Final Stretch of North Africa

---

It’s the final stretch of my 3 weeks in Morocco. The 1st 2 weeks were very authentic. The food, our accommodations, the day trips… The past week I have been on a tour of the Imperial Cities. Hotels, buffet style food, showing up somewhere to find the other 150+ people that we keep seeing in the same places. Basically, the parent name of my tour group is Atlas. Two Atlas buses are 100% Italian. I lucked out as only 4 people (including myself) signed up for an English speaking tour. The benefits are that we can stop and pull over whenever we like. Unfortunately, the Dutch couple purchased a full board - so we have to stop at their required lunch places everyday. Some days as we were in the middle of nowhere I ate lunch with them. Other times, my Canadian grandpa and I ate locally. Truth is because of Ramadan, many places are closed. In Marrakech, almost everything is open so I couldn’t wait to get back here.

Our drive from Fez to Marrakech was a long one. It was once again a reminder why I made the right decision to cancel my Southern African adventure (even though my heart is set on coming back to Africa and doing a safari). After the 1st windy hour through the mountains, I turned green. My tour mates insisted I sit in the front seat. We stopped and got some soda for me. I continually burped for the next 2 hours as that was the only thing that made me feel good. I was perfectly comfortable with this as Guy (the Dutch dude) announced how constipated he was the day before. The bathroom in the medina in Fez was coed and when I couldn’t find Canadian grandpa Allan, I called out his name to realize he was dropping a deuce. Oops. I think by this point, we became family - so no worries all around! Anyhow, driving through the Middle Atlas mountains towards Beni Mellal, we drove more locally than the large coach buses. We were super lucky to have come across a bunch of Macac (monkeys). Ann decided to feed the monkeys with her Dutch crackers. I thought she was nuts as we were literally in the wild with them… It was a very neat moment.

The last day in Marrakech was hot - but I spent the whole morning seeing things I hadn’t seen the 1st time around. It was mostly royal stuff - some beautiful… but everything starts to look alike after some time. Allan and I found a true authentic restaurant for lunch. It was an incredible meal of lamb tagine and pastilla. He was so happy to have a good meal (and finally eat Moroccan cuisine). After eating bread and more bread, pasta for the Italians and soup - good food is quite a treat. I noticed my first dimple in my upper arm - you know the type when you are getting rounder? Darn bread! I guess I should try my jeans on every week to judge how much weight is being gained with the local food. When in Rome I keep telling myself. I figured there has to be a country where I don’t fancy the food - besides Egypt, I think I may be screwed.

---