Le Petit Riad Ouarzazate

... thought that a 4 x 4 would suit are needs, as we were off to the High Atlas Mountains and the Sahara! However on closer examination at the rental car office a wreck of a Clio type car would be just what we wanted, they told us not to go off road or in the desert. We hoped not to return the car on the back of a truck, Chrisy said that it would be better if we didn't tell them about the Fiji hire car story ...

Just quick entry to set the map pin. Suffice I lucked out and nabbed a guide in Merzouga who just happened to be headed to Marrakech to pick up 3 Spanish clients to guide them on a 10 day tour of Morocco.<br><br> Thus, instead of struggling w/ mind-boggling taxi negotiations to navigate to Quarzazate (about 8 hrs. from Merzouga), I ...

... contests - goat herding involves lots of stone throwing.<br>Some firewood gathering is involved &amp; the Berbers are into bread making each evening. There are other nomads on the move (some with tourists) and we get the invite to tea at a random cave complete with smoky fire; pretty soon if it's not dusty it smells of smoke.<br>Quite a lot of the trek is on dry river beds &amp; that is not the easiest - it's much more interesting on the ...

Ait Ben Haddou is one of the oldest Kasbahs in Morocco. Onthe way to the hotel we saw goats on the side of a maountain. And from the roof of the hotel I took pictures of the kasbah and the neighbors garden. We met 2 German girls the next morning and gave them a ride to Casablanca. They were lots of fun.

... in the trees. of course we stopped to see and visit with them as well. i was able to get some great pictures of the baby apes. \ from there, we traveled on to medelt. Which is pretty much in the middle of the mountain ranges. We stayed in this auberge called auberge jafaar that was definitely one of the prettiest and coldest places we have stayed in. We had an extravagant dinner with the best harira thus far. Also we had some local dancer and musicians ...

... a living and dining room, and a kitchen. After being in small hotel rooms, it is amazing to have so much rooom. I could live here! And right now, we are the only guests, so we can play in the garden (they grow all their own food) and swim in the big pool by the Kasbah all by ourselves. They served us dinner on the grass outside the Kasbah and we could watch the moon rise. They also have lots of fun games, like Scrabble and Monopoly. I like it here!

... one - really fatty but so yum. Our bus was ready to leave and was practically pulling away (we knew this about 2 seconds before) and we found a bit juicy bit of meat - after grabbing it we quickly ran to get on the moving bus - the conductor was a little mad but we didn't know! oops At the bus station we were picked up by Mohammed our mini-van driver and were taken to a local establishment which made prosthetic limbs ...

... Although the city is definitely not complited, the only problem is to get back to our car since we are unable to find it for quite lot of time;)). Because tomorrow there will be very many things to see, we drive about two more hours in the night, just beyond Boumalne du Dades. Here, at midnight, we decide to camp somewhere. The final decision [luckily] is to camp somewhere in the desert. To accomplish this, we drive the road for some time behind the town ...

Issam was going to work that morning and had promised to wake me up before he left, because I needed to be at the car rental place early, to take advantage of the day - but he didn't. And I didn't have my cellphone, since it got lost in Casablanca, and therefore no personal alarm clock. So I didn't wake up until at 12:30. I did wake up earlier at one point, but Issam was still sleeping, and as he had to be at work at 6am, the time must have been less than that, so I ...

... started trying to open my door and reach his arm in to grab stuff, we then panicked about our bags being stolen, but luckily the trunck was locked and only the driver could open it. The driver pushed them away and then drove us out of this mess. What a relief, we had finally gotten away from the entrapment of the desert and Rissani. We now had a 2 hour taxi ride to get to Todra Gorge.(7 people in a cab). We arrived in Todra gorge late in the afternoon and ...