Our night in Imlil was refreshing; both the temperature and the atmosphere. There are a lot of foreign tourists who stay over in this little town like we did, but it doesn’t feel like it. After blessed hot showers we wandered down the two streets in town searching for a good dinner spot. Lots of fresh vegetables for sale, as well as meat. Just meat. Hanging right out in the street. Presumably goat, judging by the entire raw goat heads also for sale.

One local dinnerspot was absolutely packed, and although they didn’t have the shish kebab that we were looking for, we could not resist getting fresh, hot doughnuts served hanging from a grass string. They were the best doughnut I have EVER HAD (even with no sugar) for the top dollar price of 24 cents. Incredible. We found a good grill spot just up the street and sat on the terrace watching the little town bustle below us. Watching the sun set over the mountains, we felt satisfied.

At 8 am the next morning we met the chauffeur that I had hired to take us to the sahara. It is not my preferred style of travel but the options were either rent a private driver or spend literally 15 hours on public buses which wasn’t a viable option since we had only 3 days to get there and back. So Sahara Services showed up punctually with a jeep and a surprise; two Italian women in the back. Apparently they had wandered into the office in Marrakech the day before looking for a similar tour and were told to hop on ours. At first I was annoyed, but they turned out to be cool women, spoke fluent French English and some Arabic, and we ended up negotiating a significantly lower price because of it. All good things, so away we went.

The first stop after a gut wrenching drive through the High and Petit Atlas was a famous place called Ait Ben Haddou. At least 20 movies have been filmed here, including Lawrence of Arabia and Gladiator. It’s picturesque kasbah is one of the biggest in Morocco and I would have loved to wander around more if not for the blazing sun and loads of tourists. It was very pretty nonetheless.

Silvia, one of the Italians, is an architect and we had a good conversation about the benefits of the mud brick adobe construction. She was eager to get inside one so when we stopped to take photos over date palm fields, we told our driver we were going to walk through the adjacent town. He didn’t seem pleased, but I figured since we were paying for his services we could do what we wanted.

It was a very quiet town and felt untouched by tourism. After a couple of failed attempts to take photos of children and women sitting along the narrow alleyways we figured out they did not allow their pictures to be taken. A child hollered “No!” at me when I lifted my ipod, and others scuttled quickly out if the way. We ended up wandering around for about 29 minutes before returning to the car, followed by a couple of children who just smiled and stared at us. Jonathan ended up giving one of his bracelets to the boldest one and we drive away from them waving.

We arrived at another large town hours later and were amazed to see the street ahead literally clogged with people! Apparently it was a Berber wedding, which we learned is usually not just one wedding. Multiple couples tie the knot the knot over a period of days and everyone in the town brings food or whatever they can and it becomes one huge week-long party! We got out of the car and were met by a local guide (which is typical). The Muslim library was closed but we were able to see a pottery cooperative of 6 families in action. After that we were supposed to go see their underground kasbah but it was getting dark so we opted to get underway again.

We arrived at the Sarah Services camp after dark but still had a lovely dinner of soup, salad, and tajine. I don’t think I’ve talked much about the food here. Of the 3 options at most places (shish kebab, couscous, and tajine), the tajine is by far my favorite because it has been the only dish to consistently have lots of flavor! It is usually potatoes, carrots, and onions, sometimes squash, and usually either chicken or goat meat, cooked in a kind of covered clay pot. It arrives sizzling hot out of the oven and with lots of pita to dip in the juices it is delicious.

We discovered that there were options that we needed to choose from for the next day’s activities. I had thought we would leave early in the morning, ride camels for a couple of hours to an oasis where we would have mint tea and lunch, and then continue out to the Erg Chegaga sand dunes where we would camp out for the night. But they kept saying it was too hot to be out on the camels all day, so our options were either visit a kasbah in the local village, have lunch, and then head to the dunes, or head into the desert in the jeep early, hang out at an oasis for lunch, and then to the camp and to ride camels for a couple hours to sunset. We all voted for option 1, and were all surprised when we stopped at a legitimate oases (with some impressive billy goats) only for pictures, and then were reloaded and delivered to an oasis-in-the-making with little shade, young palms being watered by drip irrigation from a well, and two other groups also passing the afternoon there. We spent 3 hours stuck under a bamboo veranda. We ate lunch, napped, and I did some yoga to try to stretch out my sore legs. It was nice to have a relaxing day but was not what I had envisioned, plus it was 116 degrees.

Eventually we loaded up again and drove to the Berber camp. We learned that in fact only Berber are called nomads; Arabs who live in the desert are called bedouin, and the terms are technically exclusive. We arrived at the camp and promptly were given new desert names and put on camels for our sunset ride. I was Khadijah. Jonathan was Ali Baba.

When we finally got to the dunes we were all awestruck. There is something incredibly beautiful about the orange curving dunes set against a too-blue sky.

(this last one courtesy of JRC)
On the ride back I got a little bored, being guided along in a string, so I ended up turning around and riding my camel cross-legged and backward so I could talk to Jonathan without turning around. I think it freaked out our guide a bit, but I had a lot of fun (channeling Lili and the Maui family).

We were all pretty tired from being in the heat all day but after another delicious tajine dinner we were treated to some Berber music, which they jokingly called the Berber discotech! After a few songs they started sharing the instruments and I ended up with some little hand cymbols, which were a ton of fun. We drank mint tea until we were too tired to stay awake.

We has planned to sleep under the stars and they even moved our beds outside of the sweltering low mud brick buildings. But it never cooled down enough to fall asleep comfortably; the sand continued to radiate heat until well last midnight. And on top of that a sandstorm blew in! What an experience, sleeping outside in the desert. I will not forget it soon.

The last morning we loaded into the jeep for our long return to Marrakech, where we bid farewell to the Italians (Silvia and Georgia) and our driver Muhammad, and boarded a train back to Casablanca. We arrived late but finally managed to get some cold beers, and Jonathan found some cuban cigars and bought one for I don’t know how much money for us to share on our last night. He would leave in the morning for America, to move to California within the week and start a new job. I would stay in the hotel and re-coop one more day before leaving the heat behind. What a wild week it has been.