Morocco Le Magnifiquè

What can I say about Morocco? Well, in little time it has blown my mind and touched my heart in a big big way. What a wonderful start to our Grande Journey. Right now we are in Central Morocco in a smal city called Ouarzazate and we have just said Goodye to our friend and guide Ishmael. I had to fight back the tears. In three days with Ishmael we have seen and experienced so much. To me he represents the heart and soul of the Sahara. He has invited us to stay with him in his village in the future and I would love nothing more then to take him up on the offer. Ensha'llaah(God Willing).

We spent three days in Marrakesh and it took three days to get used to the rythm of things(frenetic). Then it was time to move on. I think I may have enjoyed Marrakesh more then Vic did as it is dificult to relax there, but we both agree it is a fascinating place. Unfortunatly it it very touristy (Très Touristiquè as they say here) which means everyone in the old part of the city (the Medina) is after your money and will go to great and sneaky lengths to get it. Our final day in Marrakesh ended in a very public argument over money at our dinner in the main square(Djemaa El Fina), over the bill as they quite sneakily tried to charge us double the real price. But I was having none of it and wasnt afraid to cause a scene until the price was lowered to something fair. The problem is that most people dont do this and so it keeps happening. I supose this was a Marakesh experience in its own right, but we have learned that the main tourist areas mean "Watch out!"(as a child said to us as we walked into the leather tannery that tried to scam us). If we had more time we probably would enjoy the place more, having figured out the common scams and finding our way around. Also, being Ramadan here the Moroccan people do not eat during the day or drink any alcohol. With the extreme heat this creates a bit of a sullen and quieter then normal atmosphere in many places. But there are less tourists which we see as a big plus, and it gives us unique insight into Moroccan life and culture. (I cant imagine the dificulty of no water during the hottest hours of the day and we cant help but feel guilty chugging water everywhere we go, but we do try to be as considerate as possible).

We left Marrakesh and took a 4 hour journey by bus to Ouarzazate. One of our taxi drivers descibed it as the front door to the desert - by Moroccan standards the town itself is a somewhat uninspiring front door, but the scenery along the way gave me tingles down my spine as our mouths hung open the whole way. We came here simply to book a tour to the Sahara. Its always been a dream of mine to ride a camel through the desert. We would have preferred to travel straight to the Sahara and book with a local, but as our time here is limited we went to a city to book a package tour. We ended up with a relatively expensive one, and werent sure we did the right thing, but it didnt take long before we forgot all about the price. Unfortunately I had to settle for just one day and one nite in the desert and only about 2 hours on a camel(actually called a dromiderè as it only had one hump). But it was a dream come true nonetheless. The entire journey added up to an ultimate experience and we wouldnt have traded it for anything. We travelled with 3 friends from Belgium, who spoke basic English (better then our French) so the communication was a challenge, but a fun one. Our guide spoke fairly basic English as well so we considered it a Desert School in many respects. Im now thinking in broken french and using french vocab fearlessly and as often as I know how. If only I hadnt cut so many high school French classes! But Vic and I make a decent team as his vocab is better then mine and my accent better then his. We can usually get our point across: )

Update Oct. 2nd:

We took a bus from Ouarzazate to Agadir on the coast. Being Ramadan, the buses are running less frequently, so we got stuck on a relatively crappy bus that took far longer then the usual bus we would have taken. We left at 7:30 and stopped at every little village along the way - we arrived at 3:30am at a station outside of town. Assuming we were actually in the city of Agadir we couldnt figure out why the taxi drivers were trying to chage us 300 dirams when we were expecting to pay 20 but after alot of arguing and laughing at them, someone who spoke a bit of English explained where we were and said he could take us for (50 dirams-about 6 dollars) Good enough! We followed him a ways to what turned out to be his friends taxi that required 3 men to push into the road to get it started. The car was dodgy to say the least, but in the end we made it to the hotel we selected from our guide book and the friendly "friend" rode with us and chatted away to us in his best broken English. Ah Morocco - its never a dull moment around here.

We slept in a great room in Agadir that had lovely friendly staff, but packed up and headed straight to the bus station in the morning, not even stopping to see the beach. Agadir is Moroccos largest resort town and from what little we saw, we werent bothered about leaving. We took a 3 hour journey north to Essoaira where our intention was to spend only one nite and then head further north to a small little coastal town with a pretty lagoon beach for some proper R and R. It only took the walk through the medina in Essoaira in search of a room to start rethinking out schedule. Once inside the fantastic guesthouse we found, we were sure we would stay more then one nite.

Essoaira is a touristy beach side town but it is the low season here so the atmosphere is especially chilled. The tourism has not ruined the atmosphere - in many ways its added to it (although Im sure Id sing a different tune mid summer where you have to fight your way through the throngs of people). Even the usually aggressive and annoying touts are friendly and polite. Everyone says "hello" and "nice to meet you" and they really seem to mean it! Dread locks and bongo drums abound and street vendors sell pot cookies amongst the usual bakery fare. We are staying in a Riad(guesthouse) in the heart of the medina that is run by a young Moroccan Aussie guy named Taz. He is nice as can be and everyone staying there feels like old friends. We all have breakfast together and have the choice of eating out at many fantastice local places or eating in with Taz and fellow guests where the Moroccan staff prepare some of the best Moroccan food we have had. We are stretching the budget farther then we probably should here, but we dont want to think about it. I think I would move in and earn my keep by washing floors if I could!

We will(probqbly) leave here on Thursday for Fès and then Chefchaoun for a few days each. Enshallah(god willing).

More photos and updates to come. Stay tuned.

Love and Lotusflowers,
Janice xoxoxox