Bonjour-Mundo!

So today; Em and I decided has officially been our girly day; and its been wonderful. We finally got a chance to experience the traditional Moroccan hammam, and it was wonderful. Something Im not quite used to as a backpacker, but when the prices are so cheap; its hard to resist. A hammam is basically a Moroccan spa/bath. They take you into this small steamy room and a hammam woman scrubs you from head to toe with all these exfoliating mitts, then you get all sorts of body masks and such; and I have never felt so clean and smooth in all my life. After the hammam we each got an hour massage as well, which was positively fabulous. I feel pretty spoiled, but after how grubby Ive been, it was needed!

Today we also managed to get out of the main area of Marrakech and explore some beautiful gardens and take a little horse drawn carriage. Bargaining for the prices for these was an experience as the first guy showed us the price list, then insisted it was a good price if he charged us double….what? We opted not to go with him.

 Oh, and last night our experiment was a success for the most part. In the part of the square where we had gotten harrassed before, with head scarves we were mainly left alone, which was great. The only problem was the shopkeepers who knew who we were, they teased us a bit as we left for the night. I also didnt mean to make it seem in the last post that all the people in morocco are creepy…as many of the people we have come in contact with have been very pleasant. Last night we also enjoyed the food stalls for dinner, a key part of any marrkech experience. They set them up every night in the main square and its just a big jumble of wonderful chaos. Kabobs, salads, soups, calamari; sheeps heads for those more adventurous then us, and much more…people running around, lots of smells and languages and the grill smoke billowing up into the night. And the food is fantastic. We dined until we were stuffed and spent an entire 4 dollars each. Then we went up to a cafe overlooking the square and had mint tea and enjoyed the fabulous people watching.

Tomorrow we are head to the Cascades de something I cant remember, hopefully it will be fun. Only another week and then its off to Spain and Alex will be joining us! 🙂

We have safely made it back from our adventure into the desert. It was an amazing experience; and although the tour itself was a little odd; mostly in that it wasnt really a tour and the majority of the time we had no idea what was going on and we didnt really ever have a guide; seeing the desert and the landscapes along the way was incredible.

We started out driving through the mountains on Monday, extremely curvy roads which didnt make for a happy stomach, I was very happy for emilys dramamene. But the scenary was fantastic, I think a geology major would have been in heaven. For me, at the very least, it made for excellent picture taking. As we drove on and the landscape turned more desert like; many of the rock formations looked as if they were still moving magma. It was pretty breathtaking. My only complaint was that we nevr knew what we were looking at and just seemed to keep driving and driving. Once I figured out this was going to be the routine; at least for day one; I settled in ok. We passed through Valley of the Kasbahs, one after the other of berber settlements, whole villages built into the cliffsides that look like sandcastles. There were palaces made out of this brown mud like stone. Apparently the biggest one of these kasbahs we saw has been in over 20 films, most recently in Gladiator.

The second day was much more rewarding, lots less driving. We walked through an enormous gorge, talk about feeling miniscule in the face of nature, it was pretty amazing. Then we made it to the desert; yay! Apparently where we ended up was about 20 km from the algerian border, I had no idea at the onset we would be travelling that far. It was spectacular. They mounted us on camels and we trekked through the dunes to our camp where we would be spending the night. If you have ever ridden a camel you might know what Im talking about, but it was an experience. Kinda scary getting up and down, and they make the most awful sound I have ever heard. Something like a very angry chewbacca mixed with a dinosaur being sick to his stomach, or something like that. The dunes themselves were incredible; it felt surreal; almost as if I was in some sort of painting or a movie. Apparently the dunes at merzuga (where we were), according to my guudebook, are the largest in the world. Enormous mountains of the softest red sand you have ever felt. It was just beautiful. I got some wonderful photographs at sunset and sunrise, and Im really excited to see how they look enlarged. It was super peaceful; and at night we just laid back and enjoyed the stars. Although I didnt sleep super well; it was fun being able to stay a night.

The third day was a drive all the way back to marrekech, one much too long for me to do again. For now we will be in marrakech a few more days, just enjoying all the city has to offer. We are going to see some gardens and venture back into the market again. We are also going to try a little experiment of going out to the square at night dressed in headscarves and see if that leads to a little less harressment…the men here are really terrible, and I dont think I can deal with them anymore, but we still want to see the square at night. Ive already almost decked one; lucky for him he got out of the way and just got a swift elbow to the shoulder.

In any case, I hope you all are well, have a wonderful thursday!

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