ROCKY ROAD

On Monday morning we got up early to meet our travel guide, who was going to take us on an off-road adventure over the Atlas Mountains. We had expected (actually hoped) for an open top jeep that would break down half way through the trip. What we actually rode in a nice Toyota Land Cruiser, with a very experienced driver who took us over some difficult trails. We started on the main paved road and climbed into the mountains behind a caravan of other tour groups before we veered off onto a rocky trail that led us through the rough landscape. It was incredible to see the small villages built into the brown hillside in contrast to the dark green of the river valley below. Along the way we passed men sitting on gas cans on the side of the road, just waiting for someone to run out of gas. I don’t even want to know how much they would charge for a liter of gas in the middle of nowhere! A few times we ran into “traffic jams” where the sheep were blocking the road, or when we would have to wait for a jack-ass, I mean donkey, to get off the road so we could pass. I felt like I was stuck in Los Angeles rush hour on the 110 freeway when I leaned my head out the window and told the “God damn jack ass to get out of the way!”


Traffic Jam!

The Land Cruiser

Riding shotgun!

At lunch time we stopped at a famous Casaba where they filmed Gladiator and Passion of Christ. After lunch our driver arranged for a few people to ride on camels around the parking lot. I was appointed Official National Geographic photographer to take pictures of the parking lot adventure! It was not quite a desert camel excursion like everyone wanted, but it was hilarious to say the least…

The Casaba where Gladiator was filmed.

Say "Cheese!"

National Geographic adventure

From the Casaba we drove through the desert to get back towards the main road towards Marrakech. With the open road in front of us we were able to pick up some speed over the smooth dirt! Yee ha!

The rest of the way home way fairly smooth and happened to put everyone in the back seat to sleep. After staying up too late the previous night and getting up too early, we were all exhausted and ready to get out of the car.

Our hostel is located in a very religious part of the walled city and there are no places to purchase or drink alcohol so we asked our driver to take us to a liquor store on the way home. He was generous enough to stop at a store and wait for us outside while we bought our liquid party supplies and then took us home. We spent most of our nights hanging out in the riad because there was no night life within the Medina (the original city). Many of the stores stayed open until 9pm and the food booths were open late, but that was the limit of the night time entertainment