Imlil. Heaven or Hell?

---

Betsy and I agreed to splurge on a ride from Essaouira to Imlil as our bus experiences in Morocco haven’t been so pleasant. Imil is located in the High Atlas Mountains about 1 hour south of Marrakech. Our driver sends someone to pick us up in our riad in the medina (as no cars are allowed). We get in the car… it is sorta like a minivan, without windows that you can roll down. After about 30 minutes we ask for the AC (as we booked a car with AC of course). Well, there was AC; however it didn’t work. OYE. Our driver was on his own schedule. He stopped for lunch, drinks and smokes. The drive should have taken 3 hours in total. We spent 5 hours in a car with no AC and no access to windows. OYE. I sweated so much that when we finally got to the mountains, the driver asked if I pee-pee in my pants as I sweated through my clothes.

I took a very cold shower as soon as we got into our 100 square foot room. The two of us were starving so we took a walk downhill into the village (about a mile). We got the most disgusting food one can ever eat. Flies were everywhere and poof - it starts to rain. We decide to head back to our new abode for the next 2 nights. The walk uphill was soooo hard. The wind and rain was blowing at us. We almost got accosted by an angry donkey. Betsy literally had to push my ass up the hill. Ok, ok… so I am exaggerating a bit - but I am happy to say I am lying horizontal overlooking some beautiful mountains right now. There is no internet in the mountains, so it is a good time to read and relax. We’ll have to see about our adventure tomorrow.

The riad where we are staying has 4 rooms. It is a quaint place in the mountains; I hear roosters (the Moroccan roosters have no idea what time it is as they continually give wake up calls every 10 minutes), donkeys, sheep, goats, and children playing. There are no lights in the village, so it was recommended that we are back in the riad before sundown; otherwise you need to walk around with a torch to get around. The night was spent with our fellow riad’ers. There were 2 girls in their late 20’s from London. They are both teachers so they are here in Morocco until the end of August when they have to go back to work. Our other English speaking neighbors are also British. They are on their ‘mini - moon’. They just got married over the wknd and are spending a week in Morocco as they have to save money for their real honeymoon in South America. We all ate the delicious home cooked dinner of couscous and tagine. Following dinner, we started a fashion show with our delightable Djellabas. These are considered Jedi robes to some. I think of the little men who marched in the desert in Spaceballs the movie... The brown robes with the oversized hoods - well if you see my pics, you’ll know what I am talking about!

---