Morocco (Days 36 - 41)

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June 26 - July 1
We flew to Casablanca Monday morning and caught a 3hr train from the airport south to Marrakech. It was a neat town. We hung out there for 2 nights. They have this large square that is wild at night with performers, snake charmers, fortune tellers and food stalls. The place was packed. The cool part was almost all of the people visiting the square were natives - they didn't target English speaking tourists... We also walked around through the souqs, which are vendors lining in narrow streets.

Then we went on a desert safari. We weren't sufficiently informed of the trip details. Getting to the Sahara required about 9hrs in a hot land cruiser (windows down) over the mountains and across the entire width of the country (in one day). Parts of the drive were like having a human-size turbo-powered hair dryer covering the windows. It was hard to breath. We arrived at the edge of the desert and took a 2hr camel ride at sunset to our tents in the desert. We returned very early (6am) b/c the desert gets so hot it's unbearable after 9am. The camels were much more uncomfortable than I expected - a few people couldn't take it any more and had to walk. As painful as it all was, it was a very cool experience.

After another 9hr ride back to Marrakech, we took a train to Casablanca. We took a 2hr taxi tour of the city in the morning, then headed to Rabat in the afternoon to surf. Unfortunately we missed the right tide so we weren't able to surf. I was planning on taking an overnight train to Tangier at 1am so I had some time to kill. I sat at a cafe and watched the World Cup. A guy came up to me and started a conversation (in English). I asked how he learned English, and he told me this story about how a guy from New York lived with him and they taught each other their native languages. He even told me the guy's address. After talking for 10mins or so, he told me this story about he and his wife and kid just drove through town and got in an accident and they had to get their car out of the shop. He only needed $40, and the place where you get money wired was closed. So could I loan him $40 and he would mail it to me later? Uh, no. As soon as I said no, he ran off. A guy on the other side of me confirmed the guy was a con...

I took the overnight train, and I paid an extra $10 for a bed. It was worth it. I arrived at Tangier (at the north tip of Morocco) around 7am and caught the next ferry to Spain.

I really liked Morocco. I had to keep reminding myself that we were in Africa - it felt more like the Middle East. Most people spoke Arabic and many spoke French as a second language, so I was able to brush up before visiting France.

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