My week in Morocco was a blast. We left Dakar, Senegal in an early a.m. flight (6h30) so I only got two hours of sleep that night. Anne-Marie and I departed from the rest of the gang at Casablanca airport and took a modern train into town with our huge suitcases. Indeed, we had to put them into storage for a week and this ended up being a lot more difficult than I would have imagined (probably because of 9-11). The airport said to store the luggage at the trainstation; the trainstation said the bus station; so we ended up going to the bus station under pouring rain.
(Image right: me in my djellabah)
This sucks because they put one of my suitcases on the taxi's rooftop when it was raining cats and dogs. Consequently, one week later when I unpacked my luggage, I had the disappointment of having ruined clothes (includ
ing souvenirs) because of mold :(
From the bus station, we headed to Marrakech, a city reknowned for tourism in central Morocco from which point we could go to Ourzazate which is the gateway to the desert. After a five hour cold and wet bus ride, Marrakech welcomed us with more cold drizzle and a lot of people wanting to sell us Everything. Coming from Senegal, I didn't have sufficient warm clothing so I ended up buying what everyone else was wearing: a djellabah. There are djell
abahs made for women and others for men; since the male ones are warmer, that's what I bought. Turns out this really excited men since for the rest of the week, whenever I'd wear it, all sorts of men would turn to me and say: "Djellabah, Djellabah!!". Clearly, most tourists don't buy djellabahs as a souvenir...its a local thing!
(Image right: in the market at Taroudant. The mounds are spices - paprika, cumin, tumeric, etc.)
The weather being worse than usual, the road between Marrakesh and
Ourzazate was snowed in and closed. Thus, we had to make a huge detour and pass south through Touradent to get to Ourzazate, tripling the distance and time of the journey. Thus, at 11 p.m., we borded a night bus towards Taroudant. We figured that we might as well get the transiting part over with as quickly and directly as possible, even though we were dead tired, cold and in need of a shower.
(Image left: if you like orange juice, you HAVE to go to Morocco! I've never tasted any juice as good as this! And they had it everywhere. Cost: 50 to 75 cents).
Taroudant was a nice little city to visit. It is entirely fortified and this gives it charm. The weather had completely cleared up and it was sunny with blue skies. Since it was really early, we went to the farmer's market and saw mountains of spices,
vegetables, fruit, dates, etc. and animals (goats, cows, donkeys) being sold. The wealth in food was drastic after having come from Senegal.
(Image right: dates in the market. Who knew there could be so many varieties??? We did a sampling of one of each. Its crazy how each type is different from the next.)
Temperature wise, it was significantly colder than in Senegal, but with my newly acquired djellabah, tuque and mittens, things were tolerable. We took a horse carriage ride back to the interior of the city from which
point we rented bicycles to further visit. It felt really good to stretch the legs. Since my last shower had been in Dakar, and Morocco is known for hammams, we decided to try one out. This was a first for both of us.
(Image left: bicycling in Taroudant. It is a fortified city. Notice the lady to my far right wearing a female dejallabah...)
Hammams are traditional public wash houses that are still popular today among the local folk. Seeing as how most dwellings don't have running hot water (and i
ts *really* cold to wash with unheated water), their existence makes total sense. Each hammam has a male and female section. There are varying degrees of comfort, but in a basic traditional hammam, you are given a pale, a little stool or mat and a cup to splash water on to your body. You wash yourself with olive oil soap (which has a similar texture as vasoline) and a hammam mitten (rugged material to remove dead skin). Everybody is set up in a warm sauna-like room and is butt naked.
(Image right: sorry guys, I didn't take any
pictures inside the hammam. Here is one of me wringing out our wet clothes we wore inside the hammam while waiting for our next bus)
Getting naked in a room full of naked ladies was not my cup of tea, so I wore my underwear and a camisole.
Towards the end of the afternoon, we took the bus to our final destination: Ourzazate. We were so ti
red! Got there at 10h30 pm and had somebody my friend Annie had plugged me with come get us and bring us to a cheap hotel. The next day, we went to Desert Dreams travel agency to negotiate our trip to the desert. For about 300$ each, we got a 2-night, 3-day private inclusive excursion to mountains and desert in our own 4x4 with guide (name: Alli).
We started our tour in the High Atlas Mountains, in the 
We saw so much beautiful scenery that day…hundreds of photos that just
don’t do justice to the natural beauty. In the afternoon, we had the pleasure of visiting a nomad family that lives in caves in the mountains. These families consist of several generations which live in a series of caves, one built next to the other. The men are herders, the women are homemakers and the kids don’t go to school. On their spare time, they make carpets – indeed, they don’t have electricity (tv).
(Image right: nomade caves in the mountains with our 4x4 Land Cruiser at the top)
I’m unsure what the official name is but if I had to chose
the most beautiful and unique mountains I saw, it would be the informally named : monkey finger mountains. A picturesque village on a clean and swift little river facing the breath taking façade of mountains. Wow. After eating a delicious lunch while looking at the amazing scenery, we headed out with a guide into paradise for a hike.
After this amazing day in the mountains, we stopped in another range of mountains where we h
ad supper and went to bed, utterly pooped. The food on our tour was delicious. We ate many tagines which are the traditional meal in Morocco. After our much needed sleep, we woke up and confronted the imposing and gorgeous mountains we were in. We quickly visited the nearby gorges de Toudra after breakfast (which always includes amazing coffee).
(Image left: Alli (our guide), me and Anne-Marie about to feast on a delicious tagine followed by Moroccan tea)
It was amazing to wake up surrounded by mountains so high and close that you have to cock your head upwards to fully capture their omnipresence. My photos of the gorges don't do them justice AT ALL so I won't post any...
Being in the car was a lot of fun since we got to listen to arab music which put us in the mood and made us really feel in another land. They have some good beats!
On the second day of our tour, we headed to the desert. Merzouga, Erg Chebbi to be exact. On the way there, Alli invited us to have tea with his family in Rissini. Alli's mom serving tea in image to the right.
(Image left: having lunch in the desert with the Erg Chebbi dunes in the background. Not a bad life!)
After lunch, we headed to the dunes on camels. What an adventure! My camel was the youngest one and gave me quite a bumpy ride. The first camel (which is the one I took coming back) was like a cadillac. Camels are huge animals and it was very amusing to get on and off their backs. I'm not sure if its the way they were trained, but I get the impression they are not very fast animals. We advanced at walking pace only.
I have so many amazing photos to show. Ahhh!!!
As you can imagine, the sunset was breath taking. With the bit of light remaining from our awesome day, we headed back to our camp on our camels' backs.
We had our guide plus five other male staff take care of us that night. They made us another sumptuous dinner and then put on a tamtam show for us. We felt like queens. That night, we slept in a bedouine tent, safe and sound. Being two girls in the desert, it did feel a little odd being accompanied by six men. But, Maroccan society is basically only men since the women stay at home. So, we were used
to only seeing men on the streets or outdoors. Unfortunately, the men are generally butt ugly. The woman aren't far away from that either.
*Please note however: there are exceptions and these are my personal opinions.*
(Image right: bedouine tent in which we slept)
After a fine night's sleep, we headed out of the desert and made it back to civilization. In the morning of day #3, we visited the ancient royal palace. I didn't like visiting historical buildings in Morocco that much because they didn't have good explanations (written) nor good guides. For
example, our guide for this palace only spoke arabic so we couldn't understand him. He really entertained us though because he was quite old (late 70s) and WAY energetic. His smile kick-started our fantastic day of tourism.
On our way back to Ourzazate, we passed through the Draa Valley which was, once again, breathtaking. On day three of our journey, we had done lots of talking with Alli and had juicy and +++ interesting conversations with him towards the end. It was nice to have an arab man be so open about his beliefs and desires.
We got to Ourzazate in the evening and once again, slept like babies. The next day was...boo hoo...my birthday. I hate turning old :(
We spent it relaxing in Ourzazate. We went to the market (aka: sook) and bought some souvenirs. Since it was my birthday, and Phil says that on your birthday, you never accumulate calories, I ate everything that caught my eye! This means I ate lots of delicious pastries (for some reason, their mille-feuilles are remarkable and cheap!) and OJ. Towards the end of the afternoon, we went to the road station to take a collective taxi
to Marrakech. We took the road which goes through mountains which had previously been closed. It was a hell of a road - serpentine and steep. Our driver was rather sporty and the vehicle went marvelously well despite being a 1983 Mercedes with 711000 kms on it!
After finding our hotel in Marrekech, we visited the reknowned Place Djemaa el Fna in the city`s Medina. There, we had a majestic gastronomic experience that was very affordable.
(Ima
ge left: eating our entrees - snails (30 cents per bowl). Yum!)
Although I couldn't find a drink to further celebrate my birthday, I still enjoyed myself that night. After all the traveling and intense tourism, we ended up going to bed relatively early. I guess that's what age does to you!
We spent Friday visiting Marrakech. It is a historically rich city - grand sooks, royalty, fortified central portion, architecture, etc. It was while shopping in this city that we realized that we may have gotten screwed on the traditional rugs we had bought + that all the merchants are
out to screw tourists. Nonetheless, we bought nice souvenirs (even though we may have over-payed).
(Image left: the streets of Marrakech by daylight)
After doing a little shopping, we treated ourselves to our second hammam - this time in a more tourist-oriented one. There were much fewer people and a lady came and scrubbed our naked bodies. Everything was super hygienic.
I can't say I like being naked in a novel place with a stranger and Anne-Marie (no offence AM!). It was a very relaxing experience despite not knowing exactly what to expect.
(Image right: Morocco has beautiful pottery. I wish I could have brought some back - but its just not something that they can make "lightweight")
We continued our last day in Morocco visiting the El Bahia Royal Palace. I found it somewhat disappointing in that it didn't have explanations. It was pretty much just eye candy everywhere: mosaic and paintings on the ceilings, floors and walls.
There were plenty of tourists though! Apparently, a part of it is blocked off because the royal family still uses it.
(Images left and right: Royal Palace)
During our last evening, we finished buying our souvenirs. This was quite tiring because negociating with Moroccans is a lengthy and intensive process. We really had to budget well since we had yet some traveling to do but didn't want to end our trip with a bunch of dirhams extra.
(Image left: me buying delicious olives on our last night. Since I was talking it up with the vendor, he offered me Moroccan tea - which you can see him tending to me in the pic)
Back at the crummy hotel after all our adventures, we slept our last sleep in Africa :(
We woke up at 6 am to catch the 7 am train for Casablanca (3 hour ride). From the train station, we had to go to the bus station to retrieve our gigantic luggage. We were on a schedule. Anne-Marie miscalculated the time and I lost track of it. Consequently, we made it back to the train station after having got our huge suitcases just in time to see the stupid train on the other side of the tracks - I had unfortunately forgotten one of my favorite souvenirs, a lampshade, at the storage unit. Frantically looking for how to get across the bloody tracks over to our train (with 2 big suitcases, a big backpack and a purse each) we saw it leave the station before our eyes - even though an employee had yelled over to the conductor, asking him to wait. We then looked at each other in the eyes with the "oh shit" look and despair. We couldn't wait for the next train or we'd definitely miss our flight. Our train tickets were already bought and we had barely any money left. In the end, we didn't have a choice: we had to make another cash withdrawal and take a taxi all the way out to the airport. It was expensive (according to African standards) but at least we were able to swing by the storage place and pick up my lampshade :)
Once at the airport, we got dumped at the wrong terminal. Couldn't find our stupid terminal which was a 10 minute shuttle ride away. We actually ended up running on the streets with all our luggage trying to find the damned shuttle or terminal. Upon finally convincing the shuttle man to leave promptly and arriving at the terminal, we rushed to transfer our crap and repack our bags so that we wouldn't have to pay an extra weight fee. They rushed us through all the lines and we pretty much boarded the plane directly. What a stressful morning! I've never come so close to missing a flight in my life!
In the plane, I knew it was the end of the end. I have to say, I was sad to go home. Sure I was anxious to see everybody (especially Phil!) but overall, I was a very happy girl in Africa. I'm so glad I went to Morocco because it made the ending less abrubt (and it was a magestic country to visit!). The transition through Morocco (and St-Louis) enabled me to get my mind off having left Ziguinchor and also let my body slowly get used to the colder climit. Arriving in Montreal in -15 C weather was a rude awakening. Phil and his parents picked me up with balloons and we had a happy Valentines together.
Regarding the disturbing cold, I don't want to bicker here (because I truely could go on for hours about this), but suffice to say, I can't understand why we chose to live in such an unpleasant, cold, ugly and painful country. It just doesn't make any sense to me...I don't belong!
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I had huge culture shocks when re-integrating myself into our society. I still get them sometimes. Especially in grocery stores or huge stores. We had 2 weeks of re-integration sessions through Montmorency International. They were very well organized and useful. I will eventually be getting a job but I haven't started looking yet. From what I've smelled, it won't be difficult to find one. I just don't know exactly what I want my career to look like yet. So right now, I'm just taking my time to land and reflect. I will be moving to an apartment in the northern end of Montreal with Phil this weekend. Slowly, normal life will start again.
I still need some thinking to do, but I know this trip was a monumental experience in my life. I've changed. Whether you'll see it in me or not, I don't know. Such an experience changes one's perceptions. I understand a lot more about the world and the different people that make it. My values and priorities have likely been influenced by a society I had the great pleasure of getting to know. I can't say that this place is better than that place; the differences are so great that its hard to fairly compare. There are things to learn everywhere you go. The more you explore, share and open yourself to others' beliefs, the more you can learn and grow. It's nice to be able to take trips and visit but I much prefer living somewhere and getting to know the culture as much as I possibly can. If I could have stayed longer, I likely would have. So many things to learn, so much to discover. Life is too short to just stay put in one place. Thus I would be honored to get the chance to discover other societies in this lifetime. Inchallah.
This chapter of my life has literally been a dream come true.
Thank you to all those who helped me attain it in one way or another.
The end.
