Fall Break

I don't even know where to begin. Fall break was incredible, if a bit challenging. I experienced the varying extremes of Moroccan climates, from the snow covered High Atlas mountains to the hot and cold Sahara desert, and everything in between. I had wanted to go to Europe for fall break, but I'm so glad I didn't. Exploring this country that is my home for nine months was mind blowing.

My plans were up in the air until the day before I left, but it worked out perfectly. I went with three friends: Gretchen, Elise, and Zach. We started out by taking a train from Rabat to Marrakech on Saturday morning the 22nd. Once in Marrakech we needed to take a grand taxi to Imlil, the small town where treks to Mount Toubkal (the highest mountain in North Africa) begin. We had an unfortunate slip in judgement in Marrakech and decided to let a taxi driver who approached us drive us to the taxi stand that was five minutes away, after which he proceeded to try to charge us over 3 times too much. Somehow I was the bargainer in our group, and I refused to pay his exorbitant price. I insisted on him agreeing to a lower but still exorbitant price, after which we hashumad (shamed) him. Thus began my battle with dishonest grand taxi drivers. After that fiasco, we finally found a taxi driver to take us to Imlil for a fair price. It was a less than two hour drive, and about half of it through the beautiful Atlas mountains.

In Imlil, we discovered two surprising facts. It was much colder than we thought it would be, and it had just snowed on the mountain tops. I was SO glad that I had brought warm clothes, although they were actually intended for night time in the desert, where it ended up not being that cold, at least compared to the mountains. Once we got to Imlil, we ended up going to a different hostel than the one where we had a reservation, but it actually worked out well as this one was cheaper. It was run by an older French woman, who was alternately very nice and very scary. She had a younger Moroccan man named Abdu as her sidekick and we all speculated about the relationship between the two. Abdu took care of us, cooked for us, and arranged for us to have sleeping bags at the refuge in the mountains where we stayed the next night. I experienced a Moroccan toilet for the first time here, and spent the first of three nights wearing every layer of clothing I could possibly get on my body.

A mountain goat enveloped in fog on our way to Toubkal.

Early Sunday morning we set out for Toubkal. Were were supposed to get to the refuge at the base that day, then summit and return to Imlil the day after. The 4 to 6 hour hike to the refuge turned into 8, and even though it it wasn't said to be a difficult hike, the three of us girls were pretty out of shape (it's really hard to exercise in Rabat), and I had forgotten how hard it is to hike uphill. It was such a beautiful hike. We saw herds and herds of mountain goats, and were continually being passed by donkeys loaded up with supplies for the base refuge. There is no car access in the high recesses of these mountains. We came across the snow right before we got to the refuge. People told us there was a meter of snow on Toubkal, and none of us had any snow appropriate hiking gear. The people at the refuge wouldn't let anyone attempt to summit without gear.

This was the farthest up we got.

That night we chilled around the fire talking to other people from Switzerland, Germany, England, and the States. Even though the refuge we stayed in was pretty nice, it was absolutely freezing - barely warmer than outside. The only source of heat was one fire in the main room, and all the bed rooms were unheated. We spent another night bundled up, but this time we had sleeping bags and heavy blankets.

The sunrise

The next morning I got some great sunrise pictures, and then Zach and I set out to hike up a little ways in the snow. It got really deep really fast, and it was a super steep climb. We made it up a decent ways, took some pictures, then went back to the refuge to thaw out by the fire. We began our hike back that afternoon, and the way down was much more pleasant than the way up. We were given delicious apples by a sweet Berber lady who invited us to her house for couscous, but sadly we couldn't take her up on the invitation because we had to get back to Imlil before dark.

Tuesday morning we taxied our way out of Imlil and went back to Marrakech, where we spent the night and took the first showers of the trip. Marrakech is absolutely beautiful, but we were all exhausted so we didn't do much sightseeing.

Sunset in Ouarzazat

Wednesday morning we took a bus to Ouarzazate, a little less than halfway between Marrakech and Risani (Risani being one of the Moroccan the launch pad for desert trips). Ouarzazat might be the most beautiful city I've seen in Morocco thus far. It's small, quiet, and because it was built as a French outpost, it has a very distinct European feel to it, manifested in the huge streets, pretty lamposts, and a huge central plaza. A lot of movies were filmed here, including Gladiator, Lawrence of Arabia, and Kingdom of Heaven.

Another sunset shot in Ouarzazat

After spending a great evening in Ouarzazaet in a real (but cheap) hotel for the first time on the trip and enjoying more hot showers, we got up super early on Thursday to embark on a very long, very stressful day of getting to Risani in grand taxis. We divided the trip into three different legs, as it's really expensive to get a driver from Ouarzazate all the way to Risani. Bargaining with grand taxi drivers is always stressful, and none of us are used to it, as petit taxis in the cities have meters. This experience was no exception. Drivers constantly tried to charge us twice as much as the ride should be. The last leg was the worst, and at that point were were hot, tired, and ready to get to our destination. When we went to the medina before the last leg of the trip to stock up on water and snacks for the desert, I was harassed by a clearly crazy man who followed us and yelled and made weird gestures. That was freaky. After that we finally agreed on a grand taxi price that was still much too high, but after sitting and waiting for 45 minutes, we just wanted to go.

Finally, that evening we arrived in Risani, where we were completely taken care of by the company that organized our desert trip. Our friends Ana and Joe were there waiting for us, and after a late lunch we all piled into a huge, old, white Range Rover and drove out of the city into the desert. Once we were off of the paved road, we climbed onto the roof, where the view was amazing. We drove to the edge of the dunes where two guides and six camels awaited us. We rode the camels through the dunes just as the sun was setting to a permanent campsite where we spent the night. It was so incredible. Our guides cooked delicious couscous for dinner, and we sat around in candlelight talking and playing games.

Trekkin the Sahara

The craziest thing that happened in the desert is that night it rained! It was only a light shower and didn't last too terribly long, but it was so unexpected. Our guides rushed to put plastic over our tent. Thankfully the rain didn't stay long. The night in the desert was amazing. No electricity, no light other than candle light, and the stars were brighter than I'd ever seen them. It was really windy at one point, and strong wind in the desert is pretty nasty.

Unfortunately, the next morning, Friday, I woke up early throwing up. That was pretty miserable. And no, there was no toilet of any kind there. The dunes were our toilet. In a sense it was nice, because I could vomit wherever I wanted to, but it was pretty gross. I think it was something I ate, because after throwing up for four or five times I stopped, went back to sleep, and felt much better by the afternoon. That afternoon, about the time I was feeling human again, we left the camp on camels and went to the tallest sand dune nearby. We left the camels behind with one of the guides, and the other guide, Mohammed, took us to the very top of the dune to watch the sunset. Such an incredible experience!

Sunset in the Sahara Desert

That night we stayed in a more comfortable camp right outside the dunes. There was a big building with real showers and toilets, and tents with electricity. We had more good food, and I had the best sleep there I'd had on the trip.

Finally, Saturday morning we left the desert and hung out in Risani until our bus left at 7:30 that night. We had a guide show us around and tell us a lot about the Berber and bedouin culture. I bought a beautiful Berber rug made out of cactus fibers and a necklace. That evening we left on the bus to Meknes, then from there (at three in the morning) took the train to Rabat. I got home at 6:30 Sunday morning, and after briefly considering going to church at 9, I decided not to, and I slept until 1:30.

But the saga isn't over yet. Starting around the middle of the trip, I started getting these weird bug bites. They started at my ankles, then it was my wrists and hands, then my stomach, and finally my neck. They itched like crazy and just kept getting worse. Elise and Gretchen had a few, but not as many or as bad as me. We were all afraid it was bed bugs, since some of the places we slept were not exactly luxurious. I was super afraid of bringing bed bugs home (if that's what the bites were from), so when I got home I put all my clothes from the trip in plastic bags and stashed them on the balcony until I figured out what to do. In the meantime I went to the doctor who prescribed some creme and pills, and the bites started getting better. I learned that one way to kill bed bugs is to get them really hot for a long time, like in a dryer. No one owns dryers here - clothes are all air dried. Thankfully there are laundromats with dryers, so I took all my clothes there this afternoon and tried to explain the the lady who runs it that I needed my clothes to go through the dryer twice. I don't know if she'll actually do that or not, but I just hope that any kind of bug I brought home with me will die in the washer/dryer.

Monday it was back to the grind. This weekend our program is going to Chefchaoen and Tangier, which means Friday classes are cancelled, and then we have Monday and Tuesday off for the Muslim holiday Eid al Adha. So excited for the five day weekend!