The past three days were full of one adventure after another. The first day, we left Azrou to go to Fes.
The weather is getting hotter as we get deeper into summer. Fes felt like an oven. I could feel the soles of my shoes burning on the scorching pavement. We drank water every few minutes just to make it through the day, also stopping to sit every half hour to catch our breath.
Fes is a huge city. We walked around everywhere, stopping at various beautiful buildings to take photos and to admire the detailed decor of the massive doors or the colorful tiles lining every wall. We stopped to eat in a restaurant where we sat on the terrace looking across the markets, after which we descended down into the market. Fes is a large commercial city, also very touristic at this point, and therefore it the markets are filled with merchants who know exactly how to get you to buy what they are selling. We had many intense interactions where the merchants tried to force us into paying more than we wanted. Bargaining for a price can be extremely stressful especially in a place where they know how to make tourists feel overwhelmed and make them buy more. Yet all of that plays into the true experience of being there. The market was so vast. We walked up, down, and around cobblestone streets that turned into hills, lined with fine artisan work. Clothes, rugs, food, dresses, pottery, metal work...all incredible. We walked through this for hours. It was breathtaking and overwhelming.
After a long day of exploring the city, we got on an overnight bus to Merzouga, 10 hours south. We all tried to sleep, switching positions, Sam and I taking turns sleeping on the floor under the seats. The next morning at sunrise we arrived in the small and empty town of Merzouga: the desert. The town was so much different than everything I had seen before in Morocco. All the building structures were made out of mud and straw. The shapes were different. Everything around us was gold instead of brown or tan and the entire town was surrounded by desert It was so peaceful and quiet in comparison to having been in Fes the day before. Seemingly just for tourists coming to the desert, the town seemed to run off of the many hostels there. Ours was called Auberge des Roches.
When we first arrived we napped and then walked around the town for a bit. There were about 6 or 7 shops to go into in total. The air was like a heavy blanket, the hottest air I had ever been in. We took another nap.
Later that evening as it began to cool down, Sam and I were guided out into the desert on camel back to watch the sunset. It was incredible! It was the most surreal moment of my life, almost to the point that you can't even react. It felt so normal to be me on a camel in the desert, as if I could do this every day. I dont think anything in my life has been more cool or bizarre. Just watching their feet sink into the sand and being high up off the ground with sand whipping around us was so cool. There was a sandstorm that was building, but we continued outward until we arrived at these little huts made out of blankets and wood posts. We sat inside for a few minutes waiting for the sand to die down. Then we went back, riding the camels, scarfs over our faces to protect from the sand that was getting in our eyes, ears, and teeth.
That night we hung around the hostel, had a dinner provided by the hostel of Tajine, a stew like meal brought inside a ceramic platter with a triangle like cover on top, eaten with bread. We also had salad and fruit afterward. We sat around and talked, enjoying the cooler heat of the desert and the beautiful decor of the hostel.
The next morning we woke up at 6 am to hike out into the desert and climb the highest dune to see the sunrise. We walked for what seemed like hours, every step exhausting as our feet sunk into the sand, trekking over massive sand dunes. Our skin drying up by the second, we continued to drink water and walk. We finally arrived at a huge sand mountain. We climbed the edge of it to the top. It took us forever to get there. It was extremely vertical and about half way up we were crawling on our hands and knees. It was so high up, I was so nervous, not able to look around me and enjoy the beauty. But, when we finally arrived, it was incredible to see the view of the desert all around us, dunes rolling into more dunes with the white hot sun in the background. We sat on top for a while, just marveling at how incredible the sight was. I still can't believe I was there.
Although it was so high up that from the bottom the people on top look like little sticks, going down was so easy. We did not follow the path, we just walked down the vertical mountain, sliding slowly, and it was not dangerous because your feet sink into the sand. Its like snow, but softer. By the time we arrived back to the hostel we felt exhausted and delirious. Like most aspects of traveling, the experience is always more incredible in retrospect. You feel like death at the end but as you begin to relax, you can't believe you did something so incredible.
We ate breakfast, and then took a taxi to several towns nearby, working our way back up through Morocco. We went to Erfoud, a more modernized town where we went to an incredible shop filled with thousands of polished fossils made into different shapes and home decor, for example sinks with fossils ingrained into them. Later we went to an extremely old shop that had been there for at least a hundred years. Everything was covered in dust. In fact, it is this shop that was used to rent the clothes for the film Gladiator. How cool! I bought a really cool purple, stone ring there.
That night we took a bus back to Azrou. I tried to sleep in the back but the bus was swaying back and forth all over the road. I had to convince myself that I was just being rocked to sleep. Apparently while I slept the bus broke down but the driver decided to keep driving, even with it overheating. Morocco is crazy and wonderful!!!
We have one final day in Azrou, we leave for Rabat tomorrow, and the next day its on to France!
Arabic Words
Schoon- who
Sehmeli- sorry
Ajii- Come here
Sa fit?- thats enough?
Sa fit?- thats enough?
Bp-hsssaa- to your health
reply with
La tiksa- no more tears
(This is something said after every time someone showers or buys something. Many things are a series of sayings and replies that go with that saying. )
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