One thing I didn't mention that was awesome about Azrou: the restaurant at which Raxx and I ate every meal. We discovered the salad variee, a tasty blend of beets, tomatoes, rice, cucumbers, onions, potatoes, parsley and carrots. I don't know if we were just excited to eat something that wasn't tagine, or maybe it was just as amazing as it seemed, but we ate it four times in 24 hours. They owners/staff were warm and friendly and never tried to rip us off or make us feel weird for ordering the same thing over and over. Restaurant Echaad is the place to be if you are ever looking for a meal in Azrou.
Our luck turned drastically in Merzouga thanks to Chez Youssef. We never could successfully contact our guide, so we set out in the oppressive heat to search for a new hostel and some breakfast. A series of bright blue signs led us to an airy, cheerful place with an equally kind and cheerful owner, Youssef. He made us a giant breakfast of omelet, Moroccan salad, peanuts, green tea (not mint tea! ain't no mint in the desert), and home-baked biscotti. He also set us up with a three day, two night camel tour that would leave that very evening and then gave us an air-conditioned room to relax in for the remainder of the day, free of charge. Easily one of the best hostel/hotel owners I've ever met while travelling, Youssef was a genuinely friendly guy that made us feel at home.
After napping it out, we met our guide Hamid and set out into the dunes of Sahara desert about an hour before sunset. Hamid spoke a little Spanish and even less English, but it was enough to communicate the basics. Having never spent any time around camels, I was pretty shocked at how giant they were. Neither of our camels ever spit on us or got particularly grumpy, which was also unexpected. Our initial dromedaries were Buttercup (Raakhi's steed) and Vanilla Thunder (I got a white camel!); however, Vanilla Thunder was replaced by Black Dynamite for the second and third days. We stopped partway to climb a dune and watch the sunset and made it to the camp in a little under two hours.
The camp was actually quite gorgeous, with large tents that resembled fancy blanket forts set up in a ring around a central courtyard lit with candle-lanterns. We ate a huge meal of tagine and fruit and then listened to the guides sing and drum until late in the evening. We were there with maybe eight other people this first night. Stargazing in the desert was amazing, as it should be. We climbed one of the highest dunes visible and settled into the sand. I attempted to take some long exposure shots of the night sky, I'll add them in the next post. I removed my shoes and forgot to bring them with me when we returned to camp, but there was no way I was going back up that giant dune. It nearly killed me the first time. I decided to wait until morning and hope that they weren't buried by the shifting sands.
I woke just before dawn to climb the dune and snag my shoes (just the toe of one was still peeking out, how lucky!), stayed to watch the sunrise. After a late breakfast, Hamid took us to where the nomads currently had their camp. This part of the desert was not nearly as scenic, mostly black rocks and hard-packed, flat sand underfoot. I'm not sure what we were expecting, but the nomads were not interested in us in the least. It was quite awkward to show up where they were just living their lives, no words were exchanged, not many people seemed to be around, so we left pretty quickly. Raxx and I walked the next two hours to a tiny Berber village where we spent the afternoon. Raakhi had a quick bout of sun-sickness, but ten minutes in the shade of some desert shrubbery seemed to set her back on her feet. We ate Berber pizza for lunch (basically a loaf of flatbread baked with onions and egg inside it) and then languished in the heat, waiting for the sun to get low enough for us to make our return to the camp. This meant 4 hours of lying around in a clay Berber house, sweating profusely and drinking well water. As sunset neared, we got to check out an old clay mosque that had fallen out of use. Then we set out on the camels again.
The cool evening air was invigorating and the ride back to camp beautiful. At dinner, we met a Dutch couple, Frank and Frederieke and had a pleasant evening making chats in English, listening to the drums and singing again. A little bit more stargazing and then to bed.
Halfway through the evening, I became quite ill. Typical travelers illness, not keeping any food down, etc. In the morning, we mounted Black Dynamite and Buttercup for a last ride back into Merzouga. I was still feeling pretty sick (how ironic would it have been if I had puked on my camel instead of my camel spitting on me?), but survived the ride back to Chez Youssef, where Youssef immediately went into nurse mode. He fetched me CocaCola and lime to "clean my stomach" and gave us the same room to nap in. We weren't quite sure how we were going to get out of Merzouga that afternoon with me barely mobile, but fortunately our new Dutch friends offered to let us tag along in their rental car to Agdz, a town halfway between the Sahara and Marrakech. Good luck again!
Tomorrow we head to Tarroundant, and then the coast! So excited to surf in Morocco.
Holler (le puke)
Our luck turned drastically in Merzouga thanks to Chez Youssef. We never could successfully contact our guide, so we set out in the oppressive heat to search for a new hostel and some breakfast. A series of bright blue signs led us to an airy, cheerful place with an equally kind and cheerful owner, Youssef. He made us a giant breakfast of omelet, Moroccan salad, peanuts, green tea (not mint tea! ain't no mint in the desert), and home-baked biscotti. He also set us up with a three day, two night camel tour that would leave that very evening and then gave us an air-conditioned room to relax in for the remainder of the day, free of charge. Easily one of the best hostel/hotel owners I've ever met while travelling, Youssef was a genuinely friendly guy that made us feel at home.
After napping it out, we met our guide Hamid and set out into the dunes of Sahara desert about an hour before sunset. Hamid spoke a little Spanish and even less English, but it was enough to communicate the basics. Having never spent any time around camels, I was pretty shocked at how giant they were. Neither of our camels ever spit on us or got particularly grumpy, which was also unexpected. Our initial dromedaries were Buttercup (Raakhi's steed) and Vanilla Thunder (I got a white camel!); however, Vanilla Thunder was replaced by Black Dynamite for the second and third days. We stopped partway to climb a dune and watch the sunset and made it to the camp in a little under two hours.
The camp was actually quite gorgeous, with large tents that resembled fancy blanket forts set up in a ring around a central courtyard lit with candle-lanterns. We ate a huge meal of tagine and fruit and then listened to the guides sing and drum until late in the evening. We were there with maybe eight other people this first night. Stargazing in the desert was amazing, as it should be. We climbed one of the highest dunes visible and settled into the sand. I attempted to take some long exposure shots of the night sky, I'll add them in the next post. I removed my shoes and forgot to bring them with me when we returned to camp, but there was no way I was going back up that giant dune. It nearly killed me the first time. I decided to wait until morning and hope that they weren't buried by the shifting sands.
I woke just before dawn to climb the dune and snag my shoes (just the toe of one was still peeking out, how lucky!), stayed to watch the sunrise. After a late breakfast, Hamid took us to where the nomads currently had their camp. This part of the desert was not nearly as scenic, mostly black rocks and hard-packed, flat sand underfoot. I'm not sure what we were expecting, but the nomads were not interested in us in the least. It was quite awkward to show up where they were just living their lives, no words were exchanged, not many people seemed to be around, so we left pretty quickly. Raxx and I walked the next two hours to a tiny Berber village where we spent the afternoon. Raakhi had a quick bout of sun-sickness, but ten minutes in the shade of some desert shrubbery seemed to set her back on her feet. We ate Berber pizza for lunch (basically a loaf of flatbread baked with onions and egg inside it) and then languished in the heat, waiting for the sun to get low enough for us to make our return to the camp. This meant 4 hours of lying around in a clay Berber house, sweating profusely and drinking well water. As sunset neared, we got to check out an old clay mosque that had fallen out of use. Then we set out on the camels again.
The cool evening air was invigorating and the ride back to camp beautiful. At dinner, we met a Dutch couple, Frank and Frederieke and had a pleasant evening making chats in English, listening to the drums and singing again. A little bit more stargazing and then to bed.
Halfway through the evening, I became quite ill. Typical travelers illness, not keeping any food down, etc. In the morning, we mounted Black Dynamite and Buttercup for a last ride back into Merzouga. I was still feeling pretty sick (how ironic would it have been if I had puked on my camel instead of my camel spitting on me?), but survived the ride back to Chez Youssef, where Youssef immediately went into nurse mode. He fetched me CocaCola and lime to "clean my stomach" and gave us the same room to nap in. We weren't quite sure how we were going to get out of Merzouga that afternoon with me barely mobile, but fortunately our new Dutch friends offered to let us tag along in their rental car to Agdz, a town halfway between the Sahara and Marrakech. Good luck again!
Tomorrow we head to Tarroundant, and then the coast! So excited to surf in Morocco.
Holler (le puke)
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