Salam alaikum! (Translation: "Hello, how are you?" and you respond "Alaikum salam")
There is SO much to tell about this vacation, but I will begin with this: this was hands-down the most amazing trip of my life. It was so different from anything I've ever seen or experienced...I would recommend a trip to Morocco and the Sahara Desert to ANYONE. And DiscoverSevilla, the tour group I went with, made everything so easy and organized, it was perfect. The trip leaders were all young (around 25 years old), so they knew how to make the trip perfect for college students.
The day we left, we had to meet at the tour buses at 5:15 AM, which was difficult, but we all slept on the bus anyway. We made our way to Tarifa, which is the port town in the southernmost tip of Spain. From there, we took a ferry (which looked almost like a cruise ship) across the straight to Tangiers (and I am happy to say that I got my passport stamped a total of 4 times on this trip: twice in Tarifa and twice in Tangiers). The first day ended up being a lot of traveling, but it was fine because they had movies for us to watch and we looked out the window at the scenery.
We stopped for lunch in Rabat, the administrative capital of Morocco. I had cous cous and veggies (which I ate a lot on the trip because it's vegetarian). Then we walked up a couple of streets to some cool look-out points with our guide, although it was a little hazy, so the view wasn't as cool as it could have been. After this, we headed on to Fez, which is considered the cultural and intellectual capital of Morocco. We had dinner at Fez in the hotel, which was just OK because they gave me pasta because I couldn't have the meat dish. But, the dessert was flan and it was really good.
The next day we had breakfast at the hotel, checked out and then headed off toward the Sahara Desert. We had lunch at a desert kasbah, which was AMAZING. There was a huge buffet of amazing Moroccan foods, including very flavorful cous cous and veggies, salads, and desserts. The kasbah was also GORGEOUS and smelled amazing too (there is usually incense burning at the desert hotels). After lunch, we got back on the buses and we arrived at another desert hotel, where our 4x4's were waiting for us (we couldn't take the buses any futher). There were also 2 camels outside and I posed with one and it almost bit me..hehe. We got in the 4x4's and I was in a group with Erin, Norah, Alicia, and Janette. Our driver was crazy and as we drove (off road) in the desert toward our destination, we were doing donuts and passing other 4x4's and basically going crazy. It was really fun because as we were doing this we were listening to Moroccan hip hop, which is a combination of Arabic and French. It was awesome and I would kill to get a hold of it now.
After about 45 min. of craziness in our 4x4, we arrive at our desert hotel, which was literal paradise, complete with thatched huts, exotic tiles, palm trees, etc. Our rooms were amazing.. and there was a giant area with a shower in our room as well. Also, the food at this hotel was by far my favorite food that we had on the trip. The buffet was delicious and there was so much to try and I basically ate my weight in food. And, by the way, this day was my birthday. I wasn't expecting anything special to happen on my birthday, but I WAS SO WRONG. At the end of this amazing meal, it got really dark and we saw our guides starting to come in the dining room beating their drums and singing. Soon I realized that they were coming toward ME! And they brought me a huge birthday cake that said "Happy Birthday, Laura" and "20" as they had a drum performance. It was seriously the coolest thing to ever happen on my birthday!! I was SO happy and they even gave my group a free bottle of Moroccan wine :).
The next morning, we had a buffet breakfast (I swear, Moroccan buffets are the end of me). They had this amazing flat bread that reminded me of Indian nan, which we ate with honey and delicious fruit jelly. After breakfast, our guide took us on a walk to a nearby town to see what it looked like. And then we went to a rug place there and it was pretty cool. And did I mention that we were in the middle of the Sahara Desert and the view was BREATHTAKING? It really looked like a backdrop in a movie, it was SOO beautiful. After this, we had another amazing meal at the hotel. Then, we bought head scarves and our guides wrapped our heads.. it was so cool! And wearing the scarves in the desert really helped keep the heat off and protect my albino skin from the desert sun (Mom & Dad: you will be SO proud that I did not even get a LITTLE sunburned in the SAHARA DESERT!! Probably because I was wearing SPF 70...).
Next, we got on our camel caravans. Camels make these awful noises that are kind of scary, but once we were on the camels, it was alright. My guide told me that my camel's name was "Boob" (question mark?). The views were amazing and I couldn't believe that I was riding a camel, but it was a bit uncomfortable and I literally got sore from riding. After 2 hours in the beautiful Sahara sunshine, we arrived at our desert oasis. It was like a fancy camp site in the shadow of a magnificent dune. As soon as we arrived, they served us Moroccan tea (which is TO DIE FOR.. fresh mint leaves with lots of sweetness) and then we spent the next 45 min. climbing the ginormous dune. At many points along the way, we thought we wouldn't be able to make it to the top because it was so steep and it was difficult to climb in the sand. But we made it to the top just in time for sunset and it was breathtaking. All we could see for miles around was beautiful desert and it was one of the best views that I've ever seen.
The rest of the evening was filled with Moroccan drumming, an amazing candle-lit dinner, and dancing. We slept in these tents made out of blankets. And the next morning, Erin and I had to use the bathrooms (they actually had real toilets) and we ran up part of the dune and caught the sun coming up in the sky. Then, before we left the oasis on the camels, they served us more mint tea.
The ride back to the desert hotel was painful/ hilarious because I basically thought I was going to fall off the camel from the pain of riding it. Janette was laughing at me the whole time and I think she got some crazy pictures of me almost falling off as I was trying to ride side saddle. So, after 2 hours when we finally got off the camels, I was pretty happy to be on my own two feet again. At the hotel, we had yet another amazing buffet breakfast with fresh orange juice.
Then, we departed for lunch at the Xaluca desert hotel, which was (as always) amazing. We had a few hours to hang out by the pool (although I didn't feel like swimming, other people did), which looked like what I imagine to be paradise (see pictures below). After lunch, we departed for Fez and then we had dinner at our hotel in Fez once we arrived.
The next day was amazing because we got to explore the Medina in Fez. The Medina is within the old city walls and it functions the same as it has for about a thousand years (literally). The streets are narrow and crowded and you have to watch out for passing donkeys carrying huge loads. There were shops everywhere and it was pretty hectic, but very exciting. They took us to several different places including a Koranic school, a rug cooperative, a tannery, a Berber pharmacy (the Berbers are native Moroccans who are from the desert/ rural areas), and a traditional dress store. We also had a little bit of time to go shopping and I got to bargain for the first time! I bought 3 scarves, a hand of Fatima necklace charm (that wards off the evil eye), 2 larger hands of Fatima, 2 small leather camels, and lots of spices from the Berber pharmacy.
The last day was pretty long because it was spent mostly in transit. However, we did get to stop for a picnic lunch in Assilah, a small town in northern Morocco, which was pretty quiet and we just walked around for a while.
Understandably, we were all sad to leave Morocco... but we came home with lots of memories (and a little bit of Arabic!) and we still had the rest of Semana Santa in Sevilla to look forward too!
Check out the pictures:
Check out one of the short videos I took:
I'll also have more pictures once I swap some with the rest of the girls!
