soooo we got up in the morning, had some breakfast and then we were on our way again! we drove down to the dades gorge and saw that and then began our journey to the desert! we stopped for lunch at a roadside place and i had spaghetti (i know, not very moroccan but i just needed SOMETHING that didnt tase like cumin ha) and after we were on our way again. mind you our guide-ismael, was starting to kind of creep us out haha not a lottt but just sometimes he was kinda weird and he asked me if he could have my email, i said yes of course, but in the end he never received it :) ahmed-our driver-was quiet as always :)
we then went to a town close to the desert and met our coordinator's brother and of course had a cup of tea (mind you this stuff is sweet and they drink it 24/7--aka everyone has terrible teeth--its sad) and then he came with us to the desert hotel. he also brought along our scarfs/head wraps that we wore when we rode the camels into the desert so that we really felt like berber women in the desert ha, see fb for pictures, so we dropped our stuff off at the hotel and then promptly hopped on some camels and rode off away from the sunset into the vast desert area, with mom and i and ismael and our guide in the desert who's name i can not remember right now, oh wellll--we expected that there would be other people at the camp when we arrived---but no, just the 4 of us....
by the time we arrived to the campsite it was pitch black because the moon hadnt made its way out but the sun was long gone so they lit some candles in one of the huts and our guide and ismael made dinner---we ate by candlelight and the food was pretty good, cumin flavored of course, and mandarin oranges for dessert, as with every other meal. then they played some drums and other instruments for us and then we went out onto the dunes because all the stars and the moon had finally come out! it was beautiful! hard to describe but just silence all around you for miles and a ton of sand ha, then we rolled down one of the bigger dunes which was pretty fun, got sand EVERYWHERE--but that's to be expected in the middle of the desert right?
then things got slightly uncomfortable with the guys soooooooo mom and i made a quick escape and said we were just plum pooped and we wanted to go to sleep--worked like a charm and we headed to our private sleeping tent that is big enough for probably 20 people haha...we had so many blankets that i could hardly move once i got under them cuz it was pretttty chilly out there once the sun went down--anyway we fell asleep and woke right before sunrise to watch the sun come back to life---only to find mom sleeping in the sand hahahah she had somehow moved her whole body, thinking the bed was up a lot further than it actually was, and ended up sleeping with her head in the sand--she woke up and said "ughhsuhdeiu i have sand in my mouth.." and i looked up and said "well that's probably because you're sleeping in the sand..." hahahahah god it was funny---so we got up and watched the sunrise, of course had yet another cup of tea (which i threw in the sand) and then hopped back on the camels and made our way back to the hotel...
we had breakfast (which i think this is the breakfast that caused some minor stomach problems for me for the next couple days..ugh) and then headed to a small village close by and listened to the people there play some really great music--i bought a CD, only to realize that i do not have a CD drive on my small computer that i brought with me--so mom took it home..im not sure if there's any way that she could send the music to me but oh well--ill get it eventually ha
then we dropped off the coordinators brother back in his hometown and made our way back to one of the town we previously passed through where the oscar studio is which was where we would be staying for the last night of the trip which happened to be Christmas Eve. we arrived and went to a store and bought some things and then to a spices and lotion store and also bought some things--then we finally got to our riad--which was of course the nicest one (save the best for last) and then we had a wonderful christmas eve dinner (although i couldnt eat most of eat because of the previously mentioned stomach problems) then mom and i decided to play some cards, only to find out that all of the wait staff at the hotel wanted to join us haha they didnt really know how to play much of anything except rummy--but they played with two decks and it was slightly different than our normal rummy ha, but we played anyway! finally it was time for bed-after all we had slept in the desert the night before and didnt get the best night's sleep of our lives ha
then we woke up, had breakfast, and then left to go to the oscar studios and take a short tour which was really cool! so many movies and so much time just for a couple minutes of filming, crazy! then we left and went to an old kazbah which is like a series of buildings all together to form one group of homes and places to work for a small group of people---we climbed to the top and then we went back down and had lunch at a hotel across from the kazbah--then we set off on our journey back to merrekech which took a while because we took a back way through the mountains--but it was beautiful! we made it back to our first riad in the afternoon and my stomach just wasnt cooperating so we layed in bed and slept for a couple hours, mom convinced me to go out to the square for a little bit just to get moving and that was an interesting site ha
the square was packed with locals and tourists alike, storytellers had groups of people surrounding them and if you took pictures of anything you were expected to pay somebody some amount of money--it was crazy! people were selling cigarettes and lighters and who knows what else--after about 20 minutes the crowds and food that did NOT look appetizing got to me and i needed to head back to the riad and get some sleep...there was a large group of people from france that we were sharing the riad with--they had almost every other room and then there was us haha--so we made friends and planned to see them tomorrow and go to a Hamam--public bath house (just the women of course)
so we went to bed and then got up and had some breakfast and then went to an old mosque with tombs of people (honestly im not 100% sure who they were, ill have to ask mom ha) and then we went to the square to look for the souks (sp?) and ended up walking around the square for a little bit--they had snakes (I HATE SNAKES) and mom held one (crazy) and then we both got henna tattoos (supposed to last for a month and mine is almost all gone already, oh well) then we walked around and stumbled right into the backstreets filled with souks--all the little shops that sold everything fomr shoes to huge rugs to spices, it was really cool! finally after walking for a bit and buying presents and just seeing what it was all about, we made our way back to our riad and met up with the french ladies in order to go to the bath house
now..the bath house...hmm haha it was an experience that i will never forget that's for sure. we walked in and from the outside it looks just like someone's apartment, but you move the sheet that is considered a door and find women of all shapes, sizes, and ages there to bathe. we payed and put our stuff in a cubby and then we were lead in by a veryyy old woman haha we brought soap and a scrubby thing and then in turn we each received a full body scrub down hahaha i think she took off more than just the dead skin buttt who really knows haha, it was really steamy and warm in there and after about 45 minutes mom and i needed to get out of there and get something to drink, so we left and went back to the riad--then mom had requested a massage so the lady arrived pretty soon after we got back to the riad and we each got massages for about 45 minutes--all in all we had a very pampered afternoon :) then we had dinner which was good (still had stomach problems so i couldnt eat how i really wanted :( ) and then it was time for bed because our flight was at 8 or something
we arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare and then we boarded the plane (had no trouble with bags this time, of course...in fact they didnt even make us take out our liquids to go through security ha) and headed towards barcelona!!
tbc....
