Worth

Goats aren't the only ones who can climb


I forgot to mention this yesterday and so I will mention it now because it is worth being mentioned. When we were playing in the river a man approached us and started talking to us. They usually want us to visit their shop or take a tour from them and it can be quite annoying. We take turns talking to these people and it was my turn, so I crossed the river to speak with him. Most conversations with such people go along these lines:

Them: Bonjour
Us: Bonjour
Them: Cava
Us: Cava
Them: Are you English?
Us: No, we are Americans
Them: Where are you from in America?
Us: Chicago (if it’s Julie, I say California)
Them: I have a friend/cousin/brother who lives there
Us: That’s cool
Them: Morocco and America are brothers
Us: Yes
Them: (Pause) Obama
Us: Yes
Them: Would you like to come to my shop/restaurant/hotel
Us: No thank you

This guy was trying to get me to come to a place where women make Berber rugs and I really didn’t want to so I told him I would talk to Julie and maybe tomorrow. Then I tried to walk away and he asked me if I would promise to come tomorrow. I told him I would talk to Julie and see. Then he asked me if I would like to trade Julie for 100 camels. I just looked at him and smiled and walked back across the river. I told Julie his offer, and that I thought it was a pretty good one, I don’t know how much camels go for but a rough estimate of $3-5K per camel times 100 is a good amount of money. Julie thought she was worth at least 200 camels.

Last night we slept with the windows open and the breeze picked up and it made it really cold in the room. I closed one of the windows and the wind grabbed it and threw it open and it slammed against the wall just over my head and made me shriek like a little girl. This morning (Wednesday) we had bread with jam for breakfast. Normally the jam here has a color but has no flavor. This morning the Jam was strawberry and was so delicious! The tea on the other hand was awful, it didn’t have any mint flavor at all.

We went for a hike in the sun and there was no wind, so nice to be covered in constant sweat. We ran out of time to get to any really scenic areas before we had to turn around and head back to the hotel to shower and check out. It was still fun though and we got to see some roaming goats, which I loved and Julie was scared of. The goats were walking our way and Julie was trying to shoo them away so they wouldn’t come near us.

We got a taxi ride back to Tinerhir, where we could catch a Grande Taxi to our next town Ouarzazate. Ouarzazate is famous for being the setting for Star Wars, Gladiator and Lawrence of Arabia to name a few of the movies that were filmed here. When we got to the Grande Taxi station there were already two people there and so we were encouraged, we only needed two more. We kept waiting and waiting and after an hour and a half of waiting without anyone else coming each of us paid extra for the two people that weren’t there so we could go.

Even though the back seat only had 3 instead of the usual 4 people it still felt pretty crowded. All of a sudden the car made a noise and the driver pulled the cab over, something was wrong. The driver got out and popped the hood and realized that several parts were missing and that the car wouldn’t work anymore. I’m sure there are technical names for what was wrong but I’m not a car guy, so I don’t know. The driver called for another cab and we were all able to fit in the new cab and made it safely to Ouarzazate. We hadn’t eaten since early in the morning and our hotel had pizza so we gave some a try. While they were making the pizza, Julie went to make a phone call and I waited. When the pizza came Julie was still gone so I dug in and ate half of the pizza. When Julie returned she asked what the green stuff in the 3 cheese pizza was and I told her I thought it was spices. It turns out that it was moldy cheese and we aren’t sure if it was supposed to be green. I ate it and I didn’t even care or notice I was so hungry.

Goat Herd

Walk Views

Lone Goat

Cleaning is so overrated

Broken Down

Where we broke down!

Doesn't it look like basil?

Saint Louis Sugar, yum!