Morocco was an awesome trip, and I believe it was my favorite country experience. My friends and I decided to take a SAS trip for Morocco, Berber Villages of the High Atlas Mountains Trek.
Day 1: Customs takes a little while for the boat to clear. This is also the first port since embarkation that we have to use the deck 5 exit vs the normal deck 2 exit. For this trip we would be having a box lunch and catching a train to Marrakech. The box lunch included a hard boiled egg, which I think is great for a nice toasty day in Africa. The train ride from Casablanca to Marrakech was quite enjoyable, we had air conditioned compartments and we mostly talked and slept during the 3.5 hour train ride. From the train station we made our way to our nice little hotel. SAS had about 3-4 trips staying at this one hotel, so pretty much SAS took over the whole hotel. We had a little bit of free time before our Moroccan dinner and belly dancer show. So we made our way to the grand square of shopping, where we saw some glorious and interesting sites. Such as snake charmers and monkey men trying to make money with tourists. Shopping in Morocco is a lot like shopping in Turkey, but they shop owners arent as aggressive. WE explored the grand plethora of shops and we got our trinkets and such and made our way back to the hotel to meet up for our dinner and show.
Dinner was quite good, had some Moroccan bread and dips, then a main chicken, and finally a crispy flaky cream dessert. It was quite hot in the restaurant, but it was a good time. Next the belly dancers came out, and many people were dragged out to dance with them.. I was one of them, and proceeded to show off my belly dancing skills. After dinner and the show we made our way back to the hotel and grab some drinks and hung out by the pool for a while then called it a night.
Day 2: We started off this day with breakfast at the hotel and then got in 3 vans and made the 1.5hr ride into the foothills of the High Atlas Mountains. On our way to the mountains we stopped at a little village and grab supplies for our trek. We arrived in the foothills and unloaded the vans and packed up 7 donkeys and 3 mules for our trek.
We started off our trek and walked 2-3hrs through rolling hills of grassland, and then we stopped in an orchard and made lunch. Lunch was rice, bread, and raw vegetables, which was very very delicious. After lunch we hiked for another handful of hours and finally arrived at our first Gite (Moroccan house). We settled in and then explored the village. Getting to know and play with the local kids was a very heart warming and inspirational experience. The kids were quite good at Frisbee. Morocco is the first country where I really got to experience a local family experience. Dinner was a 3ish hour event; first we had bread, then soup, then meat and vegetables. Again the food was very delicious. For our sleeping arrangements we decided to sleep on the roof under the stars. The starts were the clearest Ive ever seen. There were so many shooting stars to be seen.
Day 3: Today started off with a wake up call by a little bit of rain, which quickly woke us up on the roof of the Gite. We squirreled our way down inside and proceeded to have breakfast. Bread, toppings, and hot chocolate were my breakfast. Today is going to be the long day of the trek. We loaded up the donkeys and mules and then made our way into the mountains. We trekked through a handful of villages and made our way up to the tree line and stopped for a snack of Moroccan trail mix (which was quite delicious). After the snack we continued our trek for another couple of hours to our lunch location. Lunch was about the same as the first day, but included cheese, and again lunch hit the spot. After lunch we made our way up past the tree line, into another valley and then back up to another village in the mountains. The second Gite we stopped at was just as a good experience as the first Gite. Twenty minutes after we arrived at the Gite it started pouring rain, at this point in time we played the song Africa by Toto (it seemed very fitting). We then explored the village and played with the kids. Dinner was just as good tonight as it was the previous night. After dinner we played a spoon game; the game involved attaching a spoon on rope to your belt loop and swinging the spoon to put out a candle. This was harder than it looked and took a little bit of patience to put out the candle. After playing the game we hung out for a while and slept in the Gite.
Day 4: Today was sadly our last day in Morocco. We woke up early, had breakfast, and packed our animals up. We started our journey walking along a valley and made our way to a river and crossed it, and then climbed back up to the other side of the valley where some Land Cruisers were waiting to take us back to Marrakech. All in all the hike to the Toyotas took around 2 hours and then the ride back to Marrakech was 1.5hrs.
When we arrived back to Marrakech we had a little bit of free time to grab some food for our long journey back to America. Then we made our way to the train station where we grabbed a box lunch and boarded our train to Casablanca. The train ride wasnt as pleasant as it was the first day, it was extremely hot. The temperatures were hovering around 120F outside and our air conditioned cabins couldnt keep up. After 3.5hrs of fun sweating we jumped on a bus and proceeded to the ship. The first thing we all did when we boarded the ship was to shower, and boy it was the best shower of this whole trip.
Morocco was a great time and I would like to come back some day. Africa is an amazing continent and I am really intrigued to see more of it in my lifetime. SAS has opened my ideas to the world, and has got me addicted to travel around the world. I am not sure what my next step is going to be, but I have some notions and leads that it might land me in Australia or New Zealand.
Id like to thank everyone who has helped me on this adventure, especially my parents for their support of this Journey.
