The next morning, Hajar and I got up so we could walk out to the dunes and take pictures of the sunrise. Now, I'm typically NOT a sunrise person, I prefer sunsets. A. I'm not a morning person, B. there's the risk that you drag yourself out of bed, get all awake and then it's a boring sky, or overcast or something.. so I typically go with sunsets. But when it's what I've got, heck yeah I'll get up and do it! So we waited. It got lighter. There weren't any colors. There wasn't a sun. We were very, very confused. Eventually we realized that what we had thought was the moon... was actually the sun. What the heck?
Sun posing as the moon
After breakfast, we got back into the car with Hassan and Hassan to start our day's journey to Ouarzazate.
A few minutes down the road, tour guide Hassan told us that children in the area like to catch desert foxes to play with and show to tourists. Learning my lesson after the monkeys, I believed him this time. Sure enough, a few minutes later we pulled over on the side of the road to see a group of children and a fox. They handed it to me through the window and Hajar took a few pictures. After handing it to Hajar and taking a couple more pictures, it started freaking out and scratched her. We gave it back to the kids and got out of the car to take the rest of the pictures. Once we paid the kids and got back in the car to leave, Hajar told me that Hassan had asked if she was bleeding, and said if she was we would have to go to the hospital! Thankfully she wasn't.
Desert fox
This is a good time (since I'm still alive and healthy) to take a minute to laugh at something. Before leaving for Morocco, I went to the doctor to get any needed immunizations. The nurse asked if I would be interacting with any animals. I said no, so she said "ok great, just avoid any you see then." But here we are, I've petted Hajar's dog, ridden a camel, and held a wild desert fox just a few days in... Whoops.
A little farther down the road, we stopped to hear a concert by Groupe des Bambaras in the village of Khamlia. We walked into a big room and were poured some.. you guessed it... Moroccan mint tea, and the concert began:
So cool. I couldn't believe this performance was going on just for Hajar and me! They invited us to dance with them for a bit of it.
Groupe des Bambaras
Playing heavy iron castanets, "qraqab" or "krakebs"
Dancing with members of Groupe des Bambaras
After 10-15 awesome minutes of listening to the performance, the (obnoxious) American father/daughter duo from the night before came in. Even though the music was loud, we could hear them over it. A few minutes later, Hajar and I purchased a few of the group's CDs and got back in the car.
Shepherds and their flocks
Camel crossing sign
A little later, we dropped driver Hassan off; he had come with us to get a ride to a town outside of Merzouga to visit family. Our next stop was at a little fossil museum/store. We looked around for about ten minutes and I bought a long green stone necklace for my mom there. After that, we stopped at Musee des Sources de Lalla Mimouna where we were taken on a tour by the curator, Mr. Zaid. Ziad had built the museum around an abandoned natural spring and focused the museum on Berber agriculture and culture, displaying tools, clothing and jewelry of the group.
"Agriculture" in Arabic and French
Natural spring bubbling
Natural spring in Musee des Sources de Lalla Mimouna
Arabic alphabet
Musee des Sources de Lalla Mimouna curtor, Mr. Zaid
Musee des Sources de Lalla Mimouna
Water clock: the smaller bowl fills/empties every six minutes, the fronds help track of each six minutes
We spent around an hour at the museum, then got back on the road. We grabbed a quick lunch with Hassan in a little restaurant along the way, having Moroccan mint tea, a tajine and some other great food.
Restaurant
Tajine
As usual, we stopped a couple of times to take pictures. Gorgeous! On one of the stops, we saw another group of children selling camels made from palm leaves. This time, one of the children came up while I was taking pictures and put the camel he had made in my hand. I tried to tell him I didn't want it, so did Hajar, but he insisted it was a "gift." Clever kid.. guilt trip! We kept telling him no, but he refused to take it back. He never would take it back, so we got in the car with it and left.
On our way to the gorges, we drove through a village to take pictures with what Hassan called monkey fingers in the Dades Gorge. I tried to take pictures of the surroundings and people as we drove by, and Hassan told us that sometimes the people throw rocks at cars if they see a camera! He seemed to think it was funny so would just drive by them quickly and let us take pictures.
Dades Gorge's Monkey Fingers
Dades Gorge's Monkey Fingers: Hassan and me
From there, we went to the Todgha Gorge and Hassan let us out so we could walk through it.
Vendor selling in the Todgha Gorge
Donkey taking a break in the gorge
By the time it was dark, we reached the Valley of Roses, and then finally our destination, the gateway to the desert: Ouarzazate. Wonder what that town name sounds like? Basically: "Where's this at." Our destination for the night was Kasbah Riad Bouchedor and as usual, we had a wonderful and filling dinner.
The itinerary for today in an email from Hassan:
Day 2: Merzouga-Rissani-Todra Gorges-Dades Gorges. Wake up for sunrise lovely pictures, and breakfast in open air. We return by camels to the hotel for shower. Then, we depart to Erfoud which is known by fossils' preparation. Drive through palm trees groves. We stop for lunch, then we take a short walk in Todra Gorges. We head our stopping point Boumalne de Dades. Dinner and overnight in the hotel.
The next morning we woke up, grabbed some breakfast downstairs (pastries, and wonderfully fresh fruit galore) and then grabbed our bags for our trip out of the Medina. A man met us at the entrance of the riad with a wheelbarrow, loaded our suitcases and then we were off, back through the maze to get to the outside streets. Here's a short video of what that looked like:
The man with the wheelbarrow led us out of the Medina to the street to meet our guide for our cross-country tour, Hassan. When we met Hassan, he was wearing a bright blue floor-length robe and small black turban. We climbed into his Land Cruiser Prado where we met his friend, also named Hassan, who would drive us on our six-hour journey to Merzouga and the Sahara Desert (!!!). As we drove out of Fes, tour guide Hassan pointed out "the American Embassy"... McDonalds! Haha. He also pointed out a large tower/antenna in the city that was disguised as a palm tree.
We stopped and looked at a lake, Daït Aoua, maybe forty minutes outside of Fes.
Daït Aoua
About an hour outside of Fes, we stopped for a few minutes in Ifrane, a ski town in the middle Atlas Mountain region. We took a few pictures of a stone lion that is somewhat of a landmark for Ifrane, sitting outside of the Hotel Chamonix. There are multiple stories about when the lion was carved and why, but it dates back to sometime in the early 30s.
Lion outside of Hotel Chamonix
As we climbed back into the car and left, Hassan pointed out the steeply angled roofs of the buildings that prevent snow from accumulating.
Buildings in Ifrane
As we continued on, the scenery around us became a forest and Hassan started talking about monkeys that lived there and how maybe we would see them. I kind of ignored this, thinking he was joking or if not, that it would be a rare, VERY unlikely sighting. A few minutes later, we stopped in a small clearing with a little booth selling touristy items and a man with a very decorated horse, I suppose offering rides. And... there were monkeys! In the forest!
Only shot of the horse, cropped from a picture of monkeys
I still can't get over it. What the heck were monkeys doing in a cedar forest in the middle of Morocco? My mind was blown and all I kept saying was, "HAJAR! There are MONKEYS! ...In the FOREST," on ultra repeat.
Oh my. All the monkey stories. There were monkeys with a baby, so that was awesome. They carried it around with them.. which I guess makes sense.. what else would they do? One of the monkeys climbed up and sat on the roof of our car. Hassan went over to the booth nearby and came back with a bag of peanuts to feed to them. I guess because I'm used to horses, I expected them to stick their face in his hand to pick up the peanuts, but being the civilized monkeys they were, they politely picked them up with their own hands and proceeded to eat. Then there was a monkey with an orange.. because who DOESN'T like Morocco's incredible oranges? One of the monkeys looked up at me and tugged on my pant leg while I held the peanuts. At one point I guess the monkeys thought that a dog hanging around us was going to take their peanuts, so they got angry and sent the dog running for his life. And then there was the monkey that snatched Hassan's bag of peanuts right out of Hajar's hand!
Monkeys. In a forest. What? Now please excuse me while I go on a monkey picture binge:
Monkey family
Monkey on our car
Hassan handing peanuts to civilized monkey
Me feeding momma monkey, note: baby hanging below (!!)
Monkey eating orange
Thief monkey who stole the peanut bag
Me (my face the entire time) and Hajar feeding peanuts to monkeys
Showdown with the dog
Sadly, we couldn't stay with the monkeys forever, so after maybe 15 minutes of extreme happiness, I reluctantly climbed back into the car and we continued on. We stopped for lunch in Midelt and shared a delicious tajine of chicken and orange, fresh bread, Coke with Arabic on the bottle and of course, Hajar had herself some Moroccan mint tea.
On our way into the mountains
Lunch in Midelt: tajine with chicken and orange, Coke, Moroccan mint tea
Quick stop to take pictures
So during our drive across the country, we traveled some of the most dangerously twisting roads in Morocco, going through the Atlas Mountains. We saw an example of this when we came across a bus, overturned in the middle of the road!
Overturned bus
Fascinating terrain
After lunch, our next stop was at an oasis to take a quick picture. I was surprised to see children along the side of the road when we stopped. They had woven figures of camels out of palm leaves and were trying to sell them.
Oasis and minaret standing out in the trees
Hajar, me with an oasis in the background
Ready to go ride camels
After about five and a half hours on the road, we ventured off the asphalt and started making our way across rocks and sand. Hassan let me stand up, sticking out of the sun roof to take pictures and video. When we arrived at our hotel in Merzouga, Kasbah Mohayut, we were greeted with Moroccan mint tea. Hassan took us up to the roof of the hotel for a good view and wrapped the fabric we had bought in Fes around our heads to make turbans! Video of that:
Once we were ready, Hassan led us downstairs and out to the dunes to meet the man who would lead our camels into the Sahara Desert's Erg Chebbi Dunes, Mohammed. We asked if the camels had names and were told, "Yes.. Camels 1, 2 and 3!" Now I hadn't ever ridden a camel before, and if you have, you know how... alarming it is when you're sitting on them and they either stand up, or lay down. You feel like you're going to fall backwards, then you feel all of yourself being thrown forwards, and then back again. Even though I'd been warned and was as prepared as I could be.. It was dreaded each time! Here's a video:
Our guide, Mohammed and the camels we rode
Stopping for a photo op, Hajar and me with three camels
I was surprised that our guide walked, leading the camels that were tethered to one another. I had expected him to ride and for us to be loose like you usually are on a tour on horseback.
Mohammed leading us into the Sahara Desert
Taking a moment for a picture
Erg Chebbi Dunes
Erg Chebbi Dunes
We walked for a while out into the dunes until we came to a couple of camps. If it had been warmer, we would have spent the night in one of the camps, but since it was January, we had decided not to. Mohammed had the camels lay down so we could get off, and tied up one leg of each to keep them from getting up and leaving.
Tied up leg
We took a couple of pictures with the camels before venturing off.
Our best camel faces
Then camel in my face
There was a huge dune in front of us, so Hajar and I decided to climb it. Woah! I had no idea it was so hard to walk in sand like that.. we would sink into it and frequently have to stop to catch our breath. The top of the dune didn't look as far as it ended up feeling/being. We found an empty bottle on our way up the dune and decided to draw a block ATM in the sand and take pictures. Once we got to the top, we sat down for a bit.
The camps and the dune we climbed
The block ATM picture
On the way up
Camps on either side and Merzouga off in the distance
Hajar in the Sahara Desert
Walking back down, our patient camels in the distance
After a few minutes of rest, we walked back down the dune, to one of the camps and joined Mohammed, some other men, and three other tourists: one from Japan and two from Italy for some (drumroll).... Moroccan mint tea. We laughed while watching one of the hobbled camels of the other tourists get up and start slowly hopping away on three legs. We were told that particular camel always does that, and his guide went to stop him. After some story exchanges and sipping on tea, it was getting dark so we headed back to the hotel.
Before dinner, Hajar and I sat by the fire warming up and having more tea with Hassan. For dinner we had meat from another tajine.. soo good. We sat a few feet from a table of an (obnoxiously loud) American father/daughter duo and their poor guide. Their stories were amusing for a short period but we were glad when we were done eating and didn't have to overhear them anymore! We headed back to our room for bed, but it was pretty cold and the heater wasn't working well, so while Hajar went to get a space heater, I took this video of our hotel room:
When I took my shoes off, I found proof of our dune climb at the bottom:
Sand in my shoes
Random note on having sand in my shoes. I haven't spotted many celebrities in my life, but there is one who I have seen a couple times, in unexpected places: the singer, Usher. While I interned in DC in 2009, I crossed paths with him in the hallway on his way to a congressional hearing one day. Then in Paris, I was having dinner at La Mosquée de Paris with my classmates and he came in with a small entourage for dinner. Well, I missed him this time.. but Hajar discovered online that he had been in the Sahara Desert pouring sand out of his shoes just nine days earlier. Weird!
Here's the day's itinerary (except unfortunately we skipped the last part since it was cold) as emailed from Hassan:
Day 1: Fes- Midelt-Erfoud-Merzouga-Erg Chebbi. We will pick you up at your Riad or your hotel around 8:00 a.m. We leave for Midelt throught he Mountains and the cedar forests of the middle Atlas. We pass by Ifrane, a charming ski resort and Azrou, an important handicraft center specialized in the work of cedar wood. We arrive in Midelt for lunch. At the afternoon we will drive to Erfoud and into the desert. You will have a camel trek into the beautiful Erg Chebbi Dunes, where you will spend the evening in a bivouac (camp). There you will enjoy a Berber dinner, and sleep in traditional Nomad camel hair tent.
