Morocco: Casablanca - The Sahara

Hello Friends!

Firstly, I am so sorry for the lack of posts. I haven’t had good internet since I arrived in Marrakesh. I have good internet now though, and I will try to update as adequately as I can on my latest adventures.

My last morning in Casablanca was lovely. I wanted to see a street that my guide book called “the spine of the city,” Mohammad Boulevard V, that has classic Moroccan architecture. I was surprised to see that they were doing large construction, turning the road into some sort of railway. Because of this, many of the store fronts were seemingly abandoned and the area was scattered with homeless people and stray animals and smelled of urine, as I’ve discovered poorer areas in the city sometimes do. I snapped a few photos of the architecture, and continued to a near by flower market.

Mohammed Boulevard V

A man insisted giving me an orange rose and told me that I could consider Morocco my second home, and I had a lovely  chat with him, and was pleased with his sincere generosity and welcoming, rather than the eager sales pitch I have been accustomed to hearing. I later gave the rose to a homeless woman with a few dirhams then headed to the port, which my guide book bragged for it’s beauty and sales of fruits and vegetables.  I discovered you have to go to another area of the city for that port. The port I could see from the hotel window was very industrial, and I was definitely not welcome to visit there. I then headed back to my hostel to check out and taxied to the train station. Overall, I enjoyed Casablanca, especially the New Medina and the Hassan II Mosque, but the lack of tourists there made the experience a little more challenging.  This well prepared me for Marrakesh, and by the end of my Morrocan week I felt savvy to the tricks of travelling alone as an English-speaking woman in a French/Arabic speaking Islam country.

I made many friends at the train station while waiting on my train, simply by offering people sitting near by the peanut sI was eating. I have discovered that sharing food is a huge bonding experience in Morocco, and have met many people this way. The train to Marrakesh was about three hours, and I met some other tourists on the train, notably a Palestinian man who lived in Norway but was marrying a woman from Morocco, who had many travels and many stories. I enjoyed the scenery on the train as well, with the mountains and drier “desert” area. Little bourbon villages every few miles, with donkeys, dirt roads, cactuses galore,  and beautiful flowers. Little did I know I would be amidst much larger mountains and canyons very soon, and in the Sahara. The Marrakesh train station is quite luxurious, with high ceilings, beautiful marble, and stores, including a McDonalds.  I then took a taxi to the hostel. This journey was exciting, and very stressful. The taxi took me all around the city, though the train station is quite close to the old Medina where my hostel was located, and thus hugely overcharged me. The guide book warned me that even locals can’t get fair prices, and through out the next few days I was continually charged triple what the owner of my hostel, Abdul, said to pay. However, they won’t take you if you insist on a lower price or the metre, and you eventually have to get places. Anyways, though quite the rip-off, the taxi drove me an extended way through the Old Medina, which is small alleyways, lined with fruit stalls, and bustling with donkeys, pedestrians, motorcyclists, other cyclists, and there is hardly room for one car get through. This was quite exciting, and I took some good footage of the car ride, so I didn’t really mind paying the extra 100 dh ($12).

A watermelon stand spotted during the cab ride

Then a couple of young boys stopped the taxi and walked me to my hostel with my luggage, and as to be expected, insisted I pay them. The hostel had a doorbell system, and it took quite a long time for someone to come to the door, so the boys had quite the time to pester me for more money, luckily for them. The hostel is beautiful. In the style of a traditional Riad, it has a rooftop balcony, and tile floors and walls, and sunlight coming through. I had a dorm style with three other girls, who I actually never met, as I had a get up early, come in early routine, where they had a get in late, sleep in late routine. The afternoon I arrived I went to check out the large square in the Old Medina, which is quite huge. Imagine a picture from Where’s Waldo, bustling with mostly locals, some tourists, musicians, snake charmers, juice stalls, a hundred or so food stalls, other people selling and begging, donkeys, horses, motorcyclists, cyclists, and many many crazy football fans. The night I arrived there was a big game between Morocco and Nigeria, which Morocco won, and it made for a crazy, and very loud (vuvuzuelas!) night. I ate some tangine, which is the typical Moroccan main dish at a restaurant with a lovely Australian couple, and then headed back to the hostel at night time. Between the main square and my hostel was one long alley way of shops, which is quite crowded, and it is common to be pestered by men in this area, though I have become quite good at pretending I don’t hear them.  In the main square, people are quite aggressive to try to sell their products. That evening I hung out with the Canadian boys and had some beers, but headed to bed at a reasonable time, as I was planning on going on the camel trek the next morning, with an early start of 6:00am.

Abdul at the front entrance of the Hostel

The Old Medina Square

Rooftop of the hostel 

The camel trek to the desert was by far the highlight of my trip to Morocco. Me and one other guy from my hostel, Jonathan, a Canadian, got into a van with a pile of people from the sister hostel, who were mostly Mexican and Chilean. Everything was organized by Abdul, who is so amazing. The trip to the desert, through long, was incredible. We went in a southeast direction, and stopped at many villages, including Ben Hadao, which is on a mountain, and like all other smaller settlements, made completely of mud and hat walls and thatched roofs. The view from the top was so beautiful, with a view of the river, coloured red from the clay, and the town below you.

From the top of Ben Hadao

Most of the trip was through mountain ranges, like in movies where the driver is along a cliff going up and round a mountain, with turns and bumps and curves, and could plummet to their death any given moment- that was the trip. There were “Danger signs” every kilometre or so, more often when driving was particularly scary, and you could see parts where the road had crumbled before. Our drivers took corners fast and was I sensitive to oncoming traffic, and needless to say, there were moments where I was scared for my life. However, cities are practically free of stop signs, traffic lights, and lanes, and people drive, cycle, ride, and walk using every last inch of the roads and every intersection is a race. This said, drivers are very very talented and deal with tight spaces. Anyways, scenery was absolutely beautiful, and I was right amidst the mountains, canyons, and valleys, with small villages delicately balanced in crooks and nannies, and people with donkeys and goats around, plus the occasional wild bull . Many were seemingly void of electricity and Modern/Westernization, minus the CocaCola sold everywhere and logos painted on the clay walls. CocaCola is everywhere.  Oh, and so is Justin Bieber. I ehard him playing in a few places in Casablanca and a local shop owner said to me, “Justin Biever is Canadian!? I LOVE Justin Bieber! Baby baby baby Ooooohhhh” Bieber fever, my friends. Cocacola and JB are also all the rage in Ghana. More on that soon.  When we finally arrived in Tagounite, the last little settlement before the desert, the driver helped us tie our scarves around our heads to keep out the sand, and we walked to our camels. The camels were tied together in groups of three or four and had big saddles. They sit on the ground for you to get on, then stand up one by one, which feels really cool. Then we rode the camels for a couple of hours into the Sahara. The sand dunes, though relatively small as we didn’t get too far into the desert, got bigger and the sand got more of the same as it went along, until we were completely surrounded by fine orange sand dunes.

No kidding

The desert

 There was a collection of tents where we were to sleep and eat, and we got of the camels and explored on foot. Many people disliked camel riding, they found that it hurt, especially when they got off the camels. I loved it though! Not a complaint. We found some beetles, and then the people doing the tour, Mustav and some others, made us a traditional Moroccan meal of bread, Moroccan salad, tangine, and melon. We ate in the tents and played cards and chatted. I became close friends with some of the other tourists, namely Pilar, Erika, and Mario, from Chile and Mexico, who spoke English. Everyone was absolutely delightful and we had a blast. Then Mustav and the others played drums for us and we all got up and danced, before heading out to sit on a sand dune while singing, drumming, and looking at the stars. Jonathan, Mario, and a couple of others and I laid in the sand star gazing, and almost fell asleep, before retreating to our tents. I slept surprisingly well that night.

Dinner time

Drumming

Scarab beetle

Our tents

I was amused by people who kept asking where the bathroom was, and seemed to think  Mustav was joking when he said “anywhere.” The trick was to find a ncie big dune and duck behind it so no one could see you. The next morning we headed back on the camels  during sunrise and loaded the van in Tagounite. We only stopped for lunch and toilet breaks on the way back and we joked with eachother and the driver as we were much more comfortable after our night in the desert. We teased our driver, who told us he has three wives. Polygamy is apparently common in Morocco. Between the mountains, the desert, and the amazing group of people, I had an astounding time.

The group

Mustav and I

My favourite photo from the trip: At sunrise

Upon arriving back in Marrakesh, we all went for street food in the Square and then I headed to my hostel where I met some more interesting tourists and headed to bed, as the next day I was planning on the hike around Ouzoud falls.

I am quite tired of writing, though I still want to write about the Falls, the Souks, Rabat, and my first few days in Ghana, in Accra and Takoradi, and with my host family and my first two days at work. I will try to write again tonight or tomorrow!