African Adventures, Part 1

I was stoked for Morocco. After Egypt got canceled, Turkey and Morocco were the ones I wanted to see the most, because they are places to travel, not vacation. So I had been researching everything and anything about the country. We had lots of ideas to do, but settled on heading to Marrakesh, a huge shopping town on the base of the Atlas Mountains that is pretty central to everything in Morocco. But, true to form, whenever we try to plan stuff, it never works out. Nikki, Kellie, and I had planned to wake up at 5am to watch the sunrise and us pull into the Casablanca port, but it was cloudy. Like SUPER cloudy. So cloudy that the sun rose and was way in the sky before anyone knew. So that was a failure! We even brought out our iPods so we could listen to the beginning song from “The Lion King” as the African sun rose! Bummer. So we went back to bed and woke up from breakfast at 8. We got ready pretty quick, but since we needed our passports (because we were doing the independent travel to Marrakesh), we sat around until about 10:45 waiting to set foot in Africa. When the time came, we were all pretty stoked. We were still going to make our 12:45 train to Marrakesh and everything was going to work out!!

So we exchanged money and got into a “petit taxi” (a tiny little taxi!) and headed to the train station. The city is exactly how I imagined Morocco to be; cliché white buildings with peeling paint and clothes hanging from balconies. It was dirty, loud, but REAL. It was so freaking cool! On the way, we saw a horrible moped/ car accident…. The guy was still laying on the ground while everyone was crowded around trying to get him to wake up! Terrible. When we finally got to the train station, it turns out all our careful planning was for nothing… the trains were not running. We couldn’t figure out why, since the woman didn’t speak much English, so we decided it was because of Ramadan. We were standing around wondering what the heck to do, since Marrakesh was a full 3 hours away by train and we had a hostel booked for the night. We grouped with 2 other girls and somehow ended up in a taxi driving to Marrakesh for only about $25 a person! But, we crammed 5 in a taxi... so it was a tad cozy.

Our driver took us to a side street, parked, and got out. We asked what he was doing, but he told us “no problem.” Everyone was a tad sketched out, but since this stuff happens to us all the time, Nikki and I were just going with it. The driver then came, opened up our doors, and made us get out. He took us to another taxi and moved all our bags into that one. We were super confused, but did what they said. We later realized it was probably because there are some types of taxi laws where only special permits can leave the city, but at this point we were all a little weirded out. So then, our new driver is driving in circles… even we realized it. He stopped and talked to a police officer, and then another taxi driver, and then a shop owner. We were so confused. Turns out he was lost and didn’t know how to get out of the city!!! The other girls who were with us wanted to get dropped off at the ship and go back, but since we had already paid half, there was no way we were going to lose all our money!! So we stayed in and finally he got on the right road! We all cheered. Then we started talking to him and he taught us Arabic the whole way there! He was so nice. We drove through this desert that was so hot the air hurt my face when it hit it. It was terrible and we were sweating balls. We stopped at a gas station for what we guessed was a potty break, but when we got out of the car, the car was leaking a reddish brown liquid from the front! But of course, he said “no problem!” So whatevs. We got in AC in the gas station, cooled off, had a coke light (with Arabic writing!), and headed back into the car, which then got us to Marrakesh. It was so nice to finally get there!

Marrakesh is an interesting city. It is an ancient trading city, so the old city is circled by a wall. Inside the wall is winding streets that are like mazes and confusing. This is to keep the area of the city small and defensible, but cram a ton of people in! When you think of “Prince of Persia” or other movies based in Africa, that is EXACTLY how the streets were. They are cramped and narrow, with roofs made of thatched wood and sometimes with a post between two walls. It was so cool. But, because of this, our driver couldn’t take us directly to the hostel we were at, he had to drop us off in the new city, which is basically a new city not circled with the wall. It was a normal, modern city with big streets (we didn’t spend much time there). So we walked through the gate and were in the Medina! We got to our hostel and met Kemal, the owner, who was super nice. He got us tasty mint tea (OH MY GOSH DELICIOUS) and we jabbered for a bit. We told him we wanted to do a day excursion because 3 nights in Marrakesh just shopping might be a tad much. So he told us about a 3 day, 2 night Sahara camel trek which we all fell in love with. A british girl who was staying in the hostel came out and told us that she loved it, but to definitely get a turban because it helps with the heat.  It was an AC car, English tour guide, and a pool, so we were sold! It was only about $120 total, so it was perfect!

We signed up and headed to the souks (shops) and the main square, Djemma el Fna. The shop owners were much more aggressive and agitated than the Turkish souks, since it was Ramadan and super hot, so it wasn’t as fun. They really didn’t love Americans too much, so we didn’t love it much. They were also not too into haggling so we walked away a lot. But we got some good stuff! From our hostel to get to the square, we walked right by the restaurant that got blown up in April. It was covered with banners so you really couldn’t see into it, but through the cracks you could see torn apart concrete and dips in the ground from the explosion. It was really sad, but strangely cool to see… in some sick and demented way.

The square was nuts. It was full of women selling henna, apothecaries (with dried lizards, bird’s legs, and powdered snake… really weird stuff!!), snake charmers, and monkeys. I really wanted to get a pic of the snake charmers, but they demand a ton of money if they see you taking a pic, so all my sneaky snaps are lopsided and faraway. Sad day. They tried to throw the cobras on us, so we literally ran the opposite way. Thinking back, it might have been a pretty cool picture and worth the money to get one… oh well! We ate dinner on this roof terrace looking down on the square and watched the Muslims break their fast, which was way cool. The food would be sitting out in front of them so that exactly when the sun set at 7:30, they could dig in. There was some lightning in the distance too, so that was pretty sweet! We then walked around and watched the evening prayer at the mosque… there were thousands praying all around the mosque and in the yard around it! Pretty powerful and I wish it wasn’t rude to take pictures… then we went back to the hostel, got on the internet, and passed out.

We woke up at 6am to be ready for our 7am departure. Kemal came up with 250DH for the each of us and told us that the English-speaking tour guide called in sick. So bummer… but we were sure our driver would know a bit of English to tell us what was going on. So we went with it, met this Japanese girl named Mal who was going with us, and walked to our van in the square. In our bus/van, there were 2 more Japanese girls and about 9 Spaniards, plus our Moroccan tour guide who just REEKED of coolness. He was wearing a tie-dye turban, a long blue robe, and Ray Bans. So we were stoked.

Our first stop was supposed to be breakfast, but it wasn’t. The next wasn’t either. After a few stops at tourist shops, we finally got the nerve up to ask him when breakfast was. Turns out we didn’t get breakfast (though Kemal said we did!!) and that was what the first stop was for! Yikes, so we were starving. By then it was getting pretty warm too, so we asked him to turn the AC on. He said “no,” turned back around, and kept driving. So no AC either, Kemal lied to us!! After stopping for pictures of many oasis towns and palm trees, we had lunch at a VERY touristy place. It was pretty good. Then we went to a UNESCO site castle called Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou, which is basically a mud village with huge walls encircling it. It is made completely of mud mixed with straw and limestone, and we crossed a dry riverbed to reach it! Right before we walked up I said it looked like we were in the movie “Prince of Persia” because it was exactly how the streets and homes were situated. Turns out that it was were “Prince of Persia” and “Gladiator” was filmed, so I was straight on the money! It was so cool… the streets were narrow with the thatched roof over some streets. Nikki started freaking out about the irrigation systems… so weird. Hahah. After that we bought turbans from the venders for less than $4 and got back into our hot, boiling van.

At our next stop, we got waters and were standing outside when we heard thunder… and then all of a sudden it started pouring down rain on us! It was so bizarre. After visiting so many Mediterranean countries, the one place it rains at is in Africa, where it rains less than 5cm a year!!! So we danced and took crazy pics because we were so excited to be in the rain! After that we got back at the car and drove until we stopped at this random gorge. We took awesome Lion King pics and a bunch of random poses (standing straight smiling is so boring now!) so all the Spaniards probably thought we were nuts. As we were driving away, we were trying to decide exactly what we just saw when our driver turned around, pointed, and said “monkey fingers.” So apparently we saw monkey fingers hahaha.

We then drove past a bunch of kids playing soccer in this dirt field and got to our hotel for the night. We were supposed to have a pool to jump in, but nope, which was fine. The hotel was way cool though. It was nestled between this huge, sheer mountain wall on one side and a muddy river with another mountain on the other! So we were smack dab right in the middle of a gorge, cool! We think it was Dades Gorge, but we are still not too sure haha. When we got to our room, we were so excited for a bed that we all fell onto the beds. But, instead of a slight bounce, we landed with a thunk. Our beds were pure rock and we thought it was hilarious. We then played in the nasty river, walked around, and ran into some SAS people who were doing the same tour through a different company. So we ate with the people in our car and talked to some Spaniards who were backpacking around the country. We hung out with the SAS people and played games until going to bed.

The next morning we woke up and had the best breakfast in the world, these tortilla/crepe looking things. We didn’t know how to eat them, so we observed everyone around us and put some jam, butter, and honey on them… so delicious. The OJ was to die for. After that we picked up some water from the convenience store up the road (since we wanted to be prepared for the Sahara Desert!) and hopped back into the cramped, hot car.

Our first stop was this gorge/farmland/village tour. We stopped on the side of the road and a man popped out of the woods and led us through the trees. We were all thinking “where the heck is he taking us?!” cause we were literally climbing through tree branches and up little hills… we ended up in a farming field and had the coolest tour ever. He showed us different plants which do different things: a plant that keeps away mosquitoes, where different dyes come from, and a drug that is stronger than opium and will make you “fly in the sky on a magic carpet.” We then walked around this field and jumped over little irrigation streams. There was cabbage, corn, dates, olives, and more, but the most exciting part wasn’t the plants. People were working in the fields... like really working. They had donkeys that they were using to drag bamboo up to the village and a woman was hunched over pulling weeds. It was legit and so real. Then, we walked up the path, crossed a river by walking on a felled tree, and walked past the mint fields…. Such an amazing smell. (Hopefully you can grow that in the US!!) Then, as we got closer to the village, you could start to see people. Moroccans are very anti-photographs, so there was no way I could document any of this. They literally will either run away or run up to you and scream. So I didn’t risk it. But, right as we got into town, there was these two young girls, probably 13 or 14, squatting over a metal basin washing clothes. It was exactly how movies and documentaries make it look! It was so real… I wish I could’ve snapped a shot of that one. There were these cute little boys surrounding the girls and playing… they were adorable. One of the older boys was playing around with his little brother and dangled him over the irrigation lines… it was so funny! Then we walked up and around the town, with our guide telling us all about the streets (which were segregated into men and women streets) and the mud houses. In one home, which was mud on all side and floor, there was the cutest little 2 year old baby boy… standing barefoot and naked. There were about 30 flies on his face and body. It was so sad and completely broke my heart because he was so agitated with all the flies but still waved to us. Then we went to a weaving place where they make rugs and blankets, had mint tea, and made friends with the guy in charge. He let us go behind the scenes with his old lady and help her weave! It was so hard, but I could pick it up after a few hours for sure.

Then we left and went to the greatest place in the world. It was a huge, cold, clean river right between two huge gorges (Tudras Gorge?). There were kids everywhere splashing in the cool water and even a car wash! Somehow we ended up in a water fight with our driver and frolicking in the icy water! It was SO much fun, but he is definitely a better splasher than us… we were soaked in the car haha. But it felt awesome with the no ACness of the van. So we were BFFs with our driver after that!! Then we ate lunch and headed to the desert!