Hotel Chez Le Pacha Zagora

... avec les mecanos mais c est bon on en a un bon sur marrakech maintenant. En attendant de recuperer notre quatrequart nous avons fait faire une tente pour se mettre a l ombre un super travail et une bonne affaire, le troc ici marche super bien. Le vendredi soir avant de repartir nous avons vu Sekou qui etait venu pour une representation de theatre avec son ecole. et samedi retour a marrakech.

... system is ground to a halt. That means no taxis, no buses, etc. As you can imagine that is going to cause a bit of a problem with me getting around and out of here. But as the Morrocans say, Imshallah, there is nothing you can do but hope for the best. Hopefully I will be moving on from here soon, but if not there are worse places in this world to be stuck. I hope everyone had a nice Easter, pleast stay in touch.

... spent more time in the desert, and ventured further into the Sahara... a la prochaine, apparently, we will be back for the big dunes :) Mum remains unconvinced... "Haven't you had enough desert by now? ...Never! Back at our hotel, Christmas decorations had arrived... albeit a couple ...

... we were riding into the desert on these fair camels... well that sounded like a glorious desert fairytale come true - 2 hours on a camel sounded majestic, and went some way towards being remotely authentic. I thought, 2 hours, thats bound to be a ridiculous Moroccan estimation, it won't ...

... clambouring around the desert. It was a great way to take in some more of the area and topped off the tour. When we got back to the camp we gave the four wheel drive a push start and headed back to MHamid. Stoked that we had spent a bit extra to venture all the way out to Erg Chigaga we thanked the guides for the wonderful experience and jumped in a small van heading towards the coast. It took us an hour to Ourzazate. ALon,g the way I couldnt help but notice ...

... this is an old game and the wolves have them cornered. `Come to my hotel! What hotel are you in? oh that's my family's hotel, I'll take you there!` One of the larger wolves manages to push past the others and makes a break for it, pouncing on the still shocked gazelle before it is even fully out of it's seat. One day, the wolves will have ravaged the wild gazelle population to extinction. Then they too will die. The point is ...

... to the camels - or dromedaries whatever they are - they sit around obediently, stopping, sitting standing when told, seemingly completely satisfied by the fact that humans make them carry not only them but a whole ****ing heap of provisions - masses of fruit, tubs of water and other kinds of food, annoying tourists, and probably fridges and rear projection tvs if necessary. But they suck it up and, secretly, each individual camel puts ...

... type tent looked inviting (everything is relative)and after tea, tajine, bread, and fruit, we were ready to sleep. Even the singing of the Berber guides couldn't keep us awake and that is saying alot. We slept on the same blankets that had been part of our camel saddles...you just don't allow your mind to contemplate all the possibilities. In the morning the sky began to light up and it was absolutely breathtaking...no wind, no sound other than the camels at ...

... of the others. Opening the back of the van showed just how much sand had been sucked into the car - all of it dumped onto our bags. We packed a light bag out of the two to take on the camel ride and got prepared for the camel trek. With the wind and sandstorms, it was too sandy to use the "good camera" (too expensive to ruin), so our other little camera had its chance to finally be used. Saddling up, we hung on as the camel got up and made our way into the desert. The sandstorms had ...

... not my passion, and I still want working plumbing at the end of the day. But for Muhamid and Ibrahim and their cousins and brothers and wives, the desert is freedon and hospitality and honoring their god by respecting nature and performing good deeds. And on by the way, they LOVE Americans, who are the only ones helping them build the dam they need to channel the water which keeps them alive. Still a little no-saddle sore, Sheila of the Sahara