I haven't written my blog for what we did in Morocco, so here goes.
After porting in Casablanca, we were the first group to leave the ship because we had a very full itinerary. We actually only set foot in Casablanca while in the port; but from what everyone said, Marrakech was a much better place to be anyway. We took our bus on a three hour ride to Marrekech, where we immediately went to the Ja Elfna (sp?) square. This is the major trading center of the city, where by day you will find snake charmers, monkey handlers, henna artists, and lots of open air shops. By night, the monkeys and snakes go away and it turns into a very large open air dining area with tents and chefs cooking right in front of customers' eyes. We ate a traditional Moroccan meal of cous-cous and meat, beat salads, and orange carrot juice with cinnamon for dessert. Afterwards, we wondered around the square for a while. I felt really bad for the monkeys. They were in small cages and the handlers had collars and chains around them. Dumb ass tourists were taking photos with them and I yelled at a few SASers who were getting their photos with them- I know these handlers were poor, but they could have found another way to earn money. Now the snakes on the other hand I didn't feel sorry for one bit. I just didn't like the fact that asps and cobras were on the ground literally six feet from me without any box or cage to keep them in. At one point, a charmer pulled out about twenty water snakes from a basket and about six got loose. He just ran around in the crowd picking them up, holding the rest as they struck at his clothing- I hate snakes. After that we checked into our hotel, or karma for our five star resort in Egypt, rather. This place looked nice on the outside, but had really run down rooms and not the best of services. It did have a pool, however, so we took a dip in it before dinner. For dinner, we journeyed to the center of the old city, where no cars were allowed because of the small roads, and sat down in a beautiful courtyard area for a delicious dinner. All of our waiters had traditional white robes with red fezes on- it was candlelit and rose petals covered the ground and tables. We had salad, a large tangine of citrus chicken, and a pastry pie for dessert. The wine just kept flowing and so we had a wonderful night.
On day two, we woke up around seven to board our bus to our Nomad camp. The Nomad camp was located deep in the Sahara near the boarder of Algeria, and we had two mountain ranges to cross, so we actually were on the bus for twelve hours. The views in the Sahara and through the mountains (the High Atlas mountain range and the Anti Atlas Mountain range) were beautiful. It was extremely scary at some points, though, because we were on a fifty passenger bus going around winding narrow roads with no guard rails and deep ravines on our sides. We made frequent stops at Berber (indigenous people of Morocco) shops and villages- they were all made of mud and sticks- very rural. We ate at a very nice restaurant in the middle of the desert, literally no civilization for miles around it, but was beautifully decorated with mosaics inside. When we finally arrived at the Nomad camp, it was around seven in the evening. The bus had to just drive in the desert, no road for about five minutes to take us to where we had to walk to the camp- the bus driver kept swearing and the guide told us he was worried we packed too much and the weight was going to strand the bus in the sand. We made it safely, however. We took our belongings and headed to the camp. The camp was completely worth the twelve hour bus ride. It was surrounded by date palms and looked like an oasis (it really was by an oasis). The camp was quite large, and made as a traditional Nomad camp- completely out of blankets and sticks. Tonya, Chrissy, my roommate Mikey and I all settled into the camp quickly. Inside the tents were mattresses and pillows to our surprise. The tents were in a rectangular formation, and in the middle, the entire ground was covered with Berber carpets- it was kind of like a really cool open air tent hotel. There was a large tent with tables close to the floor for a dining room, and a table where you could purchase drinks (kind of reminded me of a Moroccan style sleigh ride tent that we went to at Big Sky). There was a place in the middle for a large bon fire, but since it was August, the desert night was actually a very comfortable 70-75 degrees- not as cold as I thought it would be. We just got a bottle of wine, talked about everything we were seeing, and watched as the night sky filled up with the most stars I have ever seen. We sat down to dinner - lots of meat and cous-cous the Morrocans eat- on pillows on the ground around low tables. After dinner, we just talked everyone, played cards with our guides Omar and Hussein, and anticipated our camel ride in the morning. It was such a beautiful night, that we all decided to drag our mattresses out of our tents and sleep in the open air of the Sahara. We drifted to sleep watching the sky, Chrissy, who spent her life in Brooklyn and New Orleans, was dumbfounded to see so many stars. During the night, I woke up around four and watched for shooting stars- I saw about three large, slow ones before waking Chrissy and Tonya up to watch for more- they were the first ones Chrissy had ever seen.
The next morning, we woke up to a six o'clock wake up call in order to ride our camels while it was still coolish. We had pastries and mint tea (which is absolutely amazing) for breakfast before watching 85 (that's how many people were on the trip) camels be led into camp. We covered our heads and necks with the traditional scarves of the Nomads, and made our way to our camels. Our four camels were a lot healthier looking than the ones in Egypt, but also much moodier. They were all chewing cud, and one actually threw up a little on my friend Tonya. Once they got used to us, we were on our way. Our camel guide took us through date farms, Berber villages, past oases, up and down sand dunes for about an hour and a half. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip. Everyone looked like the magi making their way to Bethlehem- you know, if you believe that story. At one point my camel tripped while going up a dune and nearly bit it, but made a quick recovery. I named him Malthazar. Once our camel trek was over, it was back on the bus for us. We didn't make as many stops, just one long one for lunch at a place with a beautiful view of a Berber village built into the mountainside. We arrived in Marrakech with enough time for a night on the town. At the hotel, we met up with our friends Rachael and Raj and had some drinks at the hotel bar before heading to the square again. The square at night is so much cooler than in the daytime. It is teaming with life- locals, tourists, families, young adults, everyone goes there to grab some food and socialize. We were able to secure a table at one of the rooftop restaurants where the views were amazing but the food was horrible. The lights of Marrakech reflected in the smoke of all the cooking tents below and cast an eerie glow over the square- Marrakech is a truly unique and beautiful city where Arabic, French, Berber and English all mix together to create a multicultural mosaic. After soaking in the square as much as possible, we went back to the hotel for more drinks and then bed.
In the morning, before boarding the bus, we spent about three hours in the suks (open air shops) of Marrakech where we bartered for good prices on souvenirs. Then, in a very courageous, self-actualizing act, Chrissy and I paid to take a picture with two huge water snakes around our necks. But, more impressive than that, we knelt with them around our necks while a huge cobra was being "charmed" about two feet away- I was shaking, but good pictures came of it. On the bus ride back to Casablanca, it was 115 degrees in the desert- the windows on the bus felt like the glass on an oven. We boarded the ship for the last time, said goodbye to Africa, and set sail for the US.
We spent the last 12 days on the ship- in that time, we had an alumni ball, a five course thank you dinner for our professor and assistant dean, lots of sunning, all our work including finals, dance parties, and tons of shitty food and boredom.
This truly has been an adventure of a lifetime, one that I do not take for granted. I hope this is just the beginning of my travel experiences.
