Breeze from Sahara

Ouarzazate - the edge of Sahara. Snow peaked Atlas mountains behind me. Infinite desert in front. What a contrast! This is one of the landscapes that I've never seen before. I'm just looking everything with a foolish smile on my face and thinking: Wooow!

This week is holidays from school, so we decided to profit this occassion with Laura and left Tanger to go very far. First, we stopped for 2 nights in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, and stayed with friends from school. Rabat is pretty much like Tanger: a modern town with an ancien medina where you can feel how the town was like in the old days. When leaving Rabat, we had some problems because Laura got into a car accident with her friends. Luckily it wasn't anything serious, but I had to take a train to another town without her because we had made plans to stay with a family in Benguerir, a small rural town towards Marrakech. Laura joined me later on in the same evening. We stayed with the family for one night and enjoyed the Moroccan hospitality to the maximum measures! Eating, drinking mint tea, eating, drinking mint tea.. :D I would call that holidays! From Benguerir we took a grand taxi to Marrakech. For those who don't know what a Moroccan grand taxi is like, let me explain you, as it is something that doesn't exist back home! These taxies are Mercedes Benzs who take in 6 passengers and they won't leave until they are full. Really, I mean FULL. There are two people in the front seat and four in the back. So, it can certainly feel pretty crowded and if it's really hot outside, it might not be the most comfortable way of traveling! Another thing is that the drivers go sometimes like lunatics, so it can be pretty stressful. But when traveling in Morocco, it's hard to avoid this way of transport if you don't always want to wait for the next bus. I'm already getting used to it but I still prefer to take a bus, if possible.

Where was I... oh, yes, Marrakech. We stayed there only one night and didn't really go to see the town because we had both seen it before - I visited it when I was traveling in Morocco two years ago. Marrakech is certainly a typical Moroccan town with a special atmosphere. However, we find there to be too much hassle and tourists, so we decided to avoid it this sometimes. From Marrakech, we took a direct bus to Ouarzazate where we are right now. I must say that this route was pretty stressful for me. We crossed the Atlas mountains, the highest mountains in North Africa, and you can imagine that the road in the mountains was pretty curvy with an altitude of 2000m. Also, considering that moroccan buses are not always in a good condition... so, yes, I was praying the man upstairs to take us to our destination safe and sound! After four hours of travel, we finally reached here before yesterday and yes, it was worth it. This is really an extraordinary place with oasis, mountains, old kasbash (fortresses), and of course the heat of Sahara. We are lucky to visit this place at this time of the year since the temperature is only 30c.

Now I need to rush as our bus is leaving to our next destination... so, see you, somewhere, sometime.. You never know where you will find me next! :)