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.