Day 23 - July 21st

  Marrakech, Morocco
Monday, July 21, 2008

When Mustafa asked us the time we wanted to wake up on Monday we told him around 11, he told us that he set something up for us at 9 AM, how rude!  It's okay, he was trying to help.  So, we got up and boarded a bus to go find some camels.  I really wanted to do it!

Wait, we're going where?

So we took this long ride out to the desert...yes, I said the desert, and suddenly we see all these camels lined up with cloths over their humps.

Lined up Camels

Shajine's Reaction to the Lined up Camels

Oh my, this isn't a padded camel that we're going to go around a merry-go-round, this is the real deal!  ...and boy was it! 
 
We got on our camels (let me tell you, those suckers are hard to get on

Gettig on Camel -- he was smelling my butt!

....and they kinda hurt if you're not sitting on them properly)

It's like riding a horsey!

they took us around the desert.  When I say desert, I mean desert, I mean 100 degrees outside, I mean no water,  I mean cacti everywhere!

Aysha's (Kelli) Camel

Talking to my fam in the States

Riding

Cacti and our Tour Guide

We stopped half way and they gave us some tea, traditional Moroccan bread (that we have had with every meal to now) and entertained us a bit.

Yes, they gave us a headdress

The Entertainment

They even taught us how to do their call (I guess that's what it is?!?! - it's a sound they make) and do their dances.  Ask me to show you what they taught us!  I will!  So we thought this little break meant it was almost done...umm, no, we had about another hour or so to go.
 
So we got back on our camels and headed back to our starting point.  You could tell that we were tired, hot and needed some water - we rode the camels in silence!  Yes, me, silent!  Put me in 100 degree weather, don't give me any water and then you see what happens....okay, maybe I shouldn't tell you all this...but that's what happened!
 
So, we got back and had to head to Zara to see if there were any special discounts since most of the clothes sold in Zara are made in Morocco - nope, didn't work.  After that, we had to try McD's - just had to verify whether or not it tasted the same, hehehehe.  ...and it did! 

Lunch Stop -- had to try it!

We enjoyed.  We were definitely exhausted when we got back to the hotel!  ...luckily, because we were good friends with Mustafa, we got a late checkout...a really late checkout!  So we hung around there until it was time to go to the airport to go back to Madrid.
 
We said our byes to Mustafa and headed back.  It was a fabulous trip!  Marrakech and Essouira are beautiful cities and Morocco is a fabulous country - I highly recommend this trip!  Just don't drive there, it's crazy and definitely not like driving in the US.  

Traffic in Marrakech

 

Traffic in Marrakech

So I said I didn't understand what Mustafa said about Morocco being such a safe country - they're so peaceful...children running around not close to their parents, when we were falling down the mountain, there were always about 25 hands in our direction ready to help us up...although there were a lot of people, I never feared for my life, I didn't think someone had a hidden weapon and was ready to pop it out on me at any time!  The people - they're kind and full of culture!  I loved it!