Today I am typing this from a “Cyber Shop” in Fes, Morocco. Chris is at the hotel with a killer headache and I have ventured out on my own. I am feeling quite conspicuous as I type this as (not for the first time) I am the only female present!
Since Marrakesh we’ve definitely had an adventure. From there, our destination was a place called Cascades d’Ouzoud (Waterfalls of Ouzoude). We left Marrakesh by “Grand Taxi” - the first part of the adventure. In Morocco, there are “petit” and “grand” taxis — difference being the distance that you are travelling, “grand” obviously being the longer distance rides. We decided to head to a town called Azilal (under the impression that we had to stay in this town in order to access the waterfalls) by bus, however about three seconds after realizing that we would have to wait three hours for the bus to depart we were pursuaded to look into the grand taxi option. Pursuaded is a kind word. After being in Morocco now for almost two weeks, Chris and I have learned the hard way that “no, merci” does not seem to translate! The area behind the bus station was literally PACKED with big old beige Mercedes, and people everywhere vying for our business. In a grand taxi, you share… when the cab is full (and I mean FULL - six passengers in total) you go. We bargained (mostly by our new technique of just shutting up and letting the seller sweat it out) a decent price for the whole cab, roughly $35 for a 1.5 hour ride. The whole negotiation took about 30 minutes and about 15 mystery minutes later, we were on the road.
On arrival in Azilal it was pretty clear that it was a town that we wouldn’t be staying in long. We walked up and down the main drag in about 10 minutes and had a very good tagine for lunch. We found a small food market to check out as well as about 10 internet cafes to chose from. Dinner time was surreal. There were many cafes to chose from, however not one woman in the crowds! We walked up and down the main drag and decided to just sit down at one… asked for service and the waiter never came back! After about 15 minutes, we decided our best chance for dinner was chips, bread and La Vache Qui Rit cheese (that and Coca-Cola are the most recognized brands on the planet, I am convinced) in our room. We were in the room by about 7pm and played about 40 hands of cards when Chris heard “a whitey cough” outside our room. Sure enough, three American girls, Samantha, Abbey and Jess, had checked into the same hotel and were having a very similar experience to ours! We agreed to share a grand taxi to the Cascades in the morning as they were heading to the same place.
Cascades d’Ouzoud is a small town (about 1500 people) that has grown up arund the awesome waterfall. We stayed at Hotel Chellal which is a hotel run by a family of former nomads. It was a great place to relax and enjoy the hospitality. We went on a very long hike through the gorge which was amazing to see. I unfortunately got so dehydrated that I was sick for about three hours after our hike, but live and learn. What an amazing landscape, and what a great place to chillout in after the hectic pace of Marrakesh.
At Ouzoud, we met a guy named Medi, who we agreed to go on our desert trip with. We ultimately needed to end up in Fes, and he proposed a trip to Erg Chebbi that would get us to Fes - quite a long distance.
We spent a night in the Ziz Valley, then two in the Sahara desert in the dunes of Erg Chebbi. On arrival qbout 2 km outside of Merzouga, we met our camels, Jimi Hendrix (mine) and Bob Marley (Chris’), as well as our guide Salim, and were off. Riding a camel is fun, but going down a relatively steep dune is a tad nerve wracking! Our guide spoke Berber, Arabic, Spanish and French, so we had to make due with our rough French skills — they have come in very handy in Morocco, actually. He said that camels never fall “jamais” so we had to believe him, though Bob Marley came awfully close to sending Chris down a dune! Close, but he was right, he didn’t fall! Our first night in the dunes was incredible. We saw the best sunset ever then had tagine and mint tea under the stars, then went to bed in a Berber tent. The next day after breakfast we moved on and saw more of the dunes. Saw lots of scarab beetles (they eat chocolat de dromodaires, by the way), some cool little lizzards, and a whole lot of sand. We could also see the Algerian border from the dunes.
The drive from Merzouga to Fes took about 7 hours, including some stops for food and a sidetrip to see Barbary Apes outside of Ifrane. We’ve decided that we are ready to move on from Morocco and are now planning our route into Spain!
Woah, crazy. The camel ride sounds wild. I had a similar experience the other day when I got out of bed at 11am last week, tripped on my housecoat and almost fell into the closet. Ok, maybe not quite the same. Not a literary expert by any means but the writing is fantastic and reads very well. Keep up the great work and hopefully we can continue to read frequent updates.
Chad
April 16th, 2007
paula sounds wonderful. But sorry I would not want to be sitting there alone. Yes as Chad said the writing is fantastic maybe you could consider putting your journey in a book it would be a great read.Hope Chris’s headache is better by now.
Mom
Vida
April 16th, 2007
Hi Chris - between your adventure and Mikes, I feel as if I’ve seen the world! Sounds like the both of you are having the time of your life.
Take care!
Mohamed
Mohamed
April 17th, 2007