Now it gets hectic. I had planned on visiting Marrakech, then taking a train north and hitting a couple other cities along the way. Instead I woke up a few hours later, climbed in a van with seven complete strangers and drove two days to Merzouga, near Morocco's eastern border. From there we rode camels into the desert and camped overnight.
On June 25 I slept under the stars in the Sahara Desert.
This is our group. In front is Mustapha, our Berber guide, and the last shadow is your humble narrator on camelback.
These are the times I wish I was a better photographer, so I could capture the gradations of color and shadow in the sand. And of course there's no way to capture the sensation of total silence. After everyone had gone to bed I sat on the sand and listened, and there was nothing: no animals, no people, no traffic, no wind, and no artificial light in any direction. From the top of the ridge we could see out to the east into Algeria.
And as always, what made it really worthwhile was the people I met. I've been chastised for not posting pictures of me, or anyone else, for that matter. In my group there was a French-Canadian girl, a Mexican guy, three Venezuelan girls and our guide, Youssef. He took this picture, so those are his feet you see. From left to right it's me, Daniela, Ana, Alejandra, Daniel, Caroline. (And in case you're wondering, yes, every one of the girls is drop-dead gorgeous.)
I mention the nationalities of everyone involved because there's a funny little travel story involved. After struggling with Spanish for a month I was genuinely terrified about visiting Africa for the first time, in a country where I can't even read the alphabet, let alone speak the language.
When I mentioned my concern quite a few people said, "Don't worry, everyone in Morocco speaks French." Great. I don't speak French either. In fact, I know more Arabic! Even though I traveled for a full calendar day and a half to get here I didn't sleep much because I was listening to my Arabic language instruction on my iPod.
So of course I ended up in a travel group in which the primary language was ... Spanish. Thankfully, everyone spoke English and was kind enough to do so for my benefit. Our guide was awful, but it was a great group of people, which helps when in you're cooped up in a van together for three straight days in the desert with no air conditioning. I was prepared for the heat and the dirt and the sweat but one thing I could not get used to was drinking hot water. We'd buy bottles of water and if we didn't drink them immediately the water quickly warmed to the ambient temperature, which was about 100 degrees.
But it was worth it!
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