the sahara

We rode camels into the Sahara the morning after our near abduction. Camels are amazing animals, and if you have never been close to one, I highly suggest it.

After riding a few hours into the desert, we took a tea and lunch break at a little hut.

We are somewhere on this map

 Camel love

ouazarzate

The Atlas Mountains, stretching 1600 miles across North Africa, separate the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines from the Sahara Desert. As we had planned a trek out to the desert for one night, we had to traverse these mountains with precarious switchbacks via bus. I only managed a few photos out the window, or otherwise was too queasy (like the rest of the bus travelers).

After the 5 hour ride, we luckily didn't fall off any cliffs and made it to our destination of Ouarzazate, which looks like this

It also has this there

 

Ouarzazate is the last big town before the Sahara and also known for being a popular film-making location (Lawrence of Arabia, The Mummy, The Gladiator, etc.). It was hot and sunny while we were there and Katie got sick, so that was a bit rough. I got a lot of Hunger Games reading and drinking of cafe au laits done.

marrakesh

Marrakesh: snake charmers, smoke, story tellers, spices. Fresh orange juice, food stalls, henna ladies, call to prayer, camels, kasbahs. Monkeys, motorcycles, mountains, mint tea. This is what I think of when I remember Marrakesh.

After a train ride through scenery such as this,

we bargained our way through riads to find a good one for 50 Dirham, or about 5 Euro, a night, in a central location right off of Djemma El Fna, one of the busiest squares in the world.

We actually did some sightseeing in Marrakesh, and visited old palace ruins as well as the tombs of some dead guys. The best part was watching the birds, which looked prehistoric to me.