A Safari... of sorts

Apologies for the delay in this entry- we are still recovering from our various Moroccan stomach illnesses that were a bit trying at times. On the whole though, it was an interesting trip, and Bobby and I (Pitch) even managed to get in a little camel riding.

We knew we were in for an adventure when, after meeting our transportation at the Marrakech airport, we discovered the ride to our accommodations on the coast was a 5 hour journey, rather than the hour commute we expected. So after a good Moroccan meal in the city, we were on the road. The drive was long and windy, but eventually we ended up in the right place, a small town near Agadir, at the very reasonable hour of 2 am.

We were greeted the next morning by some excellent Moroccan weather, and we immediately hit the beach to take advantage- surfboards and a lesson were included in our trip. It was hard to say which of us was the worst, though I might nominated myself, as I was the only one who managed to break the fin of the board off on my head after getting tossed by a sizable wave. Not that everyone else was much better- we had all perfected the panicked head-over-heels flail by the early afternoon, and we tried to stick to the outsides of the group so as to avoid being seen. But we are determined to improve, and were it not for the terrible weather on Saturday, I have no doubt we would all have been hanging ten with the best of them at weekend's end.

Friday night also included a trip to a Moroccan bath house, by far the most culturally interesting part of our adventure. It is basically a large steam room, and the men and women are separated of course. Its BYOSST- bring your own shampoo, soap, and towel- but everyone receives a bucket upon their entrance, to be filled with the piping hot water (cold is also available, and surprisingly refreshing) from the taps on the walls of the bath house. The locals clearly knew the way to sit that offers the best leverage for optimal scrubbing, but we managed just fine.

Dinner that night was good, but I would eventually regret it- starting early saturday morning, I was sidelined the entire day with food poisoning. It also rained the entire day, which made surfing impossible because all the trash from the street drained down to the coast and into the surf. So the others decided to go to the town market, where they chatted it up with a nice local tea vendor while sampling some of his goods.



I was recovered enough by Sunday, but had seemingly transferred my illness to Will- at least we were already on our way home. We got back to Marrakech early enough for a quick stroll around the flea market, where Gabe, Bobby and I all haggled for some gifts before our departure. Needless to say, it was nice to get home.



More on this past weekend to come later.