The funny thing about traveling is that you find answers to questions you never knew you had, or you find questions that can never be answered.

 

I can barely form words about the camel trek into the desert; the experience is almost indescribable. Soon, you will learn why..

 

 I woke around 5 am, and headed down towards the gangway to meet the other 80+ people who were also partaking in the trek. The busses weren’t right outside the ship, so we had to hike about a mile to get to them. We hopped on the bus, preparing ourselves for the 6 or 7 hour bus ride; or so we thought. I tried to sleep the entire way to Marrakech, which took about 4 hours. When we got to Marrakech, we had a short 30 minute break, and were told that we would only have a few more hours left until our destination. During our break, I stopped in a local market, and bought a Kinder Bueno, which is one of the most delicious candy bars ever invented. Willy Wonka couldn’t even touch these. I had the delight of trying one when I was in France, so I was amazingly happy when I saw that Morocco carried them as well. The blissful happiness that I gained from biting into this scrumptious candy bar was fabulous; almost setting the foundation for what I thought would be an amazing camel-filled adventure.

 

An hour or two later, we stopped at a local restaurant, and had tagine, which is a famous Moroccan dish that is composed of vegetables and meat. Next to the restaurant was an argan oil store. Argan oil is well-known for its impressive beauty remedies as well as being used in food. The argan tree is only grown in Morocco, so they are very proud of it and you can find it in many areas. I was even allowed to try grinding the nuts from the argan tree into a paste.

 We clambered back onto the bus, filled with anticipation for our upcoming quest. However, 4 or 5 hours later we still weren’t there, and the bus driver kept saying, “Only few more hours, only few more.” By now, we were winding around dangerous mountain roads, delving deeper into the picturesque Atlas Mountains. We had to pull over once for a girl who was throwing up, and had gotten motion sickness. Not long after this, I was ALSO starting to feel sick. Without warning, I vomited all over the bus. They had to stop the bus, and I got off and attempted to clean myself up. I changed shirts, and was distraught because I had thrown up over the only sweatshirt I had brought. When I got back on the bus, everyone was clapping and they called me a trooper. The people I had been sitting around told me I was amazing, because I had even managed to vomit on the ceiling and sprayed a few people in front of me. They said that it was impressive. I immediately thought of the scene in Scary Movie 2, when the two priests and the girl from the Exorcist vomited back and forth on each other. (I am sure Vincent, Cahall, and Cody can especially appreciate this haha). So I made a few more friends, and we are now bonded together by vomit and embarrassment.

 

By this time though, we had been driving for much too long. A lot of people began to freak out, talking about a scam and us being kidnapped. We were now driving in the dark, and there were no signs of civilization anywhere. I kept thinking about the movie Taken, and was asking others if they had seen it. I don’t think that helped lower the panic that seemed to be mounting.. When we asked the bus driver where we were going or how long it would take, he just kept repeating few more hours. We even heard that the other bus had called the Dean on duty from Semester at Sea, along with the US Embassy. Semester at Sea told them to tell the bus drivers to turn around, and to just come back. But, we had been driving for about 14 hours, and we didn’t think that turning around was even possible. Especially if the intention was to kidnap 90 American students, I don’t think that the drivers would have complied anyway. I wasn’t even sure if we were in Morocco anymore. I am usually not one to worry about things like this either, but doubts were beginning to creep into my conscience. What was going to happen to us? Where were we going, and why was it taking so long? The itinerary had said 6 or 7 hours, and it had been more than twice the length of the projected time. Rumors were flying around our large tour bus; we were going to be traded as sex slaves in Algeria, we were being taken and held hostage for money. After much-warranted panic and apprehension, we finally drove through a city called Zagora, and stopped. When we stepped off the bus, we saw our camels. Relief washed through the entire crowd of students, and by now, we were just ready to get to our camp and get settled. As soon as we stepped off the bus, we were bombarded with village children, begging us for change and pulling on our clothes. Trying to ignore them, we went off and picked a camel.

 

I chose one that was carrying many blankets, and he was very large. I sat on my camel while he was seated on the ground, waiting for the camel herder to give the signal for him to stand up. From behind, something grabbed my ponytail and started chewing my hair! The camel behind me had decided to make a snack out of my head, and he was determined to not let go. One of the herders came and helped me release my head from the camel’s mouth! The entire ride to our desert camp, the menace of a camel was trying to lick my feet and take my flip-flops off. Despite the pestering camel, I truly enjoyed the ride to our camp. The sky was like nothing I have ever seen before. It was as if someone had splattered a black canvas with stars; it was unbelievable. There were shooting stars everywhere, and you could see the Milky Way.

 

When we got to our camp, about 30 minutes away, we were served hot mint tea; which is a famous staple of Morocco. I went and sat my hiking backpack in one of the many tents, and came back to find that dinner was ready. However, they were serving tagine; needless to say, I only had a few pieces of bread. Even the smell of the tagine was making me queasy.  After dinner, we sat around a campfire and Berbers performed a drum party for us. The Berbers are people of the country-side of Morocco, and they make up most of the population. After the drum party, many of us went out of camp and climbed the sand dunes. I laid down one of the sand dunes, and star-gazed for an hour or so. I came back to my tent around 1 am, and got ready to go to sleep. We had to be up at 5 am, to head back to our bus on our camels. I was absolutely freezing, because we were only provided with a thin sheet, and my sweatshirt was vomit-filled. I was just dozing off, when another girl came into the tent. She was in the process of lying down, when I heard a blood-curdling scream, and she started shrieking, “SCORPIONS! SCORPIONS!” She ran out of the tent, and I grabbed my flashlight, attempting to find where the scorpion had run off to. She yelled that she was going to find strong boy to come get the scorpion. It looked as if was scurrying towards my bed, and I tried to shine the light on it. The creature ended up being a kangaroo mouse that was carrying a huge piece of bread. The boy started laughing, and we attempted to catch the mouse. I am not sure if you know anything about kangaroo mice, but if you can surmise from their name, they jump surprisingly high. Finally, it jumped out of the tent, allowing us to finally turn in for the night. It is not surprising to note that I dreamed about scorpions that night.

When we woke in the morning, we had breakfast and rode our camels back to the bus. My camel was not as comfortable as the one from the night before, so I named him Rough Rider. We only rode for about a half hour, but I was beyond sore. I am STILL feeling sore, and it was a few days ago now.

 

 When we got to the bus, the village children were waiting for us again. It is hard to put into words the look of desperation and desolation in their eyes. They were so thin and emaciated, and they begged for money. One girl took out a 2 dirham coin, and she was surrounded by children. They all grabbed at her, wanting the coin that amounts to about .20 cents American. It was so sad to see this. This goes back to the sentence that I began this blog post with; the funny thing about traveling is that you find answers to questions you never knew you had, or you find questions that will never be answered. What determines where we will be born? What truly determines it? Why are we in the United States so privileged, and yet so unhappy at times? This voyage has already made me feel grateful for all that I have, thankful for all that I take for granted.

 

I slept almost the entire way back to Marrakech, which took about 10 hours. We were then released into Marrakech to explore for an hour, and many people decided to spend the night in hostels there. I was just desperate to get back to Casablanca to take a hot shower and sleep the rest of my life away. A few others and I went and explored the souks, which are markets. I bought a bracelet from one of the markets, which was a cultural experience in itself. In Morocco, you must bargain with the shop owners when you want to buy something. I bargained in both French and Arabic. The owner wanted 45 dirham for the bracelet, but I offered 16. He eventually gave it to me, after I began to walk away and say, “La shukron.” (no thanks) I also bought 3 glasses of orange juice from a stall in the market. I will never feel the same way about orange juice again. This orange juice was fresh-squeezed, and went down so smoothly. All the people in the market were staring at us, and kept commenting on how beautiful we were. We then departed Marrakech via grand taxis, and it took about 3 hours to get back. When we finally came into view of the ship, everyone started cheering and clapping. I was beyond elated to be back. I could barely walk, I smelled like vomit and camels, and was exhausted. Morocco will indeed be a memorable experience that I will not soon forget.