Camels...and Rockin' the Kasbah

I slept in a tent with Mona, Amanda, and Jason. I don't think we fell sleep until around 3 a.m. or so, and we planned on waking up early to watch the sun rise.

We awoke a little after 5 a.m. and joined the other to climb an eastern sand dune. I took a photo of us in anticipation, their faces pink against the blue of the sand dunes shadows. I trekked off by myself to find the highest dune I could find. Admittedly, I wasn't very impressed by the sunrise (I find North African sunsets to be more beautiful), but I loved the early morning light. I got some great shots of some dried out trees that dotted the landscape using my slide film.

Jafar called us for breakfast. The breakfast tent had a bright golden rod fabric hanging from it, and plump colbalt pillows were propped up against it. I got a (hopefully) gorgeous shot of A using the tent as a backdrop. As for breakfast, I still wasn't allowed to have anything but bread or tea, but the bread and tea have never tasted so good. Moroccan mint tea is something that I found to be bitter when I first arrived, but I've really come to enjoy.

We left around 7:30 a.m. or so by camel, with my camel at the helm. Most others were still complaning about the camel ride out to the desert, but I found the ride pretty easy (I guess because I've been on a horse often enough to do well on a camel?). Camels, by the way, don't seem to spit as much as they seem to slobber. The two-hour trek was gorgeous. (Black and white film this time.)

An hour at the Hotel Sirroco to shower and back, and then off to the kasbah at Ait-Ben-Haddou. We got there in the late afternoon, and the late shadows cast upon the deep red kasbah was breathtaking. A few of us climbed up the kasbah around sunset; we got a gorgeous view of the pink and purple canyons from the top of the kasbah's tower.

I took one of my favorite photos of the trip: a picture of the tower
a dried-out tree, and Jafar jumping off from the tower steps.

Sidney and I, beat, fell asleep pretty early after tucking into our room.

The next morning I went up the kasbah for another trek. I reached the top just in time to find a bunch of guys with chainsaws had just cut down the tree next to the tower! I showed them the photo I had taken the day before; they said they were told to take it down because it was interfering with people's view of the tower.

We headed back to Marrakesh and had a yummy (but way too big) lunch at Chawarma. (Highly recommended cheap, cozy eats.)

Posted 11:59 PM (GMT)