Errachidia

Crammed in a Grande Taxi


We woke up and decided to continue heading southeast towards the Sahara Desert. The hotel owner provided us with fresh mint tea and bread with butter and jam. We packed up our bags and headed out. I have been pulling Julie’s bag, because it weighs a lot more than mine and I am a nice guy. The roads and sidewalks here aren’t the best and Julie’s bag wasn’t made for the kind of off-roading we were taking it on and one of her wheels has broken and no longer spins. This makes it a lot of fun to pull the heavy bag as it tries to spin in a circle instead of being pulled straight.

We took a Grande Taxi to Errachidia and checked into a hotel to get rid of our bags. All of the hotels in Errachidia are quite expensive but thanks to LP we were able to find a decently priced hotel with A/C. Yes, that’s right I said A/C, we were very excited.

The only thing unique around Errachidia that we could find was a place called Source Bleuse de Meski where they have taken the river and turned it into a swimming area. Julie doesn’t have a full body covering swimming type outfit, but we didn’t know what to expect so she brought her swim suit in case and I of course put my swim wear on. I always wear shorts with a shirt because my skin is so white that it would burn within seconds. I am so white that why Skype-ing with my brother without a shirt on he thought I was wearing a white tee-shirt. Source Bleuse de Meski is a smaller concrete type swimming whole and a life guards nightmare. People have glass containers, run everywhere, push people and jump off every imaginable surface. There was not a single adult woman swimming and so Julie decided that she didn’t need any more unwanted attention and would sit by the side with her feet in the water while I swam. I noticed that several people who were in the water looked to be freezing and judged that it was very cold. I decided that it would be better for me not to touch it and just jump in. The water was very cold but in the desert this was a welcome change. Although Julie didn’t get in the water she did get plenty went. Men and boys would constantly run and jump into the pool in front of Julie as a way to try and get her wet. On the other side of the pool was a 3 foot high deck where people could sit and jump off, I went over there and jumped in. Then I saw the highest point from where people were jumping, a bridge over the water and then climbing onto the fence on the bridge and jumping from there. People were diving from there and so I assumed that it must be very deep. I went over to the bridge and climbed up on the railing and jumped in, just a normal arms flailing fall. I actually touched the bottom which shocked me that other people were diving in. I also climbed between two palm trees and then jumped from them. It was very refreshing and lots of fun.

The number of men and boys at the pool with six pack stomachs was ridiculous. It made me glad to have my shirt on so that no one could see my stomach. Imagine the percentage of fat people and the percentage of people with six packs that you see at a normal American pool and then flip them and that is what it is like here.

There was a man walking around the pool area with a hedgehog in his hand. He set it on the ground and it was really slow moving, not at all like Sonic.

For dinner we met up with the Moroccan woman from the Grande taxi the other day and we tried to talk with her as best we could. It was nice to see her again and we had a good time despite the inability to talk about many topics.

We don’t know where we will head tomorrow, we will decide that in the morning, it’s too much work for nighttime.


Improvised glasses

With our Moroccan friend

Busted wheel

Water in the desert

The air freshener is still in the bag, The decal is on upside down, there is a reusable toothpick on the dash, and the air vents are all kinds of messed up, so nice!

Aww Shucks

I'm flying!

Stop looking at my booty!

Above the pool