Thai Times: Morocco pt. 2 (Sahara Desert and LOTS of driving)

Day 5

Mom and me in the High Atlas Mountains

We sadly had to check out of our luxorious and romantic riad for two long days on the road, which would eventually get us to the Sahara. The first part of our trip took us through the High Atlas Mountains, which can be seen from the city of Marrakech. They rise 14,000 ft. above Marrakech, which is absolutely amazing since they just come out of a flat plain. On our way to the mountains, we passed the ritzy suburbs of Marrkech, which were once the slums, but the poor people of Marrakech were kicked out or the land was bought from them. The poor people were then displaced about 40 km away from the city (where all the jobs are), and are living in government subsidized housing, which is already falling apart or not completed at all. The Moroccan government is very obviously corrupt, and it seems as if the poor get no help at all for an improved life. It is all very superficial, in that the government will pave roads or build housing, but it is only from the cheapest of materials and disintegrates quickly.

window in the Kasbah

After about an hour we reached the base of the mountains and began our steep and winding ascent. The mountains were absolutely gorgeous, with sharp peaks and SNOW (I hadn’t seen snow in a year), and lush green valleys. The cool mountain air was refreshing, especially compared to the hot and dusty air of Marrakech.

As we descended the High Atlas Mountains, we found ourselves in a region called the road of 1001 Kasbahs. A Kasbah has two meanings, one is a posh street in a medina, and the other is a fortress made of hay and mud. The region we were in featured the latter. Whole families would live in the Kasbahs and have to rebuild them each year after the rainy season. Because people do not defend their families from intruders anymore, most of the Kasbahs are disintegrating into their original forms of mud and hay. We were able to go into a working Kasbah that two brothers own and keep up for tourism purposes. It was really cool to be inside a real, working Kasbah. The view from the top was spectacular, with a view of an oasis and mountains in the background. There were also some incredible wind-swept rocks that looked like round pillars in caves.

After the Kasbah we drove on through Ouarzazate, which is the Moroccan Hollywood. We didn’t stop in and take a tour of the studios, but the town was very nice, with statues of director’s clipboards (you know, the things they snap when they say “action”) in the middle of the roundabouts. About 40 minutes outside of Ouarzazate we passed a beautiful lake that was the most incredible blue I had ever seen. It was especially incredible since we had become accustomed to the barren, grey wasteland of desert we had been driving through. According to our guide, the lake is filled with many minerals, including silver, which give it its incredible blue color. We also passed a neighborhood filled with huge houses next to the lake that allegedly has houses that are owned by Hillary Clinton and the King of Morocco.

Our day ended just before sunset in a small town that had a huge hotel for people just like Mom and I on our way to the Sahara. It was the only proper hotel we stayed in, and were ecstatic when we found out that there was a gym there. Upon checking in we asked where the gym was, since we wanted to use it after our 9 hours in the car. I had already put my backpack on to go up to the room, and was confused as to why there was such a commotion when we asked them to just describe to use where the gym was located. Neither the bellman nor our driver would attempt to give directions, so I was left in the lobby with the bags while mom was escorted by the bellman AND our driver to the gym, which was just down a hall and easily found by following signs. Real difficult, guys. Thanks for having so much faith in us following directions and reading signs.

Lake that Hillary Clinton's house looks over

Day 6

house in the cliffs

Our day started out with another long drive through desert. We made a few stops, the first being a canyon, which wasn’t too exciting. We then went to a Berber village and stopped in a carpet store, which had incredible Berber carpets. We learned of the two types of Berber looms: one is horizontal and is stationary, the other is vertical and is used by the nomadic tribes because it can be picked up and moved. My favorite carpet was one that was made by a nomadic tribe. It used weaving and knotting and had different textures that were used to massage to nomads’ feet after a long day of traveling. The carpets sold in his store were all made by Berbers for their families, but they had to sell them because they are so poor and need the money. They carpets have incredible detail and can take years to make. Because the wools are dyed right after they are sheared from the sheep, the colors go into the cells and become one with the wool, meaning that they don’t run or fade, so an 80 year old carpet can look just as good as a 10 year old one.

Berber carpets

Later on we stopped on the side of the road and saw some old wells that nomads used to get water from. Wells were dug by hand and are about 10 feet underground and go for many miles. I recently watched an episode of Human Planet (incredible TV show) where they featured Sahara people that still do this. The wells are dug separately and then joined together. they also are dug at a slight decline so that the water will always flow and can come out at the end for a garden or miniature oasis for whoever lives there. It is an incredible way of surviving. The lines of wells we saw were unfortunately dried up, but we were able to go down and see how large they really were. Above ground they look like huge mounds and run parallel to each other. Each line of wells belongs to a different family. Each family knew exactly where their well was and would have to travel for kilometers to get water when they needed it.

inside the well

Our drive got a lot more interesting when we entered the valley of the roses, which had young men and women selling roses strung together to make shapes such as hearts and necklaces. The valley smelled beautiful, and we were lucky to be there when we were, as the huge rose festival was only a couple of weeks away and many of the flowers were in bloom. We saw stores stocked with different rose products such as soap, water, and perfume. Getting to the valley of the roses meant the end of our long car ride. As we got into the town where we would switch vehicles to an all-wheel-drive to take us to the desert, we stopped for a Moroccan calzone, which was quite delicious, and bought scarves that would be turned into turbans for the desert.

Our 40 minute drive in the all-wheel-drive vehicle was extremely bumpy. We were lucky we put on our seatbelts, for if we hadn’t we would have slammed our heads on the roof of the car from the bumpy unpaved road.

We finally reached the red dunes of the Sahara, which rose out of the ugly grey desert we had become accustomed. Upon our arrival, we were informed that this is not THE Sahara Desert, as in the largest in the world, but a 25 km2 patch of desert. In Arabic, Sahara means dunes, so technically we were in a Sahara since it’s a desert of dunes, just not THE Sahara. Morocco does have some of THE Sahara in its Southern territory, but it is very dangerous and disputed between Algeria, so it is not safe to go to.

well

For some reason we were very quickly put on camels, without any chance to get to pet them and pet the cute, weird creatures. Our guide pointed to the two camels we were to ride on. We climbed onto the camels, who were laying down with their legs underneath them. We were told to lean back, and before we knew it we were getting thrown back and forth as the camel got up and grew about 6 feet. The camels were a smoooooth ride, and I could not get over how cute they were! They have the longest eyelashes and have a seemingly permanent smile.

first sighting of the Sahara

We rode for about 20 minutes before getting off and being led to the top of a dune to watch the sunset….that wasn’t supposed to happen for another hour and a half. We were very confused, but asked our guide Aziz to take us on a stroll through the dunes. As we began our walk, clouds started to roll in. Of course, the one day we were in the desert it rained for a bit. It was extremely shocking, since it had been an absolutely beautiful day and…you know…it’s called a desert because it almost never rains there. We were not expecting the wind and the rain, and even with our turbans the whipping sand was quite uncomfortable. Mom even went so far as to say, “can we get out of the sand?” (no, Mom…there’s no escaping the sand here…and we’re sleeping here tonight). But Aziz knew what she meant and moved us down the dune to get out of the wind…which alleviated the sand blowing in our faces. Just before sunset the clouds cleared just enough so we could see the sun dipping below the horizon.

We then hopped back on a couple of camels and made our way down to our own private tent. We were greeted by a group of musicians playing Gnawa music. They were dressed in white robes and turbans. I loved the music, especially the clapper-type instruments they played.

We had a HUGE dinner of couscous and tagine. Unfortunately, we could not have a fire since it was so windy, and because of the clouds we couldn’t see the stars or the moon lighting up the dunes.

men playing Gnawa music

the queen in her bed

Day 7

sunrise over Algeria

We woke up at the crack of dawn (literally)to watch the sun rise over Algeria and take a walk along the dunes before getting into the car for 10 hours and heading to Fes. On our way out of the desert we stopped to pet the camels for about 20 minutes, since we were not able to do it the day before. Aziz was there and ensured us that the camels would not hurt us and that we could pet them as we pleased. At one point, a camel who did not belong with our hotel’s camels (there are 23 hotels in the area we were in, which is called Merzouga), and was chased away by a motorbike, which was pretty funny. I then found the cutest camel of them all, who we took many pictures with. He even gave Mom a little love nibble!

We then had to move on since we had a looooooong day of driving to the medieval city of Fes. Our drive took us through an amazing range of climates and landscapes, from desert oasis, to grasslands, to cool, lush, mountains, to forests with monkeys. It was absolutely beautiful. Even though our trip consisted of so much driving, it was really worth it since we were able to see so much of the country and the vast difference of landscape. I think that driving on less-traveled roads allows you to catch a glimpse into the daily life of people in a country, apart from the city life. So many of the people live in little shacks and herd sheep or carry alfalfa or flowers many kilometers on donkeys to make a living. It was truly incredible to see.

As we neared Fes and got to the cool, lush mountains, we saw a drastic change of houses: they looked very European. Though Morocco is very close to Europe and has been colonized by both the French and Spanish, all the places we had been had kept their Moroccan and Arabic feel without too much European influence. But these towns were amazing with their white stucco outsides and red tiled roofs.
We got into Fes kind of late, and were absolutely exhausted after our long ride which also included our driver playing us a karaoke version of the Hotel California, and going on a 2 minute tangent about ziplock plastic bags--needless to say, we were not in the mood to explore the labyrinth of Fes, so we just hung out in our beautiful riad and went to bed early for our big day in the medina.