A couple of Morocco photos

Hi, the food here has finally caught up with me (and a few others in the group) and I've got diarrhoea so I'm taking it easy tonight so I thought I'd put some photos up for your viewing pleasure...


This is the Berber village of Ait Ben Haddou. All the buildings are made out of clay from the surrounding mountainside.






the same village viewed from the top of the hill











and through a hole in the wall












I really like this photo but I'm not sure how good it looks on the computer. It's of some sand dunes in the Sahara desert and you can see the shadow of me riding a camel



this is my black and white artistic shot, it's the view I got of the rest of the 'caravan' while I was riding my camel







this is Abdul (the guy leading my camel) sitting on top of a dune in the early morning light








here you can see the sun rising over the Sahara











this is some of the group making their way back to breakfast after watching the sunrise









this is one of the many open air butcheries in Morocco. This particular one has a camel's head displayed out the front to let everyone know that they sell camel meat! These places have all sorts of bits (heads, toes, spleen, livers etc - sometimes even a fairly normal looking steak) hanging on hooks out the front. Everytime I walk past one the smell makes me gag and I consider becoming a vegetarian.

That's all for now. See ya.

More Morocco

Hi,

 

today we've got the afternoon off and I've found a keyboard which is English so I can type a bit.

 

The last few days have been fantastic. Last night we slept under the stars in the Sahara desert and woke up at 4:30 am to ride a camel for half an hour to watch the sun rise over the sand dunes. An amazing sight - I took plenty of photos but can't download them at the moment.

 

Before that we spent a few days in Berber (the original people in Morocco) villages in the High Atlas mountain range. The huts are made out of the clay that is in the mountains so they look like they are a part of the mountain. Entire villages are made out of clay with wooden logs for a bit of framework and straw to help keep the clay together. When it rains (not that it appears to happen all that often) the houses need to be touched up because part of the walls and rooves wash away in the rain.

 

Before that we were in Marrakesh. The only part of the town we saw were the souks (markets) and the Jemaa el Fna (the main square). The souks are huge, they sell just about anything you can imagine and plenty of things you can't. Jemaa el Fna means the 'square of the dead' - it's called that becuase one Sultan used to display the heads of people who displeased him in the square. During the daytime there are snake charmers and story tellers (at least I think that's what they're doing but I'm not totally sure because I can't speak Arabic) and people with performing monkeys. At night, groups of musicians come out and play. There are also shady looking 'doctors' who sell all sorts of herbs and potions. There was even one 'dentist' who had a pile of old teeth - he could choose another for you if you were missing one.

 

We've come to Morocco during Ramadan so during the daylight hours no-one is allowed to eat or drink. This makes it a little bit tough sometimes to find something for lunch because most of the shops are closed during the daytime, but we always manage.

 

In some of the more country areas the Moroccan people have played drums and sung for us in the evening after dinner. It's pretty cool to listen to even though I can't understand what they are saying. I bought a drum in the souks at Marrakesh so I've been listening to try and get some pointers on how to play it Moroccan style.

 

Got to go now,

Pete

Morocco

Hi,

 

I am in Morocco. The keyboard is French/Arabic so I am really struggling to write this post.

 

Casablanca was fairly shite, way too busy and the people hassle tourists a lot when they walk around the streets.

 

Then we went to Essaouria and Marrakesh. They are fantastic! Such cool atmospheres around the town, I spent all yesterday hanging around the Medina with Aimee and Tim. I love bargaining - it is so much fun! The only problem is that once you get a taste for it you just want to do more and more.

 

This keyboard is tough - this is what the paragraph above would look like if I typed normally...

 

Then ze zent to Essqouriq qnd ?qrrqkesh: They qre fqntqstic1 Such cool qt,ospheres qround the tozn; I spent qll yesterdqy hqnging qround the ?edinq zith Qi,ee qnd Ti,: I love bqrgqining ) it is so ,uch fun1 The only proble, is thqt once you get q tqste for it you just zqnt to do ,ore qnd ,ore:

 

No wonder I am struggling! Anyway, all is well, I am having a great time and might write again later.

 

Bye for now, Pete