Good friends come and stay and the not
so good ones, come and go, amen to that!
Two years ago 4 very good friends met
in Mumbai, India for a wedding and followed on travelling for a magical week
around Rajasthan.
It was time for us to meet again, so we
got together through emails and organized our next get together. Marrakesh and
the Sahara were the chosen destinations. This time it would be just three of
us. So my friend Kathryn from Australia now living in London, Julie a Canadian
living in Hong Kong and myself met in London, boarded an Easyjet plane and off
we were to Marrakesh.
Upon arrival, an incident still at the
airport quickly got me out of my comfort zone… our bank here in Panama had canceled
my ATM card instead of husband’s who had lost his…. oops I was in Morocco with
no money at all in a city where credit cards are not widely accepted… madre mia
madre santa… but like I said in the beginning, good friends come and stay and
Kathryn came to my rescue, thank you!
Mohamed was waiting for us with a nice
smile and drove us to our beautiful Riad Aladdin, a really cozy hotel with very
charming atmosphere and great people.
We had stupendous 4 days in the city
and 3 in the desert… very hard to say which one I liked best… may be, just may
be, the desert was nicer… don’t know, very close call.
In the city I was able to witness two
friends meeting after three years of not seeing each other,
Observe a lady opening her general
store,
Go crazy and get lost in the maze that
the Souks are,
Be caught in the act by the lady
selling her baskets,
Realize the gentlemen were not so
pleased I was registering their end of the day “nothing box”,
Saw a mother taking her child to
school,
… and the list of wonderful experiences
in the city goes on and on, but I’ll stop here because I still want to tell you a
bit about the desert, the great Sahara Desert.
The three of us left the hotel in a
Land Cruiser, this time under the care of Fadil. I really can not describe the super dupar
fun the four of us had in this trip… oh man, we laughed so much, cultural and
language clashes all over! Fadil was just the perfect, patient and funny guide.
He stopped for all our photo needs, explained about the places we were passing
by and the best was when we were entering the desert itself.
The government puts up signs letting
you know you are actually entering the great Sahara Desert, so they display
signs like “You are entering the desert, do you have enough water?” or in the
next sign they would ask “do you have enough fuel?” or “don’t litter the desert!” The scenery changed and voilá, there you have nothing else but the majestic
and impressive Sahara Desert right at your feet! Ufa, still now, sitting here
in my chair looking at so much water from the Pacific Ocean, I can still feel
that dryness I so loved to experience!
Anyway, going back to the best part of
entering the Sahara… at this pint, Fadil says; “so girls, in order for you to
get in the mood, here I have some desert music for you. ”Wow, what a marvelous
way he found to put us all, just in case we were not there yet, in the right
mood. And there we had it, a tough 4 x 4 performing just like a 4 x 4 does and
should in the Sahara, a guide who knew it all and three friends who were
thoroughly enjoying the trip and its experience, all dancing to good
Tuareg-Berber songs!
We drove through the Atlas Mountains
with snow,
Stopped and spoke to shepherds,
We slept and had lunch in Kasbahs,
Slept in typical Bivouac (a camp site)…
what an experience!
Saw camels doing camel stuff with their
“hey dude” face,
Woke up looking at this,
Witnessed the damages previous sand
storms had made…
… and again I could go for ever and
ever…, it seems those days had more than 24 hours, because I came back home
with the true feeling of having spent a year or so in those shores!
Thanks for stopping by and as I always
say, life is beautiful!
