As you may remember we had a long drive throughout the night before. Well that was to get to the nice hotel from which we would go ride camels and spend the night in the desert the next night. (Get excited!) So we woke up the next morning and had an excellent buffet breakfast at the hotel and then all jumped in Land Rovers to head for the desert! But first, I had to drop my sunglasses on the ground in the hotel parking lot and not realize it until we were driving away, because when would be a better time to lose sunglasses then right before the only time in my life I am going to the SAHARA DESERT?? Hehe. So that was sad. But it actually ended up not being too bad, I managed okay without them! So we are all in these 4x4’s driven by Moroccan men. I was in a car with two of my friends in the back seat with me, Catherine and Elena, and another student named Mark was up front. He spoke some French so he would switch between that and Spanish and English when talking to our driver. Did I mention they speak 5 million languages there?? Our driver was somewhat quiet but friendly. We went through town, and it was weird for me actually seeing a few women dressed in the full-out burqas (a traditional Islamic dress) – only showing their eyes. First stop was this fossil place where of course they tried to sell us stuff again. It was actually pretty cool though, there was tons of stuff (even whole bathroom sinks!) made of what seemed like a polished stone with real fossils in it! I spent a couple euros on a few little pendants myself. Then we hopped back in the cars and headed for the desert!
At this point we were just driving on the rocky, flat part at first and it was really fun. There were like 12 vehicles all racing across the terrain in whatever path they chose, being that the road had kind of ended. We had the windows down and the music up…our driver actually had some CD’s with some American oldies, which was bizarre to listen to driving ac
ross the Moroccan desert, but super fun! We stopped at a few places with views across a lake and the dunes in the background which were really pretty. We randomly stopped at a little village as well, where we crowed into this room and were given Moroccan tea as we watched these men dance and sing and play different instruments. One of them was a little boy who was really cute! The performance was good, very loud, and by the end they had everyone get up and start dancing around with them! It was really fun. This is when I finally started feeling like I was really in
We passed several tiny little communities like that…just groups of little nondescript buildings and houses that blend in with the tan expanse of nothingness in the background. These people are very poor, it was very sobering. Some of us were talking about it at dinner that night, how we just come in and stare at these people and gawk at how they live their lives, like they are on display, as we enjoy our tour that never really deprived us of any of the luxuries we were used to, which they live every day without. But on the other hand, I don’t think we should feel guilty for coming, because tourism is an incredible economic help to these people. We decided that it’s only good if you do it with the right perspective though…if you let yourself be changed by the experience and share it with others and help them if you can and don’t just go back to your normal life and forget that there are others living that way. I hope I don’t.
We stopped at another hotel for a buffet lunch and then relaxed for a little while and listened to our drivers play instruments and sing. Then it was back in the Land Rovers and into the dunes. That stuff is harder to drive on than you think! We actually had to 
get out of the car at one point and help push another vehicle that had gotten stuck in the dunes, and then had to do the same for ours! Well first we had to dig some of the sand away from in front of the tires, then everyone got behind to push, girls and guys alike! It was funny.
Our car ended up being the last to get to the camels so we jumped out and ran over there and were rushed to our individual camels. (They were actually a type of camel called a dromedary, dromedario in Spanish, which only has one hump so that’s what they called them but I will probable just say camel because it’s easier.) Before I knew it I was put on the same camel with my friend Catherine, and the camel was standing up, which was a very scary process that we were not warned about! I guess they just get up on their hind legs first so you are like hanging on for dear life facing the ground for a few seconds…at first I thought it had already stood up all the way and the saddle-thing was falling off or something so I was like yelling for help! Lol. But then it stood up all the way and we were horizontal so that was good hehe. At that point I was kinda glad to be with a friend so I wasn’t all by myself my first time on a camel like that!
We rode the camels up some pretty steep sand dunes and then got off and ran up to the very top of a sand dune…like a ridge of dunes I guess. You had to run though because if not you would sink in the sand! It was a workout hehe. The sunset was beautiful though; I couldn’t believe I was watching it on top of a Saharan sand dune! When it was over Catherine and I hopped back on the camel and she graciously let me have front seat this time. I regretted it the moment my lovely little dromedary started walking down that dune. It was a steep hill and so I was falling forward with this mettle part of the saddle digging into my thighs, which was being made worse because of course Catherine had to reach around me to hold on to the handle bar too, which pushed me more forward, making me really feel like I was gonna fall off, not to mention even more painful! On top of that everyone was making fun of us squished on top of the same camel, it was only us and two other girls that had to share, everyone else had their own! Definitely an experience. hehe
We then rode our camels to the camp where we would spend the night in the desert, which was basically a little hotel made out of tents! Hehe so we weren’t exa
ctly roughing it. We all slept in little tents with mattresses in them and ate at basically a little restaurant they had set up. There were candles for the feel, but some electric lights as well as toilets! All the tents and carpets and candles made for a very pretty little place, like something out of Aladdin or something! (Actually the whole time in
I had a hard time getting up though when my roommate, Christa, woke me up at 4:45am. I didn’t want to sleep in though because we were going for another camel ride to see the sunrise! Stay tuned!! :)
1 comment:
oh my gosh, what fun laura! especially riding the camels up and down the dunes, and when the camel stood up. :) what a fun adventure, i am seriously jealous. can't wait to hear more!
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