Marrekech

Thanksgiving Day was celebrated in Casablanca this year. I had chicken.

Spent the last couple of days in Marrekech. It is a fantastic city that is so different from the other cities we have stopped in so far. It may be the opposite of Fes as far as the character of the city but it is equally as impressive. Fes was great because of the simplicity among the chaos in the medina. People were going about their everyday lives in the maze that is Fes and very little about it really was geared towards tourists. It was real. Marrekech is very much about the show. The medina is centered around a main square, the Djemma el-Fna, where everything that you would expect to see in a Middle Eastern square is represented. There are snake charmers, monkey trainers, story tellers, dancers and people just performing for the sake of the performance. The square is transformed at night, as food stalls dominate. You can eat most anything from sheep heads to snails to fish to meat dishes. All come with couscous and olives, of course. Lonely Planet got it right with Marrekech: the city does pulsate with activity. Sure, a lot of it is aimed at the tourists, but there is still the charm that accompanies the realisation that this has played out for centuries in this city.

On top of everything, Marrekech is cheap. A bunch of us are staying at a hotel just off the Djemma el-Fna that costs less than $6 a night. Not the best accomodations, but adequate for our needs. Food is also cheap, with full meals costing less than $5. $12 a day is about all you need to get buy. And the food is great.

Not sure how long we are going to stay in Marrekech before moving on to Essouira. The truck needs a little work before we attempt to cross the desert and Marrekech is the last place where the parts can be easily found. My guess is another 2 to 3 days.

One other thing...

I have decided to let my beard grow out for the next few months. It has been 3 weeks since I have shaved last. Here's a quick picture:

Sale and Rabat

The Roman ruins at Volubilis were nice, but not extraordinary. I'll post pictures when I can.

We've spent the last few days in Sale, outside of Morocco's capital of Rabat. It is not the most exciting of places and it is mostly an industrial city, but we needed to spend a few days here securing our visas for Mali and Ghana. The only real point of interest to me is that Sale was once the home of the Barbary pirates, a fact that is transparent in the city today. Rabat boasts a nice old tower (the Hassan Tower) and two mausoleums that are located near what may be one of the largest ongoing city redevlopments in the city's history. The waterfront is being completely overhauled, so much so that it is impossible to see the waterfront due to all of the construction equipment.

Another interesting thing about Sale is that during the morning call to prayer at 5 am every morning it seems as if two mosques are competing in a little who has the the loudest speaker competition. Instead of turning the microphone off after the initial call to prayer, these mosques leave the mic on for all of the ensuing wailing and praying. No better way to start the day...

Fes

The truck has made its way from Marbella, Spain to Gibralter and then into Morocco over the last week. The group seems like a good bunch of people and I think we are going to have a great time together for the trip, so that's a good thing.

Yesterday we went on a walking tour of the medina in Old Fes. The medina dates back to the 9th century and is a labyrinth of 9600 tight lanes. The lanes are lined with shops selling everything from silver trays to donuts (2 for a nickel) to sheeps heads. The activity is amazing, and the fact that the people who live there don't get lost is amazing. During the course of the day we visited the largest traditional tannery in Africa, an herbal pharmacy and a Berber carpet and blanket maker. During our stay at the carpet store, I picked up my new nickname on the truck: Ali Baba, or Ali B. for short. I was then told by one of the salesmen that 2 wives would be too few for me, that I will need many and that each will need there own blanket. I bought one and was on my way.

Last night we went out for a traditional Morrocan meal and show. The food was great, and the show had its moments. I was volunteered by my group to get dressed up in traditional Morroccan wedding garments and then I was married to 2 women from another group. There are plenty of pictures of the event, but they will never be seen in the states. Sorry.

Tomorrow we head off and go to Rabat via the Roman ruins at Volubilis.

The Rain in Spain

It has done nothing but rain for the last few days here. There has been terrible flooding amid the heaviest rainfall in quite some time. Needless to say, that has kept me pretty close to my hotel room. Today seems better, so perhaps I can see explore Malaga little bit more.

I head out tomorrow to the camp site near Marbella to meet up with the tour group. Hopefully it will be a good group, though it isn´too much of a worry. Most people who go on this trip have overlanded before, which is a bonus considering the amount of work and cooperation that is needed. This isn´t a fancy tour where people put up your tent and cook your meals for you. This is a full on cooking, cleaning, food shopping, tent pitching and decision making tour. The reward is the great places that we visit and people we meet, not the all out relaxation that most people seek on a vacation.

The first leg of the trip (weeks 1-4 or so) will be spent in Morocco and Mauritania. Stops will include Fes, Rabat, Marrakesh and a trip across a little thing called the Sahara Desert.

I´ll do my best to update as I go

Off to a Good Start

Not really. I have made it to Malaga, but my bag has not. I have also had my bag stuck in an X-ray machine at Newark Airport and had the plane take drastic measures during an aborted landing at Heathrow. And by drastic measures I mean pulling the nose up and putting the engines at full throttle just as we had dipped below 500 feet, then having to bank hard left over the airport itself. The only thing missing was someone yelling "Turn and burn, Mav" or it would have been just like Top Gun in a 777. Turned out that the plane that landed before us did not clear the runway, so we would have ran into the back of that plane had we landed. Not a fun experience, but we were able to land safely 20 minutes later.

Hopefully this is just getting the uncomfortable stuff out of the way and the rest of the trip will be uneventful.