On our way to Marrakesh

12/26/09 – Day 10

Today we drove from Ouarzazate to Marrakesh in a bus. We drove through a High Atlas pass, zig-zagging up and down the mountains and playing “chicken” with other busses, cars and people. Caroline and I got a front row seat…we had the first two seats on the bus. Between the death defying bus ride and the cities built into the mountains, the five hour ride went by really fast. I couldn’t stop taking pictures…the ride was beautiful.

Christmas Day

12/25/09 – Day 9

I woke up this morning to Alex saying “wake up Bec, we’re leaving.” We gathered our things and walked towards the line of camels. When the camel guide started getting everyone situated on their camels and he pointed to me and directed me towards a camel - I said “I’m walking.” The Christmas Eve ride was more nerve wracking than fun for me so I decide to spend Christmas morning walking through the Sahara desert along side the camels.

1. I thought I would feel like a sucker possibly sitting down halfway through the trek catching my breath, but I did just fine. The camels and the guide were at a pace that I felt comfortable with and I was able to walk the entire way without stopping and resting. Rather than thoughts of “I’m totally going to fall this thing” or “I wish mad camel disease would get away from me.” I was able to reminisce about our trip thus far and see some interesting things that I wouldn’t have been able to see from the camel: a dung beetle, tracks of a cat and mouse chase and capture (or a small animal and an even smaller animal) and a condom wrapper.

2. When we got back to the hotel we had a quick breakfast (bread, laughing cow cheese and olives). We were crammed into an old rickety cargo van that smelled like fuel and BO. I think there were about 16 of us in a 10-12 person van. The van was push started (which included help from one of the hotel guests!). There were two people in the driver seat…a guy sitting next to us must have seen my expression when the guy at jumped next to the driver because he said to me “Es OK, we in Africa.” It was a bumpy ride and we dropped off about 4 people along the way; it was pretty fun and definitely an unforgettable experience.

3. Just like Disneyland we were dropped off at a “family” shop to buy souvenirs. We were trying to negotiate a ride to Ouarzazate where we would stay for the night. We also wanted to stop at Todra Gorge along the way –we heard it was pretty cool, so we wanted to check out.

4. The more time I spend in Morocco, the more I have to believe that George Lucus must have spent some time here. The tan-tans sound just like camels and look pretty similar (minus the t-rex arms). The desert bar in Star Wars remind me of the night clubs we’ve been to and the Jalaba(sp?) that the locals wear are defiantly jedi robes.

5. On our way to Ouarzazate we stopped at an area where hundreds (maybe thousands) of water wells had been dug. There was nothing stabilizing the area around the wells so it we didn’t want too get close, but we were able to look down a few and check out their homemade pully and bucket they used to draw the water.

Christmas Eve

12/24/09 – Day 8

Last night after our long drive from Fez we arrived in Rissani and switched from our van to a 4X4 and drove through the desert (no roads). We pasted about 5 “hotels”…all looked like castles and were far apart from each other. We finally arrived to our hotel –it looked like the others we had passed, so we were excited to retire in our “castle in the sand.” The hotel was really rustic and barely had electricity; actually around 9pm the electricity ran out and they lit candles down the hallway. We were surprised when we got in our rooms to see that the halls were painted mud and hay. There was patio/balcony above our room, so every time someone walked on it, mud dropped onto our beds  Guess who was at our place?! Khaled and the group of people he met in Fez. There are a lot of places in the Sahara where they do camel treks, so it was crazy to run into them here. Last night the people who ran the place played Atlas music (violin, tambourines and singing) and Berber drums…it was a lot of fun to listen and watch. The musicians walked around trying to get everyone up to dance…I didn’t dance, but John and Pete did. Our camel trek into the Sahara started at 4:00pm, so we had all day to explore.

Five things from today:

1. After breakfast (bread, laughing cow cheese, jam and olives) we walked to explore the sand dunes. The sand was red (I was expecting it to be beige)…the wind was blowing pretty hard, so there were a lot of cool designs in the sand. John, Pete and Alex wanted to walk up to the top of the tallest dune; Caroline and I decided that half way was good enough for us…it was really cool, but sand in the eyes was not feeling too hot on my contacts 

2. After the dunes, we ate lunch then headed to the camels. Khaled and his friends were doing a 2 day trek so we ended up going on a different route. We rode with a dad and his kids; for their Christmas gift he gave them a camel trek and trip to Morocco. SO the camels…they were all lined up and kneeling down waiting for us…the camel leader assigned people to each camel. There was one camel in the back that looked like it just ate 10 Alka-Seltzer’s…it was foaming at the mouth a lot…I hid while they were looking for someone to ride that one. I also hid while they assigned the one I named “mad camel disease”…Alex got that one and I got the one in front of it. They have you sit on top of the camel in a make shift saddle then directed the camel to stand up. Guess who came to visit me every time we stopped…the camel with mad camel disease. The first time we stopped the crazy camel came right next to my face lookin’ for some love…I immediately screamed “no, I don’t want him by me!” the camel guide just yelled “no problem…” Guess what I can check off my list and not think twice about doing again…camel riding! We rode through dunes…going up and down the sandy dunes was the most nerve wracking. While going down one of the hills john said “Caroline, I think Orson may be an only child.” At one point Pete’s camel thought we were stopping so it started kneeling down then when his came was dragged up by the rest of the group, it was tripped up on the sand…I could have sworn Pete was going to topple over with the camel and drag the rest of us down the dune…almost immediately after that I rummaged through my bag and popped a Xanex –not kidding. It was about an hour ride and after we passed two other “camps” we arrived at ours.

3. Our camp was made of a bunch of Berber blankets sewn together. When we arrived we were shown where we would sleep. There were blankets on the ground covering the sand in a space large enough for all five of us. Soon after we arrived, we were invited into a large tent that had a lamp and two small tables. We were given tea then we sat uncomfortably with the small family (that we soon named Fozzy and the overbite twins) that took the trek with us. The family spoke French and Spanish and a little English. We all did laugh together when we were reminded that John used his pajama bottoms for his turban. Our dinner was brought to us after one of our guides told us a few riddles. Dinner was chicken with potatoes, peas and carrots –it was really good.

4. After dinner we decided to play cards and invited our fellow trekkers to play along. We tried to think of a game that wouldn’t be too difficult to play with our language barrier. We decided to play Uno. As the game went on, we added rules (a 4 was draw four, 7 was skip, etc.). We also changed “uno” to rack-attack which means “joking” in Berber. Every time one of us would lay down a “draw 4” we would say Merry Christmas. It was a really fun Christmas Eve.

5. After our 4th or 5th game of Rack-Attack we retired to our tent. The holes in the “ceiling” welcomed the rain and sand into our sleeping area. I covered my face with my scarf that I was thankful I had. We stayed up for about an hour talking about various things from our favorite Christmas songs, our religious backgrounds and our childhood pets. I think my favorite story was Pete’s…he once had a guinea pig and when it died, his parents told him it died from reading the news paper that was in its cage.

on the way to the desert

12/23/09 – Day 7
Today we woke up at 7:00am and met our driver who took us on about a 9 hour drive to an area in the desert in-between the towns of Rissani and Merzouga. This trip was amazing…I’m so happy we decided to take the van instead of the bus…we were able to stop and take pictures the whole way. Our scenery ranged from lakes and rivers, snowy mountains to flat deserts. We drove through the Middle Atlas and High Atlas and ended up in the Sahara. One thing I like about traveling to new places is not knowing what to expect; everything we have seen is new and can’t be compared to an existing memory.

5 things from today:

1. We rode down in a van slightly smaller than a cargo van. The break pads were obviously non existent; every time the driver stepped on the brakes (which was often) it was a metal on metal grinding. Our driver didn’t speak English so we didn’t do a lot of communicating, but he was a really careful driver…that was comforting in the rain and on the mountains roads. Along the way we stopped for breakfast (bread, tortillas, cheese (laughing cow) and butter) and Lunch (mystery meatball sandwich).

2. Last night we read about Barbery apes; they live in Middle Atlas in forests that we traveled through on our way to the desert. Our driver stopped along the side of the road at a campsite…we drove around slowly until we spotted one. Remembering the chimp story from the US (where the lady got her face ripped off), I decided to stay in the car. While Caroline and I waited in the car, the boys fed the apes nuts that we bought last night in the medina. One ape stayed in the tree screaming (the bigger one) while a smaller one walked right up to John and Pete taking food out of their hands. I sent Alex out with my camera…he got some pretty good shots.

3. Along the way we stopped at what looked to be a river of palm trees. It was beautiful. It was a deep canyon that was filled with palm trees and homes…there were so many palm trees that they disappeared into the distance.

4. Everywhere we’ve stopped so far sells local fossils; I ended up buying a fossil necklace. While we were at the palm tree oasis, at his request, I was looking for a rock for Casey M. Guess what I found –a fossil!! I still haven’t decided if I’m going to keep it or give it to him. I’ll probably give the rock to Casey since I was sifting through them because of him…I guess I have my necklace.

5. The bathrooms…we’re out of the big city now…the toilet I used today was a hole in the ground that you squat over…it’s difficult, but I guess I’ll eventually get used to it and figure out how to best use it with out making a huge mess!

Fez - Part 2

12/22/09 – Day 6

Today we got a late start, but were still able to see a lot of Fez. Our beds in our room are pretty hard, but they aren’t too uncomfortable. We found out that they are most likely stuffed with sheep wool which would explain why there is an imprint of myself when I get out of the bed. The room gets pretty cold at night, so I’m thankful for the slipper socks I brought. Last night I woke up in the middle of the night and put on my coat; we asked for an extra blanket before we went to sleep tonight so I should be OK for the rest of our time here.

Five things from today:

1. We ate breakfast/lunch at the Café Clock (in the building where the water clock structure lives). I got chicken satay over saffron rice; it was the first really spicy meal I’ve had in Morocco…I LOVED it. John ordered a camel burger and we all had a bite…now I can say that I tasted camel…it was pretty good.

2. The main feature of the day was the tannery. The tanneries are where animal skin is dyed and made into leather. The tannery we visited worked with goat, cow, camel and sheep skin. It’s a huge courtyard divided into sections for each process. The first section is for the hair and skin separation; this is where the hide is soaked in pools filled with milky white liquid; we were told it was chalk. Next was the rinsing; there is a huge wooden barrel on its side that is spun around with a hose dumping water over the skins. After the rinse the skin is sent to the pigeon poo which softens the material. Last, it is sent to separate pools filled with different colors of dye. The skin is drenched in the dye by men submerging it under water using their feet. We learned that the yellow leather is dyed using saffron (which is extremely expensive) so it’s done by hand; if I come home big pimpin’ in a yellow leather jacket, you should be impressed...yellow leather = expensive.

3. We visited Borj Nord which was once a fortress built by the Saadians to keep an eye on the locals and the marauding Beber tribes (yes I took that line from The Lonely Planet book) and has since been turned into a museum. The museum was closed, so we only got to see the outside. Since the fort overlooks Fez, we got a really nice view of the city. While we were there we stopped by the Les Mirinides -a really fancy hotel. We hung out on their patio and had pizzas. While we were on the patio the call of prayer was being played all around us in mosques below, behind and to both sides of us.

4. We’ve fallen in love with “sweeties.” They are pastries drowned with honey…we each loaded up with a box of them for our trip to the desert tomorrow!

5. Pete negotiated an all expense included trip to the Sahara for a camel trek. Our options were to take a bus to Rissani then figure out what we do when we arrived to the desert or work with a guy from our hotel who knew someone that could arrange a detailed trip for us. We decided to spend the extra money and have someone drive us in a van as opposed to a bus dropping us off. We leave first thing in the morning and are looking forward to the adventure!

12/21/09 - Day 5

It’s our first day in Fez (we arrived yesterday night). I like it a lot better during the day –it is visually stimulating…a lot going on everywhere!

Five things from today:

1. The call to prayer is played from a minoret 5 times a day from multiple mosques…it’s something I’m not used to hearing at 5am. I guess when 99% of your population is the same religion, it’s easy to make this a part of everyone's day.

2. Alex has come to the realization that his luggage is gone; we went to look for replacement items. Since the medina is essentially one giant market we found mostly what he was looking for. He bought some levis…he tried them on in our room and came to the conclusion that they were women’s jeans. Have you seen The Office episode when Michael accidently buys the women’s suit…it reminded me of that.

3. We went to check out the water clock (built in 1357 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dar_al-Magana) but found out it’s not running because “the only person who knew how to fix it, died.” Even though it wasn't working, the structure was still there so at least we got to see part of it.

4. Today we walked through the “farmers market” section of the medina. I think one of the most unusual things I saw was a bushel of goat hooves.
a. We also saw goat hair shoes for sale…they were sweet.
b. There were chickens and cats hanging out together in a souk.
i.I mentioned before that a lot of cats are running around the medina. We found out last night why there are so many cats around…we unfortunately ran into a dead rat the size of a kitten.

5. I needed to use the restroom in the restaurant where we ate dinner. I found out that you have to walk past two urinals in order to get to the women’s restroom. They were in use when I had to walk by.

a. Everywhere we’ve gone to eat we get appetizers while we’re waiting for our food. So far we’ve had olives (chili & lemon), popcorn, potato chips, chick peas in a spicy sauce, peanuts and pistachios.

12/20/09 – Day 4

Today was pretty uneventful…we finally met John and Caroline at a café near the Casablanca train station and exchanged traveling stories. John and Caroline found their luggage, but still no luggage for Alex. We rode a crowded train for about 3.5 hours from Casablanca to Fez. When we got to Fez all 5 of us crammed into a taxi and headed to the Medina (an old part of Fez that was built between 800 and 1200 AD and is surrounded by a wall...I feel like I’m in the Aladdin cartoon when we walk around the city :-).

Five interesting things I saw today:
1. While on the train ride from Casablanca to Fez we saw a lot of countryside scenery. We notices a lot of the vegetation was similar to what we have in San Diego: Eucalyptus, bougainvillea, palm trees, tamarisk along the water, etc. Something that did catch us off guard while gazing out the window was the guy dropping a duce (defecating, pooping, number 2) –he was wearing a bright red sweater so it wasn’t hard to miss him.

2. We showed up to Fez with no plans or ideas of where we wanted to stay. We read that everything is a negotiation and a lot of people will offer your their assistance for a dirham (1 dirham = about $7.78). When we arrived to the gates of the medina we were asked if we had reservations or needed somewhere to stay. We checked out a few places and decided on Pension Kawtar; a family run house/hotel. We all are staying in one large room with an attached bathroom which is also one room…shower is right next to the toilet and sink…no curtain. It’s like a slumber party every night! The room is costing us about $10 each a night.

3. I missed this one, but John said that he saw some guy walking past us talking on his cell phone while picking his nose with his pinky…all with the same hand.

4. So whoever “invented” the Snuggie should not take any credit for being original. A lot of the locals wear Snuggies or what we have renamed them to be “Jedi Robes.” Women wear bedazaled robes and the men wear brown, black and sometimes white robes.

5. We met a friend of Pete’s (Khaled)who he traveled with around Morocco prior to meeting us. Khaled has been in Fez for a few days and was able to share some tips and places to check out. He’s an ADHD Lebanese Australian who is really entertaining to listen to.

First Report on Trip

12/17/09 - Day 1
We decided to stay up all night (12/16/09) to make sure we were extra tired for the flight over the pond ... and .... We are so tired. We have a 4 hour layover in Newark International airport ... we're hanging out trying not to fall asleep and giggle every time Ganin (ja-nine-a) is paged for "a very important message." We're also flipping through our guidebooks that Alex's brother got us for Christmas-learning how to say "get away from me" in Arabic, the books keep mentioning that it's a good phrase to know! Anywho, we meet John and Caroline at the Lisbon airport @ 8:00 am and take off to Casablanca at 2:00 pm arriving at 3:30 pm. John and Caroline took a flight from Seattle to New York to Paris then to Lisbon. CAN NOT WAIT to try the food in Morocco-sounds like they are all about the spices! Looking forward to the whole experience ... Can not wait to check out the markets ... Wish I Had a bigger suitcase! Adios my friends! M'a ssalama

12/18/09 - Day 2
We arrived in the Lisbon airport around 8am and checked our email. John and Caroline's flight from Paris to Lisbon had been canceled and their luggage was lost 're stuck in Paris until Sunday when they'll arrive in Casablanca at 11:00. We camped out in the Lisbon airport for about 6 hours. For lunch we had a mini smoked sausage sandwich and French fries (that you eat with a mini fork). I forgot about the no Mayo and mustard on sandwiches in Europe ... most of the time they just butter the bread. After our lunch we found a set of empty chairs and napped until they called for boarding. We arrived at the Casablanca airport and waited in line at "customs." Seeing all the signs in Arabic was surreal and exciting. After we filled out our "swine flu" informational card we stood and got our passports stamped, then went to pick up Alex's luggage (I carried mine on). Carried The belt that our flight's luggage was no longer moving ... Alex's bags-not there. We spent about 2 hours trying to find out where they could be ... we were finally told to call back before midnight to see if they had located them. We met up with Pete (who was easy to find with bright blonde hair) right out side of baggage claim around 6pm. We took the train from the airport to a train stop, and then took a cab to Hotel Astrid petite. Our hotel is nice and clean and has a lot of ornate details (see pictures). We ventured out to find some dinner ... there were a lot of pizza joints (including Pizza Huts-every-where) ... We could not find any Moroccan restaurants. We ended up finding a place that was pretty good. Anywho, after dinner we went to an "night time establishment" where people were getting annoyed with Alex Because he did not speak Arabic or Ffrench-they assumed he did and thought I was being a jerk by not answering them. More than once they tried talking to Pete and I then looked at Alex with a look of "can you please translate?!" Mostly we've met PS Ffrench-not everyone speaks Arabic.

12/19/09 - Day 3
Alex's luggage is still "lost." John and Caroline are still expected to arrive tomorrow. Today we walked around Casablanca. We saw the "developing" side of town and we saw the "developed side of town" ... Tijuana compared to the Gaslamp. It was an amazing first day in Morocco. Five things I saw in Casablanca that I would not see in San Diego:

1. The 3rd largest mosque in the world
   a. It was beautiful. We were lucky enough to see the inside and out.

2. Some sort of celebration for a toddler
   a. The little boy was riding on a horse down the street with his father (I'm assuming) not diggin 'the ride AT ALL. A small band playing horns and tambourines followed them ... a car following them and honking their horn to the beat of the band.

3. A dead puppy on the sidewalk ... it had been raining all day so ... you get the picture.
   a. Besides the dog on the roof I saw outside my hotel, this is the first dog that I saw ... this place is covered with feral cats.

4. A Barcelona soccer game where I was the only female in the entire joint.
   a. This was a place were men hung out and drank tea or some other hot drink and watched the "football" game. The satellite went out when it started raining really hard, there was no grumbling ... everyone waited patiently until the picture reappeared. They did not serve food here, however, there were street venders (male) that ventured in every so often and sold sweets to the patrons ... they were pretty good ...

5. A little boy looking at Pete in amazement.
a. We were walking through a market and some little boy (probably around 3 was standing next to his mom singing while kicking the side the building. When I saw Pete (tall guy with bright blonde hair) I stopped mid kick and mid song and watched, stunned, while Pete Walker by ... as soon as Pete was out of sight, he continued with his kicking and signing ... I guess he does not see too many blondes walking around the medina?

Here I go!

Ok -The adventure begins! In a few hours we take off to Morocco! The plan is to fly from San Diego (layover in NJ) to Lisbon. We meet John & Caroline in Lisbon then fly down to Casablanca and meet Pete. Then…???? We’ll be in Morocco for a few weeks then head up to Portugal for a week!
My plan is to post a few sentences about our most recent travels, name the 5 most exciting/interesting things I saw for the day/week and post some pictures. I’m going to try and not spend my entire trip Blogging, but want to journal the trip and let you all know what we’ve been up to! Hope you all enjoy your holidays!

The New Blog

One of my New Year's resolutions in 2009 was to start a blog. I’ve decided to use this blog to journal my Christmas Trip and track the progress of one of my 2010 NY's resolutions –no TV in 2010! Why no TV? I’ve decided that I spend way too many hours of my life watching “the tube.” So!Goodbye Hiro,no more “MOVE THAT BUS” or “Pack your knives” or “You may leave the runway.”Will lack of TV hinder my conversations of pop culture, or have I seen enough Family Guy episodes to stay afloat? We’ll see!