Hotel Xaluca Dades Boumalne Dadès

... is tradition in this part of the world I accept 3 small cups of tea and refuse the fourth, they offer the fourth cup but it is polite to refuse. They also offer some salted nuts. These nuts were easily the nicest nuts I have ever had in my life. They are a cross between salted nuts and beer nuts. I will find them somewhere and buy them.<br><br> <br><br> At about 7pm the night starts with copious amounts of alcohol and the mood among the group is very jovial. Everybody is very ...

... followed us up and down, they kill the goats so the guide was trying to get rid of them. We all had a go at throwing rocks at them, most of the time they would head off for a few minutes but come straight back again. Sharon had an encounter with them when she stopped for a toilet break. Arriving at the village, we walked through dark, narrow alleyways then up several flights of dark, uneven stairs to a room where we stayed for a delicious lunch prepared by a ...

I woke up around 6 am and it was bitter cold in my room. Thick snow flakes were falling outside my window. I was having a white Christmas in Morocco. I couldn't stop humming that old Frank Sinatra song. Two dutch cyclists looked quite surprised too, folded their bicycles away and took the bus down the gorge. I wanted to see more of it and walked up the valley. It was peaceful and quiet. After a mile or so, a very friendly dog joined me ...

... aah!" And that's about how it goes. Add a nice heaping of what might be described as "class-guilt" and some days I am fit to be tied. However, this is where my counterpart comes in. He is fantastic. I adore him. He has taken me under his wing, and will without a doubt be my greatest ally and advocate. I am incredibly grateful that I have been blessed with such a competent, caring and motivated counterpart. Many are not so lucky. As my site is new, I have been doing ...

... you think people need on a community. I hope I remember this throughout my service. A big part of that is learning the language, which is incredibly frustrating. It is an obscure oral language, and there is a dialect specific to the tribe, Ait Haddidou, which is native to my area. Which in summary, makes it very hard to understand. Currently I am living with a family. Many people in my area are subsistence farmers, as is my family. The labor here can be back ...

... baa-ing and completely pitiful. We slowed down and it began to follow us. Then a very cute Berber girl came to pick up the very cute goat and took it back to the flock. I have taught my Moroccan family to play spoons (the card game) and they love it though it can get a little hectic. My youngest host sister and I play on one team, I sort through the cards and she grabs for the spoons. I have also taught her to say "beep!" when I poke ...

... but running with these kids who were laughing and having so much fun was a release in and of itself and I felt overwhelmingly happy and grateful to have the chance to interact and actually be with Moroccans. Not all is sunshine and lollipops, however (though most all of it is). For the first time, I felt intimidated as a woman and a foreigner. I got lost on the way back to my host family's house. And it was scary. I felt like people were ...

... day was Thursday. We went on a 6 hour hike along a ridge outside Assoul, then returned for an early Thanksgiving dinner. Ben had purchased a turkey in November, but the Pickles the turkey refused to eat, so he was saving her for another occasion. Sid slaughtered the turkey, and in addition to Pickles on a kebab, we had a tagine, garlic mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and wine. The rest ...

... Dadès, near where people told us there were some interesting sites of natural beauty. In the bus a guy who works as a guide for these areas started talking to us and, as he seemed to be different from the usual people who come to talk and we would need a guide anyway, we decided to hire him after coming to his house and sharing tea and dinner. The plan was to spend three nights in the nearby valley of roses and gorges and then two more in the ...

... the other more developed urban areas. The first shop we noticed was a dentist that appeared to operate out of a mechanic shop! As in most developing countries that we have visited, you get a mixed bag of reactions from the locals. Some are indifferent, some treat you with hostility, some are overly friendly and have an angle as to how to cash in on your almighty tourist dollar, and of course some are genuinely welcoming and helpful. In our short walk in Tinerhir we ...