Afraklie aubergue Merzouga

... of dress when we got further south in Morocco. He kept apologizing that his English was limited, but I thought he spoke it pretty well. A heck of a lot better than we speak Arabic! At our first gas station stop I pulled out my handy dandy Moroccan Arabic phrase book and dove into conversation with him. It was fun - he shared that he went to University and has a degree; he used to speak English but lost much of the ...

... So we wait around all day while the mechanic tried several different ways to jumpstart the car. Finally by about 4PM the chauffer tells us that we should look for another option to continue our trip.  The hotel helped arrange this, and we left by about 6PM in another taxi.  We were a little uneasy about leaving so late and driving in the dark, but our next stop was about 4 hours, and we were already a day behind from the snow and road closures. We arrived in Kalat M'Gouna ...

... the fridge known as the Hotel Kasbah le Touareg enjoying a bout of hypothermia I imagine. Tour Operators please note. This hotel is a definite No No for cold winter nights unless it installs heating. The dinner was good, traditional Moroccan fare of kebabs, salad, tagine and fruit. I was very careful to avoid the wine though, playing safe with water. It was a wonderful evening under the most beautiful night sky. There were so many stars you could hardly see black - it ...

... kefta (meatballs made from seasoned minced lamb), and my favorite, pastilla, which is chicken,almonds, spices and creamy lemon-flavored eggs layered in this amazing sweet cinnamon pastry. It's like dinner and dessert all at the same time! We went to a small village in the mountains outside of Fes in search of rugs. Azrou is where a lot of the berber rugs come from and this is where Josh and I found and ...

... then 5 (yeah, 70 cents) and still I couldn't be inclined to buy, by this point curious as to just how low they'd go. Dumb dumb dumb. Because of course there was no stop for the last three hours to allow that last minute nagging induced purchase, and by this time a fairly good sandstorm was kicking up. At the desert's edge I walked out past the protective hedge to test the waters and assess the protection needed... and in short, I was now in the market for a ...

... out or our massages. We abruptly stood up and continued to express how cold and tired we were. However that did not matter to Hassan. He sat us back down, gave us his rob and covered us with more warm sand. So next it was my turn. I was so tense and uncomfortable and he massaged my hands and arms. I'm sure had I relaxed a little, it would have been felt nice after a long drive. However, in the moment, I felt so awkward and ...

... names, but i called ours lumpy and grumpy. camels are not very comfortable, and we were glad to rest in the afternoon at an abandoned berber village. it used to be occupied when the algerian frontier was open, but now is in ruins apart from one house where we had lunch. the people in this area speak berber first, then arabic and then the guides speak a variety of other languages. at the hotel some spoke to us in english, some in french and some in spanish ...

... on the roadsigns so you will need to employ them as guides. Except if you are intelligent like ourselves and are aware that that is what they do. We have been recommended a hotel by the one we stayed at yesterday. From the main road we can see the nearby Erg Cherbi sand dunes, and a sign for the Hotel Kasbah Mohajut. It points towards the dunes via a very rough stone road. Lets see if the two wheel drive Corolla can handle it. After all, it is a rental, and in rental cars the ...

... actually with Hassan, a camel-handler (it's not what you think), since Omar, now back in jeans and an ill-fitting cap, turned out to be just one of the crew, no more than a nice guy with very unfortunate teeth. Moving on, we spent the next 2 1/2 hours swaying and bouncing through the dunes on the back of our camels (Laynni, predictably, named her Cammie; I left mine nameless, preferring to avoid labels). Unbelievable dunes as far as the eye could see, and ...

... We weren't sure if we needed a guide and were equally not sure if we wanted one of these guides. It was however about an hour and a half before sundown and we reluctantly decided to hire one. It was probably a good idea (for the first time traveler) as there are no signs and it is a 35 km journey across the piste to the outpost of Merzouga. Pistes by definition is "poor track", however, there is very little track so that getting lost in the desert could have ...