Dated October 20th

Yesterday morning at 6am, I arrived back in Rabat after taking the “Red-Eye” bus from Essaouira. Our weeklong excursion throughout Southern Morocco took us from last Saturday until Friday morning, after which a few of my friends and I opted to stay in the lovely fishing town of Essaouira for a few extra days. From journeying through the Middle and High Atlas mountains and eating lunch with Barbary Apes to riding a camel into the Sahara desert at sunset to navigating the winding souqs of Marrakesh, this week brought me full circle in the Moroccan experience and could not possibly be recounted in anything less than a small novel – a novella, if you will. Since I have neither the time nor space to attempt such a feat, I challenge you to take me out to coffee when I’m back in the States and ask me about the Southern Excursion. For now, you will have to wait until I can find some decent way of posting photos. I will put a brief outline of what I did, but be forewarned it does not begin to touch on the experience itself.

On Saturday, we boarded our attrociously large tour bus and headed East toward the Atlas Mountains. After about 6 hours in the bus, we arrived in Rissani, a quaint little mountain town in the Middle Atlas Mountains (think Blue Ridge with less trees). While there I actually saw the first deciduous tree in Morocco, which by the by was changing colors and for the first time it felt like Fall. Even in this high elevation, the temperatures were still more like late August in Chapel Hill. We went just outside of Rissani to the cedar forest for lunch, where we were interrupted by some curious Barbary apes. They put on quite a show for us, and provided mild entertainment throughout the afternoon. After a brief rock-climbing exploit to watch the sunset, we rested up for the next day.

According to the schedule, Sunday was to be the big day. After the longest drive of the week (8 full hours), we began to catch sight of sand dunes. We had climbed in elevation into the High Atlas Mountains (according to my south-west friends, it looked very similar to Nevada) and ended up in the Sahara! After checking out the irrigation system (yes, I am still technically ‘in school’), we headed to the auberge where we would be staying the night. On the edge of the desert, our little kasbah (Berber-style architecture made of clay and straw and constructed very similarly to a classic castle style, only smaller) was the perfect resting spot for all 30 of us. As soon as we arrived, we jumped onto camels and marched off to the dunes to see sunset. I RODE A CAMEL IN THE SAHARA DESERT! So that happened. Then we returned for dinner and had the evening free to explore the dunes, which I did, a lot.

The next morning, we said goodbye to our desert home and left for Ouarzazate, the hollywood of Morocco. Such films as the Last Temptation of Christ, The Hills Have Eyes, have been filmed here. Aside from the swanky hotel in which we stayed (with the most amazing shower in Morocco...they are very limited here), I did not see much of the city thanks to typical traveling illness.

On Tuesday, we headed for Marrakesh. The ‘must-see’ tourist spot of Morocco, this hustle bustle city is known for it’s shopping. With specialized souqs for fruits and nuts, leather-working, slippers, bag-making, black-smithing, jewelry, and carpets, the hundreds of hanoots (shops) in the souqs provided prime entertainment and money-spending opportunities. After wandering the souqs for a bit, we began some buying sprees with intense haggling experiences. On Wednesday, we toured a few museums and gardens then wandered the souqs some more to kill time until sunset. After Ftor, we went back out to where musicians, story-tellers, and mystic healers gather crowds and fill the main square with performance circles. To those of you familiar with the Carolina experience, the square was very similar to post-Duke-victory Franklin Street (substituting sober Moroccans for the crazy drunk college students and lanterns for bon-fires, but with similar enthusiasm and of course, the infamous drum circle!). By Thursday morning, I was ready for a rest.

It was love at first sight. Walking into the medina of Essaouira, one cannot avoid noticing the laidback atmosphere as completely opposite of the hectic life in Marrakesh. Throughout the lazy seaside fishing town, the reminders of previous ex-patriate communities lie in the prevalent cafes and galleries. Because of the relatively high rate of tourism in this small town, the local Moroccans hardly gave notice to our presence as we wandered about the white-washed medina. At the port, we watched dozens of blue-painted fishing boats come in from the sea just in time for the fish auction. On the first night there, the group played football (soccer, for you crazy Americans) on the beach until sunset. Though the group was scheduled to leave Friday morning, a few friends and I lingered in the town for a few extra days. We wandered the streets and galleries for all of Friday. At the highest part of the fortified wall, we watched the sun set over the Atlantic. On Saturday, we lounged around from café to café, then ended up on the beach for a nap before sunset. At 10pm, we caught a red-eye bus back to Rabat and on Sunday at 6am, our vacation was over.

A whirlwind tour of all things Morocco led me to my favorite spot in the country (thus far!)

**Addition November 7th, 2006: Sorry to post this so late. I've had it written but have had limited internet access until now. A more recent post to come soon!