Morocco Day 6

Our morning started with a visit to the Todra gorge, which reminded me of our trip up The Narrows in Zion.  Sheer cliffs overlooked a river running through the canyon bed.  Rivers, and hydroelectricity, actually supply 95% of the country's power needs, according to our guide.  We weren't able to see any on our trip, but there are apparently a multitude of dams in Morocco- if I remember correctly, around 70.  Michael and I took a look at some of the goods being sold at small stands, and ran into some Spaniards who were telling us about driving their car onto the ferry, and that they are touring Morocco from their own car.  Incredible!

A gas station stop down the road gave me the opportuniy to reflect on several things.  First- Language abilities of people even in remote areas.  our guides speak multiple languages; Idris knows 4 Berber dialects, 3 Arabic dialects, English, French, and conversational Russian.  Now, our guides have been to school (Zuzu has a master's in applied linguistics), but people even in the most remote areas have a smattering of many languages.  You can go a very long way, especially when you can mutually work between several different languages.  This trip has been particularly enjoyable for that aspect.

Next revelatioin- the cleanliness of bathrooms all over Morocco is astonishing.  I remember driving to OCMD with Sara, Katie, and Laura earlier this summer, and had to hold your breath to use the bathroom at a gas station.  Here, all you smell is a subtle scent of cleaner, and everything is well-kept.  It's singular from any other country, including the US, in this respect.

I was intrigued to do some calculations surrounding gas prices.  Believe it or not, gas is more expensive (at least in the south) here than at home.  12.5 dirhams per liter multiplied by 4 liters per gallon (more or less) is 50 dirhams per gallon.  Then divide by 8 (dirhams to the dollar) means that gas is around $6 per gallon here.  Again, this could just be in the south, since it would be hard and expensive to get resources to this area.  We'll have to check prices in Marrakech or Casablanca to verify.

During the afternoon, we stopped at a hotel for lunch and a swim in the pool to break up the monotony of the drive.  We rested there for a few hours, then continued on to a Berber camp in the desert.  We had to take SUVs to get there, as past of the path included crossing sand and stone.  Offroading Moroccan style, if you will.  I have to admit, I was a litle scared during the ride.  Probably had to do with lack of control; our driver did a perfectly fine job of driving, but not being able to dictate our movements myself had me wondering a host of things: at what point would this tip over on a turn, how close is that other car going to get, etc.  Fear I think is part of the universal language, who we are as people.  We can face it and try to move forward, or we could become petrified and stagnant.  Our reaction is in our control.

A majority of our group opted to participate in a camel ride at sunset, but since Michael and I have both done similar things and found camels not to our liking, we we happy to simply walking across the flat ground and take pictures at the first dune: we'd arrived at the Sahara.

I dont't know if I can fully describ the Berber camp experience, buI will try.  There is a compound consisiting of a bar area, a kitchen, a huge dining hall, and an outdoor courtyard and pool.  All of the sitting areas whave benches running around the outer walls, which are then covered with Berber carpets (we did visit a carpet cooperative,  which was fascinating but too expensive for me to bring back home) and pillows, making for very comfortable seating.  Then you head from the main compound through an archway, past the bathrooms, and 

then you enter the tent courtyards.  It's basically a square, and the outer walls of said square are constructed by the tents themselves.  The tents are a gray burlap type material, then with sequined colored rugs for doors.  Inside each tent are rugs and mattresses for your comfort.  It would have been impressive on its own, but even more to think that this has been part of Berber culture for millenia.  Thinking about Berber culture gives me the same feeling as the pyramids; that is, the perseverance with which they have survived and thrived in a climate which most of us, accustomed to today's luxuries, is formidable and awe-inspiring to me.

After watching the sun set into a cloud on the horizon, our group made ourselves comfortable on the rug-covered benches and indulged in some more card games until dinner.  There was also traditional music and dancing by some of the guides and camp inhabitants.  Later, Michael, Vicky, Adam, Jackie, Kristen, Vinnie, Idris, and I went for a star walk, laying out in the middle of the desert to check out the constellations, talk about aliens, and explore our thoughts on the afterIife.  Coming back from that, Michael, Vicky, Adam and I wanted to continue stargazing, so we went to a raised terrace behind the camp.  We found that there was even a bed of sorts there to lie upon, so we squeezed in, enjoyed the view, and started talking about our lives and different aspects of our own paths to this point.  The next thing we knew, it was past teo AM, and we needed to get up by 5:15 for the sunrise anyway.  So we got our blankets and pillows from the tent, continued talking, and eventually fell asleep under the Moroccan sky.