for the long ride back up to Jerusalem, where we will be spending our final Shabbat in Israel.

-Gil