Marrakesh, Morocco

4 June 2012

It was a real struggle to get up this morning in order to see the sunrise in the desert. This was due to a number of factors--staying up late, but also the peacefulness of the desert. In South Dakota, it's pretty easy to go out into the wilderness and be the only person for miles. However, it's never quiet. There's always the noise of crickets, birds, and leaves rustling. In the desert, it was completely silent, and I slept like a baby. It didn't help that the first alarm that we set to wake us up either didn't go off or someone immediately shut it off.

 Thankfully, as the sun was just getting ready to peek over the mountains, I woke up again and got up in time to watch the sunrise--truly one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen. The peace and beauty of the desert left me feeling rejuvenated....

 Which lasted until we had to get back on the camels to head to Zagora. Let me just say that riding a camel the second day was shear agony. Every movement of the camel hurt my already sore body. Eventually, I just felt numb.

Back in Zagora, we stopped a shop to look at Berber carpets. They were extremely beautiful. I wanted to buy one, but had neither the money nor the space (or home!) for such a thing.

 We continued our journey back to Marrakesh--stopping to enjoy the views as well as the city of Ouarzazate. Like Ait-Ben-Haddou, it's been used as an international movie studio for movies such as Lawrence of Arabia, Kingdom of Heaven, Daughter of the Nile, and Babel. The picture above is the kabash--fortifications.

 After a long day of traveling, we made it back to the city of Marrakesh, and promptly ran into some people that we know! We knew that some friends of ours were going to be in Marrakesh, but we didn't expect to run into them on the streets. Later, we met up with them to eat at a restaurant near the central plaza. I wasn't really hungry so I ate a soup called harira--a tomato and lentil soup.

Eventually, we headed back to the hostel and hung out with our friends and the new friends we made at the hostel. It was an interesting group of people--from Germany, the US, and Australia! Every had cool stories to share about their experiences traveling the world!