The Camel Broke my Back

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We decided it was time to see the real thing... camels and their weird looking toes. We went to a ranch that housed both camels and horses. We decided to do a 2 hour camel ride along the beach. We strolled along the ocean for about 45 minutes. We stopped and hung out for a bit in the sand. It was a deserted beach (it was beautiful so I am not too sure why). We got back on the camels and headed for the forest area. This is when we both started feeling bad for the camels. They were walking on tons of stones, branches, while tripping here and there. I was holding on for dear life at times. The beach was a super sweet ride; however the second half wasn’t so easy. Our camel tour guide apparently had to round of 2 more camels for the afternoon trip so we stopped while he knotted them up (by the mouth) and jumped on one bare back and tied the other to the last camel in the bunch… The camel behind me broke away on multiple occasions causing my poor camel to be jerked (by the rope in his mouth) and make really loud and dreadful noises. After almost 3 hours since we started… I wanted off this darn abused creature with weird ass teeth and toes. Overall it was a neat experience, but next time I will make sure the guide doesn’t want to be a cowboy. My butt and back are super sore at the moment, nothing which Advil can’t fix.

We were starving by the time we got back into town. We headed straight towards the fish market for some fresh fish. This time we picked a HUGE crab, Red Snapper and of course Sole to be grilled. Yum, yum, yum… It was marvelous once again. We relaxed the remainder of the afternoon before getting ready for a late dinner. We ended up at a beautiful restaurant in the medina. After my fish soup and shrimp entrée… the worst thing occurred. A flying cockroach leaped over our table. Then there were more cockroaches. FUN! The people sitting next to us were British and they were so freaked out as it became entertaining.

Morocco is pretty dirty in general. We watched a woman this morning dump her trash out on the street. Cats and Dogs are everywhere! Betsy even informed me a cat welcomed itself into our room on the 2nd floor in our Riad yesterday. Cats beg at the fish markets. They sit under you. We actually thought one died by Betsy’s feet yesterday - it suddenly disappeared when our plates were taken away. The amount of dead kittens on the streets is tragic and the amount of super skinny nursing mothers is terrible! I guess the cats like to hump here is Essouiria.

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