Morocco...Part 2

Day number 3 in Morocco was both an excited and very stressful day. It was what seemed to be the longest day of my life. It was a very early wake up once again. We had to be ready and down in the hostel lobby at 6am. Our tour guide for our camel trek was meeting us there. My group was originally supposed to be 32 students. All 32 of us made it Marrakech and to the lobby by that time. After our guide rounded us up, we headed to the vans. When we got there we saw one van. Then the second pulled…then another, followed by 2 more. We were quite confused as to why there were 5 vans when each could hold 16. We had 32, so that would mean 2 vans, right? Yeah, to our surprise, our group grew to 80 SAS kids without us knowing. That, right off the bat, didn’t make my group too happy.

Once all 80 of us got rounded up into the vans, we headed out for our “6 hour” ride to the desert. We stopped at a cool spot in the Atlas Mountains where we could see a bunch of Berber villages built into the sides of the mountains. It reminded me somewhat of Peru. The views from up there were incredible. We then went on our way and stopped about 30 minutes later for “breakfast”. My breakfast consisted of a large can of Pringles and water. So nutritious. Each stop was taking so long already because there are no places in the mountains that accommodate 80+ people at a time. We hopped back into the vans and headed out for another hour or so before we had to take a bathroom stop. That took forever as usual before we were on our way again. We drove for another hour or so before we had to stop at an ATM for all of the people that didn’t have money. That took about 45 minutes just for everyone to get money out. Then we drove for another two hours before some of us started getting really hungry. We finally stopped at a restaurant for lunch. It was very good. It was my first real Moroccan meal. I had fresh cut vegetables, bread, a tangine, and melon for dessert. We also had our first Moroccan orange juice. They have, hands down, the best orange juice in the world. It was so good. I have made fresh orange juice at home, but that doesn’t even compare to their orange juice. From then on, all we got at restaurants was orange juice. That meal made my mood a little bit better since we had already been on the road for about 9 hours by this point on our “6 hour” drive. We got back on the road again after we ate. By this time a lot of us were getting fairly grumpy and irritated that the sun was going down and we were promised that we would be riding camels at sunset. It took us another 3 hours to finally reach the place…hence my “6 hour” ride. It took us at least 12 hours.

Once we finally got there I was a bit happier. I was definitely tired, but I was ready to finally get to our camel trek. We made it out to our camels…all 80 of them…and started getting on. Janhavi, Annie, Gina, Jon, and I were all together. My camel was named Moose. Besides really liking my camel, I don’t ever want to ride one again. He was very nice, but I have never been in that much pain. They are the most uncomfortable things to sit on. It would have been fine, but it took us a little under 2 hours to get to our campsite. I was in so much pain by the time we got there that I could barely move my legs to walk once we got off. It ended up being worth it in the end though. When we got to the camp, we staked out our tents. Then the Berbers served us amazing mint tea. It was the best tea I have ever had. After everyone made it to the camp, they served us dinner. It was delicious. It was the same type of dishes that we had for lunch, but different variety. After we all ate, they cleared all the tables and chairs out and the Berbers started playing their drums. A bunch of SAS kids joined in and danced around for the rest of the night under the stars. It was awesome.

I ended up crashing earlier than most that night. I was exhausted and we had to be up by 6am to ride back to the vans. In the middle of the night, however, I was woken up by water and sand hitting my face. It was pouring rain outside. Yeah, we were in the middle of the Sahara Desert and it is pouring on us. I was already gross enough that I didn’t care and just went back to sleep. Waking up the next morning was amazing. We woke up before the sunrise so we were able to get our stuff ready to go before. After I was ready to go, I just walked around taking some really cool pictures. The sunrise in the desert was awesome…coming up over the sand dunes. We then headed back to the vans. We were the first group back and had first dibs on breakfast. They had all sorts of breads and cereals and all the orange juice you could drink. We each had a few glasses.

After we ate breakfast we split into our vans to go back. A few of us had asked our guide if they would be able to take us straight back to Casablanca instead of Marrakech though, because it was closer than Marrakech. They said no problem, but that it would cost a bit more. We agreed because it would have cost us just as much to get a train or taxi back from Marrakech. They told us it would take us 8 hours to get back. Needless to say, we had the same problems trying to get back as we did getting to the camel trek. The guide lied to us and told us that we would be going a shorter way back, but we ended up going through Marrakech anyways. I don’t have many good things to say about the tour company, but it was still a fun trip. We didn’t make it back to our ship until 1am that night after leaving at 10am. That’s 15 hours. So much for that 8 hour ride. We only had 32 this time compared to the 80 before and it still took us 7 hours longer than they told us. Oh well, we made it back and that’s all that matters.

The next two days I took a lot lighter. The 5th day I slept in. Then after lunch I went with Jess and Gina to a hotel right outside the port gate to get free WIFI. I spent a few hours catching up on uploading pictures and whatnot. I got everything uploaded through Spain. I will try and get Morocco up my last day in Ghana. Then on the last day, I went with a few people back to the markets. We spent most of the day walking around trying to find any last minute items we wanted to buy. After the markets, Kelsey, Karli and I went to the Hassan II Mosque. It is the 2nd largest in the world. We didn’t go with enough time to go in, but we got to take a tour around the outside. It was so cool to walk around.

Well I am arriving in Ghana in less than 6 hours right now. I can’t wait. I just got done with 7 straight days of classes, so I am ready for a break for a few days. I have a lot of exciting things planned for Ghana. I can’t to see how it goes. Hope everything is good back home and I will be back in 5 days!