Spring Break... ah-Hamdu li-llah

First in reference to the title of this entry, when someone asks you how you are in Morocco or if you are appreciating anything for any particular reason, you can say ah-Hamdu li-llah, which litterally means "thanks to God". Basically, spring break was a perfect taste of how amazing Morocco can be and I really enjoyed exploring and having my freedom (within reason) back from the cooped up life at AUI. I will try to keep this concise but as we covered 1,627 miles of this country, stayed in 7 towns, and traversed 3 mountain ranges, you might want to grab a comfy chair and a snack to get you through this entry.

Sccond, I will introduce the gang. From right to left (minus the man in the red): Lindsay, an exchange student from Towson University, Ruby, another exchange from Beloit, our only guy, Morgan, from SUNY Binghamton, Alex, the other Pitzer student, and myself.


We started out via grand taxi to Meknes from a deserted Ifrane. In Meknes, we hopped on the train to Marrakech. 8 hours and too many Digestives (the best cracker/cookie in the world) later, we pulled into Marrakech. The next couple of days, we explored its medina and surrounding areas. Marrakech was incredibly touristy but we had a great hostel with a terrace to enjoy the peaceful nights. The highlights were the Museum of Marrakech and the Medersa, which was fully restored and fun to explore. Here is the main courtyard of the Medersa:

While the famous Place Jamal El Fna was filled with cheap fresh squeezed OJ, snake charmers, apothocaries, monkeys during the day, at night it filled up with obnoxious and overpriced food stalls. It was quite a site with the smoke and the crowd...

In Marrakech, we arranged a trip to Zagora to ride camels and spend the night in the desert with the Berbers. We left early Monday morning, stopped in Ouarzazate where parts of Gladiator, the Mummy, among other desert-y films were shot (actually this town only exists because of Hollywood). The car ride was long but GORGEOUS as we drove through the snowy peaks of the High Atlas and ended up on camels riding through sand dunes by sunset. The camel was uncomforable to put it nicely. They are pretty smelly and the opposite of a smooth ride but I now I can check this off. Luckily, the Berber music around the campfire, delicious tagine, and sleeping on the sand helped to balance out the discomfort. The sunset and sunrise in the desert was incredible, as this picture below barely captures...

We spent the night in a tent like the one below, covered in about 4 blankets and nestled into the sand. After a quick breakfast (above), we hopped back on the camels and met up with the minibus back to Ouarzazate, where we would begin the next leg of our journey via grand taxi to Agadir. Grand taxis from Ifrane to Meknes are bad enough, but 6 and a half hours was miserable. Luckily, the scenery was incredible and we were all pretty comfortable with eachother. We finally pulled into Agadir, checked into our seediest hotel of the trip, sampled some camel tagine and cous cous, and called it a night. We spent the next day exploring Agadir, a city that exists for European (and some Moroccan) tourists' beach vacations. It is a very easy city to navigate and it felt good to wander, especially on the beach!

In Agadir, we arranged a car rental for the next to days to get ourselves to Tafraoute, a Berber village in the heart of the Anti Atlas mountains. We got a great deal and it was nice to take control over our transportation. The drive from Agadir to Tafraoute through Tiznit (which we visited during Souk day) was incredible, going up windy mountain roads with breathtaking views. Our Fiat held its own in the face of RVs (SO MANY retired European couples and their toy dogs who drive too fast and give tourists a bad name) and reckless grand taxis.

We spent the afternoon exploring the natural beauty of Tafraoute and I took wayyyyy to many pictures which you will just have to see on my Flickr. I couldnt believe that we started from the beach and got to this in just one day. This geographic diversity in Morocco is mindblowing.

The next day, we headed back to Agadir on a different, yet still incredibly gorgeous road. We stopped for lunch in a chill beach town north of Agadir and continued in our little Fiat up to Essourira. Essourira was the perfect end to our long adventure. We spent 3 nights here and were able to get to know the city pretty well. We even made friends with a restaurant owner, Said, who ended up preparing a special fresh fish tagine for us, which was as usual soooo delicious. Essourira is a very chill town with plenty of tourists but much less stress. Because we were so far from Ifrane, we decided to break the trip back home into two days with a stop in El-Jdida. On the bus ride to El-Jdida, we stopped for lunch. Moroccan fast food is great. You go to the butcher, he grinds up and spices some meat, you then take your purchase and walk over the grill stall, where tomatoes and onions are added to the mix. The griller then brings you some bread and tea. All of this for about 25 Dh. less than 4 bucks. ah-Hamdu li-llah.


After 12 days of a wonderful spring break, I am now back in Ifrane preparing for midterms. If you have time, check out my pictures on my Flickr account. They are all in the set titled "Spring Break". I am excited to see my parents next week but not excited for these tests! my love to all and i miss you terribly and promise not to make you suffer through another novel of a blog entry again!