the moroccan route- notes

a total of 8 days.

flew into casablanca and took the train to fes from the airport. 5 hours. women on train feared for our lives because our pension was in the medina. pension sekaya. i was not worried because the reviews were fine, and it was recommended. the locals just prefer not to be in the medina after 8 pm. we got to fes and it was raining- wet and cold. the medina streets were ghostly and dark. a guide to help us get to the pension (http://riadsekaya.blogspot.com/2008/11/au-coeur-de-lancienne-mdina-de-fes-la.html).

the moroccans do not believe in heating. they figure it is harmful to their bodies to go from differing temperatures so might as well dress appropriately and not deal with heating. pension sekaya had no heat but hot water (thankfully). an old riad restored nicely and in a quietr part of the medina. needless to say wherever we were there was always the ezan to wake us up at 05.30 in the morning.

a stormy rainy day in fez. we surviced and still walked the souks and found our pension. found a taxi driver that became our guide for fez. at 21.00 we hopped on a bus to er-rechadia that would bring us close to merzouga. 8 hours through the atlas and down to the desert. no heat. at some point all the tourists in the bus were freezing except for the locals. i asked if there was heat and there was! the last 3 hours of our journey was spent in ecstasy and delirium. we reached er- rechadia at 5.00 am and walked over to the grand taxi stand that would take us to rissani- 30 minutes from merzouga. the grand taxis are white old mercedes that takes 6 people wherever. women always sit in the front with the driver. while we were waiting this guy tried to convince us that the grand taxis will not be going to rissani until next morning and that he would take us to merzouga for 10,000 dirhams. riiiight. we looked homeless and he tried to rip us off for 1000 Euros... didn't make sense. a half hour later we were in the grand taxi heading into pitch darkness to rissani where we watched the sun rising in the horizon. spectacular. we were also partly delirious. we also passed our fridge-air bus heading towards rissani. we were glad to be out of the bus, and in the front seat of our roller coaster mercedes.

in rissani and now waiting for the grand taxi to fill up to take us to merzouga. this chubby guy comes up to us asking questions, we are too ansy to answer but somewhere there he says he has a turkish girlfriend and he will be marrying her. he grabs our attention. with more questions it becomes clearer. he thinks he is going to marry a turkish actress on one of the turkish soaps that airs in morocco AND he is saving money for their honeymoon.

we are not the only ones in this delirium. there are plenty others in the abyss.

we get to merzouga. to brahim's riad. (http://www.riadnezha.com/ang/index.php3) wonderful. we get there wiped out, i have the beginnings of a cold, after breakfast we head out on our safari. the desert was the atlantic millions of years ago, there are acres of fossils to prove it. we watch africans dance themselves into a trance. we bike out to the lake created by rainwater. we walk the dunes and take pictures of our shadows. we watch the sunset after a schizophrenic camel ride (our camels were real young and hoppitydoody).

we decide to go to marrakech. a wretched 12 hour bus ride is in our fate. we do it. and this time there is no heat for real. but the views are spectacular. we think we dream it because the exhaustion is high and sleeping is almost impossible. we also stop at a 24 hour butcher with a restaurant right next door. by the time we arrive at marrakech we are in hopeless shape. it was sisterhood that keeps us together. we almost walk away from the bus without our bags. 13 hours of our life carved into the history of our lives forever.

with no reservations because everywhere we called was full...we walked into djama-el-fna. i knew a little of marrakech so we headed out towards the north of djama-el-fna. we came upon riad al jana, knocked on their door, they had rooms and they were awesome for a really reasonable rate since riads are known to be on the high end. walked in marrakech for a day and half, figured out the souks, had great weather to support us and caught a train to casa.

casa. there is really not much to see in casa. how life would be there is hard to imagine. it looked like a city of luxury looking at the old dilapidated colonial buildings once upon a time and now it is a little sad.

there were times when i was a little confused as to the moroccan identity. were they arabs or africans? french speaking being so common just gets my perspective off the rails. they love their new king and have the pictures of their sons all over the place, and its not law. that is a huge gesture from the morrocans. says a lot about how connected they are to their country.