Part 2: The Sahara and Onward

To continue my description of the Sahara, I don't think I'll ever want to permanently live in the desert, but I definitely fell in love.  Perhaps this is due to my love of wide open spaces, and the Sahara is definitely just that, and taken to the extreme!  We were supposed to have gone on a camel ride the night we arrived in the desert, but sadly, a dust storm started as soon as we pulled into Rissani, the town/city that borders the desert.  So needless to say, we did not pursue our camel riding adventure that night.  However, we did have an excellent performance of Gnawa music.  Gnawa refers not only to a type of music but also a group of people who were brought from Sub-Saharan Africa to the north through the slave trade.  They say it resembles blues and jazz, but I didn't see too much of a resemblance in the music at least.  However, it is absolutely wonderful music and I started dancing with a few of my friends part way through the performance.

Our camel riding adventure was definitely not canceled though!  Our program director promised us that we would see the sunrise on the Sahara the next morning instead.  A fantastic idea as far as I was concerned, and partly reminded me of the time I saw the sunrise over Angkor Wat.  Unfortunately for me and my stomach, I was having terrible stomach pains when I woke up that morning.  This severely lessened my enjoyment of the whole scene, but I attempted to work through the pain and take in the absolute beauty of the full moon giving way to the brilliant sun.

Despite popular belief that the desert is always hot (at least that's what I thought), it was absolutely freezing that morning around 6 am, at least for the clothing I had packed.  But I mounted my camel regardless, and set out for one of the taller dunes near the hotel/auberge.  Riding a camel is kind of like riding an elephant, if you've ever had the pleasure of riding one, and is relatively similar to riding a more staccato version of a boat on the ocean.  So going up and down dunes can be quite scary and a little sickening, even if you don't happen to be already sick.

At the end of our short ride through the dunes, we started to see the sun slowly make its way up into the sky and it is one of those sights that your mind doesn't soon forget.  Before the sun came up, the sand was a darker color and very cold, but once the sun peeked out a little bit, it became a brilliant yellow-orange.  Like I said before, it's something that can only be partially conveyed through pictures.  After our brief stint in the dunes, we took our land rovers out into what our director called the "baked earth" desert.  Basically, it's just rocks; no vegetation, just rocks.  There is a road through this particular part of the desert, but our drivers simply bypass it and decide to start doing donuts in the middle of nowhere.  Not what you'd expect in the middle of the desert, but it sure was fun. 

After our brief sojourn in the desert, we stopped again at Rissani and got to wander around the town for a little bit before continuing onward.  I was able to quickly grab a Gnawa CD and a fairly authentic and huge Berber scarf to protect myself from the sun.  We left Rissani shortly after, and made our way to a Berber town known for its cultural heritage, N'kob.  It was truly a spectacular little town, and it had a hotel-turned-cultural center, called Kasbah Baha Baha, that was only slightly short of being a spa retreat.  They had orange trees in bloom, a pool, and outdoor living accommodations for those who enjoy sleeping under the stars.  We had lunch at Kasbah Baha Baha and got to enjoy the magnificent sunshine (compared to rain-soaked Rabat) before continuing on towards Ouarzazate.

Unfortunately for the other SIT members, I became increasingly sick as the day wore on.  However, I was able to get to a doctor in Ouarzazate and get some medicine, so all ended well and I felt better by bedtime.  We spent the night at a dormitory for girls, and it wasn't just a building full of women but a way for girls to get a better education.  Most girls who live out in the countryside don't have access to schooling beyond primary school, and so they have to go to the neighboring cities to continue their education.  This poses a considerable obstacle for most girls because they cannot go to a strange city where their family knows no one simply to go to school, and so many non-profit organizations have developed girls' dormitories so that these girls can continue their education and have more employment opportunities.  In my opinion, it's a great way to pass on the gift of education, so I was all for it.  There was a dinner arranged so that the SITers could meet the girls living in the dormitory, but unfortunately, I couldn't attend because of my stomach.  From the girls I met and talked to in passing, they all seem like bright and ambitious young women, who undoubtedly will go far.

Next stop on our journey: Marrakech.  I had heard so much about Marrakech from my family and from the other SITers who had been reading up on their Rough Guides and Lonely Planets, that I was truly excited to arrive.  However, my first experience in Marrakech wasn't the best.  We arrived in Marrakech near lunch time (Moroccan lunch time = 1-2 pm) and were allowed to explore the city on our own for a change.  A group of friends and I immediately went from our hotel to the Medina to the famous Djema El-Fna, the fabled marketplace where storytellers, snake charmers, henna women, and juice stands pack themselves in and attempt to attract as many people as possible.  This picturesque scene just wasn't there on a Tuesday afternoon, and consequently I wasn't all that impressed.  I was even less impressed upon seeing the supposed snake charmers.  These snakes were definitely not being charmed, and looked more like they were drugged or hadn't eaten in a long time.  Needless to say, that gave me a bad impression, and it didn't help that everywhere we turned there were people ready to attack us with henna, menus, or oranges.

So instead of braving the open arena of the square, my friends and I dodged into the Souks and were surprised at how relaxed all the shopkeepers were compared to most other places we had been.  I would have expected to have been harassed just as much or more than in the square, but that just wasn't the case.  Everyone was actually quite friendly, albeit a little more when you entered their shop and asked about or tried on things, but all in all a generally enjoyable experience.

What really made my brief stay in Marrakech much less enjoyable was the torrential downpour that started once we left the Souk.  We attempted to run through most of it the long way back to our hotel, but that just didn't work so well.  I had on my recently purchased purple Berber scarf, which I quickly discovered doesn't hold color very well when wet.  Combine that with a yellow shirt and you have a ruined wardrobe.  What made things more hilarious, was that in addition to my multicolor shirt, my recently purchased blue Moroccan leather sandals began to share their color with my feet.  So not only was I purple and yellow, but also unnaturally blue!  A rainbow of sorts all caused by the rain in Marrakech.