Let me start this post by talking about the weather, which is something I haven’t mentioned in a while. It has been gorgeous. It has been mostly sunny (as opposed to partly cloudy) and perfect temperature for touring. It is cool in the mornings and evenings, and for most of the trip it got into the sixties or seventies during the day. In Marrakech it has been totally sunny and gets up to around eighty during the day.
Today was the first and only day of the trip where we had some downtime. There was no official activity until 4:15, but they offered to have our local guide Adnan take us on a shopping spree through the Medina. We wanted to by some gifts so we tagged along. The first stop was a clothing store, which was a painful experience for me.
Fortunately they had schmuck chairs there. We decided to leave the tour group so we could shop faster and get back to the hotel for a little R&R. We stopped in a little shop and got everything we wanted.
We then took a cab back to the hotel and spent the next few hours sitting around the beautiful pool.
We had lunch at the pool-side restaurant. Barbara had lobster roll and I had sea bass. There were a couple of mellow musicians who we enjoyed while we ate.
We then went on one of the highlights of the tour – a trip to the desert. We passed through huge areas of rolling sand dunes on our way to a Berber village. We could also see the beautiful snow capped High Atlas Mountains in the background.
When we got to the Berber village we went to the home of the village chieftain. He and his wife served us tea and bread and we heard a little about village life. The chieftain was very gracious and pleasant. He and his wife have three small daughters. He didn’t speak English but Adnan translated for him.
We got to look around his home.
There are seventeen families in the village. The chieftain handles issues such as if a family takes more than their allotted time at the village well. The government brought electricity to the village not that long ago.
We then went to a nearby desert camp where we spent the rest of the evening.
They greeting us in their traditional Berber outfits and played traditional Berber music and we had some fun desert experiences before dinner.
I rode on a camel but Barbara decided not to, which was probably a good decision since it was a little dicey getting on and off.
Barbara got a henna tattoo on her hand. Here are pictures of immediately after it was applied and a couple of hours later when the thick stuff wore off. Barbara now thinks that it looks like she has skin disease.
We had dinner in a big tent that had heaters to keep us warm since it cools off quickly in the desert. The food was good but I was still being careful about what I was eating so I took small portions of everything. We forgot to take pictures at dinner.
Tauck had bought us burnouses (traditional capes) to wear when it got cold so we all put them on for a group photo. The men’s burnouses didn’t have sleeves so it was kind of a pain using my hands.
We then went outside for a “surprise” – a fire dancer and breather. He was fun to watch.
We spent a little time looking up at the stars, which were amazing but our eyes were still dilated from the fire dancer and there were some lanterns burning so it wasn’t as spectacular as we were hoping for.
We got back to the hotel around 10:30. This was another great day.
Jim and Barbara's Travel Journal 