South by southeast

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3-13 May

Slowly by bus I started to make my way down through the moountains and deserts to the out-of-the-way little town of Merzougha, which doesn't have a lot to offer except that is sits on the edge of the Sahara sand dunes. This took me from the pretty Berber town of Azrou on to another not as pretty Berber town called Midelt, and then to Erfoud and finally to Merzhouga. This travel is all by bus as the train network is concentrated on the north and connecting the major cities. The buses are not too different from any of the other buses I've had in the third world, except on the leg from Azrou to Midelt we stopped at a small town, and passengers getting off collected their baggage and oncoming passengers towed their bags in the baggage compartments below all the seats. As I looked out the window and watched this scene a boy was bringing a sheep up the sidewalk in a cart. The sheep had its legs tied and was lying on its side. So far so good. But then the boy, cart and sheep stop at the bus and a man picks up the sheep, steps over to the bus and puts the sheep in with all the luggage! From here we continued on for maybe another hour and a half, where I got off at Midelt, and the sheep still hadn't been offloaded from the luggage compartments. I have no idea how much longer that sheep traveled on the bus like that, but by everybody's (non)reaction it seems to be a common, if not daily, occurence on the cheaper Moroccan buses. I have no idea what they do with the sheep poo, but maybe bring some extra big sanitized wipes the next time you're on a Moroccan bus is all I'm saying.

Just as I got to Merzhouga I got sick again (ugh) - the same thing as in Spain at the end of April; lying in bed for a few days with an on-again off-again fever, aches, chills etc., etc. The only thing worse this time was that I had run out of books to read so I re-read both a Dan Brown "thriller" and a Clive Cussler adventure "novel" - the only English language books other than short, two-day English classics/snoozers I had been able to find in New Fez. After recuperating a little I decided it might be smart to be a little closer a bigger town/city with some medical facilities, so without even getting to step foot on a Sahara dune I got back in the van and drove back to Erfoud before heading towards Marrakesh.

Since bus travel+sick episode doesn't=very many pictures I thought I would add some photos of clothing styles. Most women find a balance between strict Muslim dress and Western styles by wearing dresses or moderate clothes such as slacks ad jackets with head scarves. There are conservative full burkhas, but they either don't go out very much or avoid tourists very adeptly because I didn't see too may burkhas. The younger generation of course was more apt to be seen in more modern Western styles including jeans, T-shirts and more revealing clothing. Men tend to dress in Western clothes, either in nice slacks and collared shirts if they work inside or trousers and T-shirts if they work outside. The very cool thing men (and women) wear over their clothes is the burnous, which is a full-length woolen cloak complete with pointy hood. Depending on how much of a Star Wars geek you are, you get the fantastic surreal experience of feeling like you're constantly surrounded by Jedi knights. As I fly my geek flag rather high, I was often peering into cafes, bars, and hotel restaurants to make sure there wasn't a space alien combo playing catchy upbeat jazzy numbers to an audience of intergalactic traders and smugglers.

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