Morocco Part 3

8/10

Our riad staff made us breakfast this morning. It was delicious: fresh orange juice, mint tea, coffee, cinnamon croissants, crepes, butter, strawberry, fig and apricot jams, twisty, sweet, flaky pastries, bread, and plain yogurt.

Ahmed, our fantastic riad proprietor, arranged for us to go camel riding today! We had two van taxis pick all sixteen of us up, and they just drove us to the side of the road outside of Marrakesh where there were a bunch of guys with camels by side of the road. They had to bring more camels for our group, so we waited awhile, amusing ourselves (and the camel guys) by taking pictures of the camels, next to the camels, holding the camel’s reigns, petting the camels, doing thumbs up next to the camels… In one of my pictures I’m making a super attractive face because I’m between two camels and one decided just before the picture was about to be taken that it was going to try to kiss me on the cheek. When all the camels were finally assembled, the camel guys had them all sit down and motioned for us to hop on, which I did (first). My camel must have been either very eager to go or very good at reading the camel guy’s body language, because with no verbal cue (so no warning for me), my camel stood up, back legs first, causing me to lurch forward and grip much tighter to the metal bar attached to the camel’s saddle in front of me. Then the camel straightened its back legs, and I had a moment of whiplash where I was suddenly leaning much further back then I meant to be, but once I regained by composure and balance, being on the camel was pretty nice. It was a lot like being on a horse, except we were in the desert in Morocco instead of the trails in Nellie Gail.

The camel guys spoke enough English for us to communicate, and they were nice enough to take lots of pictures with all of our cameras of us riding the camels, high fiving on the camels, petting the camels, looking dramatically off into the distance on the camels…I named my camel Constantine. Not exactly sure why, probably because we had just been to Istanbul and he seemed like a pretty regal guy to me (he didn’t spit once and didn’t smell too bad). My friend was bitten on the butt several times by the camel behind her…and when I heard this news and saw the camel behind me getting dangerously close to my thigh with its face, I started riding with my legs practically around my camel’s neck. This was totally unnecessary…if the camel had wanted to bite me it still could have, although in retrospect it probably does explain my incredibly sore thighs the next day. We rode around for about 45 minutes. The smell of camel is very clear, but it wasn’t that bad, and the camels were nice for the most part (except the butt-biting incident) and sounded like Chewbacca when they made noises. My friend named her camel “Whistles” because it whistled the entire ride and she couldn’t figure out how it did so. At the end of the ride, we were more prepared for the camel’s process of sitting down, but the sudden drop of the camel’s front legs still made my stomach jump a little.

On way back from camels, we asked our driver about lunch. As it was Ramadan and most restaurants were closed during the day, it would have been difficult for us to find a place for lunch on our own. He drove us around to find a place that was open that could accommodate all sixteen of us, which he did. It had peacocks and chickens out front, and the roosters were crowing the whole time so they must have been confused. I had fanta (which I miss miss a lot when I get home…yes I know they have it in the US but it’s not as good), water and pizza, which wasn’t very good, although I think that is the first time I’ve said that this entire trip.

Back to riad…on way back our taxi driver squeezed through a space so small that he actually clipped a person on the hip with the side mirror and it folded in. Naptime.

We decided to go find a store that sold alcohol for tonight’s celebration in the riad. This was not easy. We had to ask several different people, but eventually were taken to this giant grocery store called Marjan. It was basically Costco…they had everything from groceries to clothes to furniture. There was also a full bank and several fast food restaurants (McDonalds) and independent clothing stores “inside” the store but before you passed the checkout counters into the actual store…so it was like a giant store with a small mall inside. While there, we became so excited about all the food that we decided to buy a bunch here and take it home to have a family-style dinner in our riad.

Dinner was eclectic: (not sweet) crepes, cheese, cold cuts, baguettes, rotisserie chicken, Moroccan minced chicken and spices wrapped in thin, flaky pastry dough with a hint of cinnamon and sugar, nutella, and coconut macaroons for dessert.

Post-dinner, we hung out on our rooftop patio, where we could hear the last call to prayer. It was so fun, but it was hard to believe that this was one of the last nights in port of the trip. We went to another friend’s riad, which was way out in the middle of nowhere (or felt that way at least, it was about half an hour outside the city, and the last 10 minutes or so of the ride were on unpaved roads). The drive looked a lot like the drive from Southern California to Vegas desert-wise. It was a great night overall.

Love from Marrakesh,

Ginny

8/11

This morning we went zip-lining in the Atlas Mountains. It was super hot, and we all wore hair nets under our helmets and latex gloves under thick protective gloves…which meant my hands sweat so much that every time I lifted my hands up, sweat would come pouring down my fore arm in rivulets and drip off my elbows onto the ground. First, we crossed a wire and wood slat bridge over a canyon. Several people took a few steps and then turned right back around at this point, although if you were afraid of heights I don’t know why you would have come zip lining. We did 6 different “zips” across gorgeous dessert canyons where you could see Berber villages, and the wind going across felt amazing. One of my friends had his camera out and got some pretty awesome pictures, which should be on facebook soon if they’re not already *cough Eric cough*.  At end, I did another (optional) bridge crossing where part of it was like a tightrope. It was scary but really fun…I felt like I was in Indiana Jones taking a leap of faith over a giant chasm. By end I was starving (I had missed breakfast) and super thirsty. I have no idea how the people working it survive out in the heat without eating or drinking water all day.

We had lunch at the place, which was like a little resort, complete with a pool (when I saw it on my way walking to the little restaurant from the zip lining, I wondered for a split second if I was hallucinating…it seemed like it had to be a mirage). We had an appetizer of cut veggie salad, which was very yummy and refreshing, then chicken tangine with olives, potatoes, and delicious curry sauce, and I had an orange fanta (which tasted like heaven…cold and sugary) and lots of water.

When we got back, I was exhausted, due in part to a lack of sleep the night before, so I took a little nap in the welcome AC of my room in the riad and watched Shakespeare in Love with one of my friends. Some people in the riad went to Pasha, the biggest club in all of Africa, tonight as it was our last night in Marrakesh and the last night on land of the voyage…but I just didn’t have the energy to go out with them, so I stayed in with the rest of my friends and we had a good last night in the riad. Luckily (for me, not them) the actual dance club part of Pasha was closed, so I didn’t miss out on too much, but the whole thing is a complex of bars around the main dance club, and apparently those bars were a total SAS fest. Why am I not surprised?

Love from Marrakesh,

Ginny

8/12

We started this morning with a delicious breakfast in the riad, pretty much the same as the first one. We went shopping in the markets (souks) around the main square, which really tested my bargaining abilities. I’m pleased to report that they improved significantly over the trip…I even bargained exclusively in Spanish with one guy for a drum because he only spoke a few words of English and I don’t speak French or Arabic. The people in the souks were pretty aggressive, they would follow you down the street sometimes if you walked away after bargaining, but I think some in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul were even more so.

We took the 1pm train back to Casablanca (first class this time…AC made a big difference), and arrived there around 4:20. We haggled with the taxi drivers to get a decent price back to the ship, which took longer than usual because there were about 500 SASers getting off the trains trying to go back to the ship today, and they knew we all needed to get back soon. But I got back to the ship around 5, and prepared myself as I stepped onto the gangway for my last step on land of SAS Summer 2011. There may have been a few tears…but I comforted myself knowing that I still had another eight days to spend with my friends on the ship.

Love from Casablanca,

Ginny