I woke up at some point last night freezing despite being under all the blankets and having a hoodie on. I am really glad that I woke up though because the stars were incredible. But I didn’t see a shooting star ☹
We all got up at 6 and hiked to the top of this hill/dune thing to watch the sunrise at about 0630. We hiked back down and packed up our stuff and dragged our mats back into our tents and then found our camel. I was able to find Elvis again. I was pretty excited I found him, but he is pretty distinctive because of all of his hair. Mackenzie jumped on the one behind him and named him Abu. Mackenzie had rode two different camels the day before and their names were Fievel and Sally (when she was riding Sally she was singing “Ride Sally Ride” the entire time. The nomads thought she was nuts). The trek back was pretty uneventful except a camel that was foaming at the mouth almost slobbered me on. NOTE: Camels make the strangest noises. I am dead set on believing that that is where George Lucas got his inspiration for what Wookies should sound like. And while I suggest everyone should ride a camel at some point in their life, the male half of the population should be careful. I imagine it could be quite painful.
We got back on the bus for the 8-hour bus ride back to Marrakech. I am happy to report that the bus ride was uneventful. We stopped at a Kasbah (Rock the Kasbah!) for lunch. Mackenzie and I sat with one of the LLLs who used to be a police detective for domestic violence and child abuse. She has traveled all over. She told us about volunteering at National Parks. They put you up and let you work in the park. It sounds like the Disney thing except National Parks rather then theme parks.
After lunch, Mackenzie and I walked around the Kasbah. We walked into a little store looking at scarves. The next thing I know, the shopkeeper has put a scarf over my face and is tying it in the traditional way. I was a little freaked out at first, but I figured I would just go with it. At one point, the shopkeeper told me I was worth 2,000 camels. According to Jamal, anything over 1,000 is really good so…yay? I ended up buying a scarf for 40 Dirham (roughly $5). I had my first bargaining experience! He started at 50, but took 40. Granted it wasn’t much, but you have got to start somewhere.
OK So I realize that I am in a different country and that they have a different culture and I should embrace that, but what I saw was just gross. When we came back to the bus, our bus driver was holding a rabbit by the ears, while one of the other guys was digging under the bus. Well that guy pulls out a knife and hands it to our bus driver. So then our bus driver walks behind the bus and kills the rabbit!!! Mackenzie was hysterical and called him Rabbit Killer the whole rest of the trip haha
What we drove through to get back to Marrakech was insane. The mountains were beautiful, but really shocked me were the little clusters of people that live up there. Their houses literally come out of the mountain. There are kids just running around everywhere. I wish we could have stopped in all the little villages. They were so fascinating, but really sad. Morocco is a country with 55% illiteracy and now seeing that part of the country I understand why. I tried to snap some pictures from out of the window.
On the summer voyage, Morocco was the last port. 3 kids were kicked off of the ship because of what they did on the same trip that I am on. Apparently, they got really drunk, got into a fistfight and destroyed one of the nomads tents. It is kind of surprising that they still served alcohol while we were there. They had beer and bottles of wine. They even had bottle of hard liquor for 1000 dirham (about $125). Luckily, there were no fights – just one really drunk guy that wouldn’t shut up when everyone was trying to go to sleep.
Anyway, we got back to the hotel about 1730ish and we had a free night in Marrakech. Jamal invited us all out to the place he goes when his mom doesn’t cook for him. We all agreed to meet there about 2030.
        Jamal took us into the Medina (old city) of Marrakech. The outside of this place looked super sketchy, especially since it was down a really narrow ally. When we walked in, it was like we were in a totally different place. There was beautiful tile work and archways. It turned out that the place that we went used to be some high city official’s house. We were led out into this courtyard in the middle of the building. It was pretty cool. It was a large square with a fountain in the middle and no ceiling. Jamal told us that this architecture is really common in Morocco and it is called Veil architecture.
        The courtyard was set up with a bunch of private tables just for us. Our waiter was named Abdul and he was pretty much hysterical. I have found that Moroccan people are SO nice. They just want to talk to you and make sure that your stay in Morocco is the best that it can be. Abdul told us all about his family and what we needed to make sure we saw while we were in Marrakech. We ended up taking pictures with Abdul and we gave us a flower. The meal was really good. Mackenzie and I split cous cous with chicken and veggies. We had some of the best dinner conversation yet with Julie, Leigh-Ann and Kristen. I have never laughed so hard. (“You want to sleep with camel? It will support your weight.”)
        After dinner we went back into the souk. When we walked through the souk before dinner, it was right after sundown. We saw thousands of people praying outside the mosque and then they came into the souk to break their fast since we are here during Ramadan. It was about 2100 and the place was packed! It was crazy so we all just stuck close to Jamal and his fancy shoes. So now after dinner, the souks still had many people in them after dinner – it was about 2230. Jamal gave us advice on where to buy stuff and get good prices. He also gave us the history of the markets. One of the areas that he took us to used to be the slave trade. And another area he said to stay away from because they sale contraband. We walked back to the main square and were mobbed by snake charmers, who I guess think that it is ok to just come up and put a snake on someone. Jamal gave us the history of the mosque in Marrakech and then we made the walk back to our hotel.