Southern Morocco

After a week of bus touring around southern Morocco, I am back on my lop-sided bed, connected to the rest of the world on my very slow internet. Fun times, yes. And it is raining again, just like every other day in Rabat. The tiles on my walls and the rain are already starting to remind me of why I didn't want to come back to Rabat. I'm sure once I venture out of the house I'll definitely find myself being harassed like crazy again with ridiculous pick-up lines. Well, one thing I did miss was the cheap, delicious kiwi juice! Mmm, a reason to go out of the house tomorrow..

The past week in southern Morocco is still kind of a blur in my mind. All I can really remember is hours of long bus rides, going through the beautiful high atlas mountains, riding my sandy white camel at 6am in the morning to watch the sun rise in the sand dunes of the Western Sahara desert, icky and way too touristy Marrakech, and the lovely, relaxing and dreamy Essouira.

Since we had more time to explore and do whatever we wanted in Marrakech and Essouira, I remember those cities better than the other three days of the trip. Marrakech was a huge touristy city. I have not seen that many tourists or European people in such a long time. It felt so weird seeing non-Moroccan faces. We saw snake "charmers" and guys on the streets with monkeys chained up to them for entertainment purposes.. actually, it was more like we darted men on the streets shoving snakes in our faces and trying to put them on us so we'd take pictures and pay them for it. A few of us did fall for the monkey act though; one of my friends was "attacked" by a monkey who held out his paw onto her shoulder. Well, one thing led to the next and before I knew it, the monkey was on my back/head-- he was so cute! Other than these encounters, Marrakech wasn't too impressive. Most of the things sold in the souks were things I could find in Rabat-- leather goods, traditional Moroccan clothing, scarves, etc. We did visit the Koutoubia minaret and Bahia Palace where we saw more Moroccan architecture, but otherwise, Marrakech was just a big city overloaded with tourists and overpriced cafés.

Essouira, our last destination, was such a nice place to end our trip. On the way there, we stopped at a cooperative where single and widowed Moroccan women were making argan oil. I'd never hear of argan oil before, but it comes from the argan fruit's seed and is used to make food and cosmetics. It's supposed to be good for the skin and have "restorative and age-defying effects." There was even a massage oil claiming to help relieve rheumatism! After our short stop there, we made our way to the beachy, relaxed Essouira. I honestly felt like I was in Marseilles when we got off our tour bus for the last time-- the cafés and European tourists dressed "scantily" in shorts and even tank tops (shuma!) made it seem like we weren't in Morocco anymore. Even the medina was enjoyable-- we weren't harassed half as much as we are in Rabat or even Marrakech, and I had a good time browsing and wandering around. I was even able to put my bargaining skills to use and got a sweet camel leather messenger bag for about $30! Oh, one of the great Moroccan traits.. bargaining! What a way to practice one's charm ;) We stayed at a really nice and cheap hotel on our second night in Essouira, right next to the ocean.. we had a lovely terrace and view of the coast, and even the stars were shinning brightly that night. I wish we had stayed there longer. It was so peaceful and relaxing and I didn't feel like I needed to worry about being harassed. I even felt like I could wear something semi-nice and look pretty without worrying about attracting too much attention.. it seems like it's been ages since I could last do that! We even met some normal, Norwegian guys while we waited in line for our evening crepe desert. How nice it was to talk to a stranger of the opposite sex without feeling creeped out and suspicious of whether or not we were being lured into some undesired trap. I think I might sort of be a little bit homesick...

Sadly, my camera was lost to the sand while we rode through the Sahara desert, so I wasn't able to get any pictures from the last half of the trip. I shall post up pictures though once I upload all my friends' pictures, especially those camel pictures :) As for now, sleeping sounds just wonderful.