Marrakesh to the Western Sahara

Here I sit, in Laayoune, fairly bored. It's the Prophet's Mohammed's birthday today and this desert town is deserted. There's not even tumbleweeds, just the odd sand drift across the lonely roads.

I lie. It's not that bad. There are people here in this internet cafe, chatting away on MSN webcam. All you can hear is them replying in that mix of moroccan french and arabic. And there are sounds of activity coming from outside. I'm guessing the family activity portion of this holiday is over, and the boys can go play soccer or sit in the cafes smoking, watching the world stroll by. The world being the girls, who walk so bloody slow and gossip so very much...or so it seems. This birthday has been likened to our Christmas, and from the descriptions I've gotten from some locals, it ain't so different. Anyway, Morocco never seems to wake up till evening so today isn't so different from any other day. That's what I like about Morocco. Well, one of the things.

Where am I, you ask? Laayoune, the deep south of Morocco, the Western Sahara. It's a 'big' town located about 20 kms from the ocean, smack dab in the desert. It really did feel lonely out there today, save for the huge amounts of UN trucks (convention maybe?) and all the lads who spoke to me in Spanish. This area used to be Spanish and still does that whole siesta thing, which is kinda annoying, but I don't have to live here.

D and I are on a mission to get in and out of Mauritania by the end of the month (inshallah) so we're booting it down to Dakhla to find some transport to Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania. Mauritania is basically a country of desert , no roads, and no public transport (buses) so we have to get a bush taxi to take us through the desert. We figure one of two things could happen when we get to Dakhla: We arrive and love it in Dakhla, only to be offered a ride immediately. Or two: We wait for like two weeks; and who cares how cool it is in Dakhla?
However, D has come down with some bug that i caught a week or so ago, and our mission is stunted for the next day.

Since I last wrote I haven't made a huge amount of headway, but I'm really enjoying this country so...Mara was the last place, I believe. Fantastic city really. Especially good for arrival to this country (in case anyone is thinking of flying in: Mara better than Casa). It's not a massive city by any rights, but it's fun to wander through the medina checking out all the great architecture, and markets etc. The main square, Place Djemma el Fna is where alot of the action is. By day there's a bunch of snakecharmers, storytellers (storytelling is big in this country. I would love to tell you what some are about but my arabic is a little rusty), juicers, and acrobats. At night a huge mass of food stalls are added, selling anything from an egg, potato sandwich (they love their carbs here. Atkins diets be warned, and smarten up dammit. It's a dumb diet.) to goats head. Ummm mmm, delish. There's also a bunch of musicians, boxing matches - although I've never seen them actually start- and your basic chilling out, hanging out crowd. We spent a week in Mara, waiting for D's friend Emily to arrive with her boyfriend Simon from the UK; they were coming for a holiday.

Once they arrived we all headed out to Imlil, located in the High Atlas mountians to do some easy trekking. Honestly, I don't know what this country has done to me. I actually enjoy kicking it through these mountians. Sick I tell ya. This is berber country, as is most of Moroc really, which means you'll meet some of the nicest, kindest people in the area. Remember Cascade D'Ouzoud? Berber.
Stunningly beautiful, this area. Springtime so all the apple and cherry trees are in blossom. And these amazing berber villages cut into the mountains. We saw Sir Richard Branson's 'Kasbah'. Pretty wicked, but not a kasbah, just a very very fancy hotel. There was a kasbah you could stay at, perched high above Imlil. It was only 40 Euros to stay in a dorm bed. Fuck dat! We did visit it though and it was quite nice, but definately overpriced.

The hike was awesome. We started out at 10 am and didn't get back till 7. Hiked to the top of this mountain, then went down to see a berber village. The villagers wouldn't let us go through the village so we had to walk back via the river! Thank god for tevas! Then we had to hike back up the mountain and down the other side. Very tiring but oddly rewarding. Rewarding in all the crap you eat after! No really, it was cool trekking through these rocking mountains. Really amazed at how much is lived in in this country. Total rocky land that they converted into a farm. Crazy.

Went to Essaouira on the coast after Imlil. This is a beautiful little town/resort town on the coast. The houses are all white washed and blue shuttered, and the beach is long and clean. It's also really windy so a bit of a Kite and Wind surfers paradise. You hear all kinds of good things about Essaouira, rightly so, but I think the short term travellers really like it for the classy little restaurants smattered all over the place. Don't get me wrong; I too would enjoy all that if I was on vacation for a week or two. But I'm not.
I may be a little sore in my mouth about Essaouira because I got some stomach bug there and was all pukey and shit for a couple days there, and it was so windy and annoying and everything seemed so annoying. You know how it is when your sick. The staff at my hotel was sweet though, as Moroccans tend to be. They came in to check on me, brought me cumin to eat with water, which they swore by. Like I'm gonna scarf back a wacky amount of cumin when I haven't eaten a bloody thing and have been vomiting for hours. Yeah. Good idea.
So what I did with it; I had bought a packet of Hirira soup (moroccan soup) to make in my room (we have a cooker) but I didn't realize I was supposed to use a flavour cube with it, so it was all mushy chick peas and no flavour (obviously) so I plopped in some cumin, which was fine initially. Initially. Word of advice, don't do as I do.

On to Agadir from there, which is this bizarre all in inclusive resorts town on one 'side of the tracks' (really was a big hill), then a normalish town on the other. And it's chock o' block with germans. Really nice beach though. And we met some local dude that had a ground squirrel as a pet. Kinda like having a ferret I suppose, but cute none the less. The squirrel just loved him too; followed him everywhere.
There was also a little fast food francise called Le BBQ. They have a burger called the Cock Supreme. It's a bunch of little hotdogs. We thought it was funny.

Parted ways with Em and Simon at this point and D and I headed to more mountains. Tafraoute in the Anti-Atlas. In the 80s some loopy Belgium artist went and, with the help of the local fire department, painted a mess of massive rocks blue. When I first heard this, I thought, right, don't have to see that. But it looks amazing! Most of the paint has chipped away at this point but there's a few left, showing how powerful his canvas was. And he used other colours as well. Kinda like Christo and his drapes, except rocks. Really fantastic. Don't know if I have any of D's digitals but you can google the town name and I'm sure you'll come up with something.

We were heading back to Tiznit from Tafraoute when we met some Peace Corps (Tiznit-doesn't it sound like a diss? You're such a tiznit...) . We were all headed to the same direction, Sidi Ifni, so we managed to fill a whole vehicle ourselves (vite vite!). And we got to meet Kevin, the Peace Corp volunteer in Sidi Ifni! He had satelite tv! We watched a lot of tv! American tv! Was sooo good. We also maneged to get an apartment for the short while we were there. It was fantastic, kitchen and all. Fresh fish and grilled cheese sandwiches! Salads! Blender too, so lots of fresh fruit beverages.

Had dinner one night at Kevin's along with the other visiting PC. Man, they can cook. We had been hanging on the beach with them all day at a place called Gzira (has all kinds of natural bridges). Anywho, we decided to make a rice feast with camel meat. Man, it was tasty! Honestly, nice and tender. 'Manger on Jamel', to be sung in the tune of Jamming by Bob Marley.

Learned much in the south. Learned Peace Corp live under a very watchful eye here. The cops love to tattle on them. They only get 2 days off a month. There can't be more then 5 plus the host in one city (so only 6 at a time in Mara!). It's very strict here, especially compared to Uganda, where they seem to run amuck.
Also found that the people in the south click more with their tongue when they agree or whatever. And they eat 4 times a day, 10 pm being dinnertime. Ummm, goats like to climb Argane trees (similar to olive). The times are changing here and all the young lads I'm meeting want to only marry one woman, that one forever (multiple wives are allowed and encouraged here. Show of wealth). They also want to live in Morocco, no where else. I also heard a rumour that the King is actually gay(!). That is so not allowed here even though it's rampant. Lots of icky europeans come here and get a bunch of little boyfriends. Married local men have boyufriends here too. Lots and lots of gay guys.
But the king. He's a bit of a dude though. His wife is very liberal and they just recently passed a law that enables the wife in a partnership to half of the belongings. Moving forward and the youth love it.
Just a few days ago the big party was for the king's son getting snip snipped. People all over the country had their boys done the same day. I loved asking the locals to tell me what was going on. I mean, my french isn't that good! Think of the hand gestures...then the inevitable blushing and embarrased laughter.

Hung out one night on my front steps with a bunch of local dudes in Sidi Ifni. They really like to tell each other jokes, and they would attempt to tell me as well. Usually they were juvenile so not so funny; or lost in translation. They asked me if we like to tell jokes in Canada. For sure, I say. Now, because they speak english so well I don't think very clearly. I start to tell Mushroom walks into a bar. What's a mushroom. I forget my french immediately. Um err. Ok, we find that out not long after. But the problem is the punch line: I'm a fun guy. Really. Why oh why didn't I tell a simpler joke. So if anyone has any suggetions, please email me. I'm sure this situation will arise again.

Yet another thing I forgot to tell that happened in Cascades: Chilling watching the falls one day when we looked up and saw some sheep on the side of a cliff. Not out of the ordinary but the barbery apes clinging to the outsides of the cliffs was. These apes were sneaking up on the sheep and jumping out and scaring them. No lie! It was the funniest thing! The sheppard finally saw it happening and he just ran around in circles, screaming and throwing rocks at the apes.
African tv.

Donkey=Berber 4x4
Tea=Berber whiskey
Inshallah=God willing- to be used for virtually anything. Inshallah that bus will move in the next hour. That kinda thing.

Right, so now I'm here, in the desert. It's nighttime, so, dark, but I can see and walk on anything now cause I ate a camel. And I now have a Berber power neckless (the symbol; silver is really good here too) along with the hand of Fatima (the evil eye, to protect you from those who covet) so I'm save. That and I'm in a muslim country and the worst that'll happen is someone will try to practice their english with you. Horrible, isn't it?

Sorta sad I'm leaving Morocco. It really is amazing here. The country has everything a country could offer, stunning scenery, untouched beaches (there's one Plage Blanc that's 45km long with nothing on it), awesome food, remarkable people. You could spend forever exploring it. I however have to get into Africa. Enough of this easy stuff!
And I want some papaya.

love and misses,
thi
PS Spellcheck didn't work so don't hate me for errors.
PSS And I need beer too. The problem with muslim countries is the lack of alcohol, and then the high cost of it when you find it. Africa doens't want their people to be without beer.