The actual Sahara

I know I titled the last posting the Sahara but in reality we hadn't hit it yet, we were still on the outskirts.

I want to start off by saying yesterday wasn't real. The whole experience seemed out of a movie.

We started our day with breakfast at our hotel. Moroccan crepes are delicious and the breakfast tea is exceptional. We got back into the bus and continued our drive to .Merzouga. We stopped at a gorge that was really very pretty. So many years of wear and tear created this thing and it was crazy to see. Alicia rode a donkey down it for a bit the picture I have on my good camera of her is of pure joy. She loved it.

Alicia and i shared tagine and a salad for lunch. We have become quite obsessed with tagine. We went on a tour of the berber peoples summer village. The berber are the nomadic people of the sahara who typically live in tents but in the hot summer months they return to the villages.

We toured a carpet making facility and had tea with them. We also walked through the town gardens and saw how dates and olives are harvested. Alicia and I both have grown to love olives while over here, and I am starting to eat tomatoes atleast I have been in Moroccan salad.

After our tour we drove to Merzouga which is the town on the border or the Sahara. we crossed into the desert and it was crazy to look and see nothing for miles.

We stopped at a adobe building and organized our bags down to even smaller amounts. I just brought my jacket and a tooth brush plus two large bottles of wate.r in my camera bag. Then we had a bit of tea and wrapped ourselves in scarves and hats and got on our camels.

These creatures are so very strange and riding one is very uncomfortable. Despite that we all got on and start our trek into the desert. The sand was very orange and the views were gorgeous. We rode for an hour until we arrived at a collection of tents that seemed to appear out of no where. We unloaded and were told if we wanted to watch the sunset we should climb up the dune we rode over.

After that I then understood why you would ride a camel. It was tough work and when we made it too the top we were exhausted.

Alicia and I sat up there until far past the sunset and long after everyone else. We looked at the city lights that were far off and talked. It was lovely. The fact that we were on a sand dune in the Sahara still blows my mind.

We walked back in the dark and stopped to go to the bathroom, or I did haha. The Sahara is like one big litter box. Sorry if that is gross but its true. Not ideal to try and go to the bathroom in. I have never been more jealous of guys.

We made it back to the tents just in time for mint tea. The center of the tents had been cover in berber carpets and little tables with candles on them. It was beautiful.

We sat in the dark drinking mint tea by candle and starlight, and then a few men started playing traditional berber music. Everyone in our camp was up dancing and having a great time. I want to remind you that all the light we had was from 6 candlesticks stuck in makeshift candle holders.

We had tagine for dinner and how they made it in the desert I still don't know. When its hot out the Moroccan eat hotter. We drank tea and ate tagine which is Moroccan stew and for some reason it all works. We finished our meal with honeydew melon.

Alicia found another kitten and fell in love again. We then sat on the carpets and looked at the stars.. Everyone started to drift off to bed and Alicia and I decided to sleep outside under the stars which sounds great but turned out to not be such a great idea.

A group of people didn't go to sleep till late and Alicia had an admirer, one of the camel guides, who would not leave her alone. At one point he was singing to her. I tried to see if there was an open tent at this point and either camel boy really couldn't understand my request or he chose not too.

Finally Alicia got rid of him and we went to sleep. They woke us up a 5 this morning and we got ready to leave. I'm still in my clothes from yesterday and after the night train tonight they are going to be fossilized. I woke up covered in sand, sleeping in the tents would have been a great idea, and found a large scarabe beetle under my pillow. That's ok Alicia found a few in her shirt haha so rode our camelss back and had breakfast.

We are back on the bus and are headed back to Marrakesh where alicia and I will take the night train to Tangier and then take the ferry to Tarifa and get the rest of our stuff. From there we will take a bus and a train to Madrid. Another few days of traveling. Whoo hoo love these. Hopefully we can meet up with Elian tomorrow night in Madrid. We are only there for a night as we make our way to San Sebastian.

Well ill post pictures when I get proper internet back. The photos from my phone are nothing compared to what I have on my nikon but they work for showing you all what we are experiencing. All in all Morocco was amazing. Anis and Yassine made our visit to Marrakesh and the tour bus was very 'touristy' but necessary. I am going to miss the scenery, communal eating with your hands, the people from our group, and good chicken tagine.

Definitely glad Alicia planned this for us, and that they let us into the country haha. It was a surreal experience.

Also Alicia and I have developed these interesting accents part english spanish french and arabic. French is one of the primary languages in Morocco so we have heard it a lot. Also while we have these accents our english is becoming very broken because we numb it down to talk with the people we meet but have found ourselves talking with eachother this way as well. It is a problem.

Miss you all
Can't believe we have been gone for about 18 days from washington and about 14 from Canada. Time flies.

Also if you are woindering why Alicia never posts it is because she didn't set her blog up for mobile capabilities and still have to do that from a land computer.
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