Auberge Atlas Tichka Imlil

... I adore mountains. I wish I had the opportunity to hike to the summit, but I had to be satisfied with the shrine. Apparently single women are supposed to go up there if they are in need of a husband, so I stuck my hands in the water and hoped the djinn liked me. It was a beautiful walk, regardless.

After lunch we walked back down to the village before our hot, hot drive to Essaouira on the coast.

... the first morning wandering down to Imlil to explore. We chat to a local who teaches us how to say,"no thankyou" in arabic to Berber rug sellers, although the vendors are not as pushy as I thought they'd be. Maybe its different in the bigger cities. Imlil is quite small - really just one long street. The everyday shops are more interesting than the ones for tourists. The butcher has his meat hanging up out in the open and at cafes tagines sit on pots of ...

... off when entering), put on dry things and headed downstairs (with blankets and sleeping bags) to the only room with a fire. We stayed there (Mike hogged the fire but at least we got some of our clothes dry) for dinner and played some hilarious games (Celebrity Head where we stuck our names to our forehead with chewing gum and Abdul's crazy card game Bonjour Monsieur which I lost), then into bed and tried to stay warm and sleep.

... not be much of a problem but once again we found ourselves without a ride and nothing but outrageously high private charter offers. This time a staggering nine hundred duhrams which was more than both nights of our splurge lodging. There is some truth to the phrase good things come to those who wait -- or can wait in these instances. Once they see you are serious about waiting, the dollar signs start dropping. This time it was another hour but at ...

... da Zara com sola mega gasta. A paisagem, gostaria de ter paciência e vocabulario para a resumir, mas não tenho essa capacidade saramaguista, espero que as imagens falem pelas palavras que nunca vos direi eheh. Dormimos na montanha, dei uso as minhas calças, casaco e cachecol e mesmo assim rapei frio. A tenda abanava por todos os lados, pensei que fosse voar. Acabei por não subir ao pico com os outros. Dormi mal e não ...

... in some places which didn't look too good - its a long steep droop down over the edge! We got to the top safely and it was bloody freezing and blowing a gale - in everyones pic it looks like they are going to get blown away... Thankfully i had a spare jumper in my backpack. There were plenty of rock selling men who would approach you up here - I felt like I was back in Egypt as they man-handled you - most of us retreated to the safety ...

... before. We eventually got down, negotiating the donkeys and locals again and were all well tired. I tried looking for the bath house (hamam) in town but it was closed for the week, so I settled for a long hot shower at the hostel. Getting out of town in the morning was a nightmare and a half. I went down to the cab rank twice to negotiate a price for us, only to be disappointed both times. We finally decided to get everyone down to the rank so we could ...

... into the side of a mountain, some 50m above the raging waters below us. Climbing steadily up a muddy mountain side strewn with small rocks, we crested the Tizzi Oudite Pass at 2650m, which provided birds' eye views of the beautiful valley below. After another picnic style lunch on a grassy green meadow just below the pass, Eric and Jerome decide to climb a nearby mountain peak. Ahmed packed up the remains of the lunch and loaded his mule, to join us later at ...

... about Marrakesh and about us wanting to know more about Florida and New York. He wanted to show us around and go t a cafe with us to have tea but we had just done that for 2 hours and wanted to walk around more. We arranged to meet at 6pm the next day. (today) We continued to stroll down one of the side streets and came across 2 guys who seemed to be doing the same thing. There was a kitten who was crying on the side of the road who seemed injured so the 4 of us ...

... was already pulling out of the parking lot, which didn't give us a lot of time to inspect our first Moroccan chariot. No air conditioning, which was a shame in the sweaty heat of the bus, and the leg room was less "Harlem Globetrotter" than "cast of Willow". However, the really unique aspect was the partially shattered windshield, which was holding together remarkably well, considering there were two significant chunks of glass missing, and the rest was held together by a nearly ...