finally some computers

We are now in Essaouira on the Atlantic coast. It is a relatively small port town, with a lot of fishing boats and a nice beach. We're spending three days here to relax and decompress before it's back to the chilly USA.

Marakesh was wild. It is by far the most tourist populated city we have been in so far. This is a plus and minus. It is really fun and never seems to sleep, but it can get tiring after a while. One rule of thumb we discovered very quickly, STAY AWAY FROM THE MONKEY MEN! If you want the lively bazaar experience, this is the place. Huge medina with markets and craftsmen everywhere. Spices, clothes, shoes, dates of all varieties. At night the square transforms into a huge party. Storytellers, musicians, henna artists, snake charmers, carnival style games. Rows of tables are set up in the middle of the square. You can get different food in different stalls, snail soup, kebabs, sheep's heads, lamb. Each stall has a cook or two and a few hawkers who try and pull people into their stall. The stalls are numbered and there are usually only a table or two in each. It doesn't matter how soon you have eaten, you can always eat again. I can't tell you how many times we would decline by saying we just ate and then they say, 'but you look so skinny'.

We've spent the last week on the guided part of our tour. Exploring the desert and seeing the breathtaking Ziz valley. We spent several amazing days getting to know more about the nomadic cultures and people that make up this area and still live there today. We rode camels (Shelley's had just apparenty come away from a large feast of beans), toured through kasbahs and ksars (large adobe compounds where families and whole tribes live), camped out overnight in a Berber style tent camp amidst the dunes, drove through Ouarzazate where the king is visiting right now, visited family farms and homes, attended a small performance of Ghanan musicians, and so many other things I can't list them all here.

One of our favorite things was the time we spent with our guide Tata. When you travel it can sometimes be difficult to get past the typical tourist experience and really get a taste of the local day to day, espcially if you are not spending much time in one place. Tata took great pains to explain and show us about life in the Ziz valley. Our experience was so much richer with him to add the extra details we may have missed. Everyone in the valley seems to know him. His main business is dates, but he also works with Journey Beyond Travel to serve as a local guide. Not only that but he is president of a local association which helps people in need.

Many of the cultures here are still semi-nomadic, or maintain a traditional lifestyle. Needless to say it is not an easy life, and many people are underserved by the government and the tourist revenue. Tata's association helps those who have nowhere else to turn or assistance. Through small donations from businesses, tourists, and local contacts he helps to give people even small basic necessities that can make all the difference.

Now that we have some computers available to us we can post a little more about some of the other things we've done. Also, we probably won't be posting much of the pictures until we get back. Photobucket changes the picture quality slightly, so we've been posting to photoshop.com. I don't think you can make that album public.

Now my fingers are tired and it is time for lunch.

damn computers

Well we've had an amazing week, but we haven't been able to get access to a computer. So, tomorrow we head to Essouaria, our last stop, and then we'll have some time to update the blog and post some more pics.


-kaz

now with links!

http://s129.photobucket.com/albums/p215/omnidex/Morocco%202010/

ok, there is the direct link to photobucket. Couldn't get that to work before. And here is us with the World Cup.

Today is our last day tooling around Fez. Spent yesterday getting lost in the medina. Pretty crazy. I have no idea how anyone can find their way around in there. We made a purchase at the end of the day. The haggling skills are rusty, but I don't think I came out too bad. I had to laugh though because I was reminded of a phrase from our lonely planet book about haggling in Morocco. They remind you to not take offense at percieved insults. I think the phrase they used was insults with a smile. We bought a necklace for Shelley and as we were haggling the price, the shopkeeper kept giving Shelley an 'I'm not sure you married well.' look and would say, "Your husband. He has big heart, but small pockets." hahaha. I have to say I like haggling this way better than other experiences. This way you can kind of lightly insult back without worrying too much about offending and keep the conversation jovial and reduce the intense pressure of the sale a bit.

It was a fun and exhausting day. Despite the frantic nature of the medina and Morocco in general I have been impressed by how friendly the majority of people are. I can't count how many times we've just chatted with someone about misc. things on the street. Or fallen easily into an in depth conversation with a taxi driver. Well, as in depth as possible in broken and combined spanish, english, and french. Our arabic is coming along. Just a few phrases, but we practice pronunciation with anyone we can. Most Moroccans seemed to be amused at our attempts.

There is an overlook of the city near one of the old cemeteries that is supposed to have a gorgeous view during sunset. That's the plan tonight. But more urgent is laundry. I have been putting off doing laundry as the sink in our pension appears to be fastened to the wall solely with a thick bead of caulk. Dried, and crumbling caulk. I'm afraid to use it in case it decides to fall off the wall. So, it looks like I have another laundry shower to look forward to. At least the toilet is in the shower so I can sit down to do laundry! =)

Something cool

Curse this keyboard! I'm still getting used to this Moroccan keyboard setup.

Anyway, so I just wanted to throw up a quick post about something cool that happened to us in Ceuta, Spain. We got to get our picture taken with the world cup! The cup is touring Spain, and it happened to be in Ceuta at the same time as we were. We were walking down the street and noticed a stage set up with loud music playing and a line forming. After closer inspection we discovered that it was the World Cup, and the line was to get your pîcture taken with it.

I wanted to try and make it a funnier picture, but I kept having these visions of us trying to strike a victorious battlecry pose and somehow breaking off a piece of the cup, or dropping it and putting a dent in it. This followed by being swarmed by a mob of angry Spaniards who would chase us out of town. So, we just struck a normal pose. But, we got our picture taken using our camera of course and one of the professional photographers took one as well, so we might end up in the paper or something! Too cool!

Just Arrived in Fes!

Our few days in Spain were fantastic. Malaga and Ceuta are both vibrant, laid-back, friendly cities. Lush and tropical too. And we did reasonbly well with our rusty Spanish.

Crossing the border from Ceuta, Spain, into Morocco was a bit intimidating. Actually, the border crossing itself was fairly well organized...but the view immediately after crossing over felt somewhat chaotic...which I guess is typical for most any border. LOTS of people and cars. But we managed our way through it and got a taxi to Tangier.

We were only in Tangier an hour or so before we hopped on a bus to Fes. And in that time, we met a fluent English speaker who offered to lead us to tea and took us to a traditional Moroccan clothing store. We left empty handed, but it was fun to look. Reminded us of our days in Turkey and being led to the carpet shop with the offer of apple tea.

And now we are in Fes - a bustling city with a mix of modern and traditional. We have only been here a night, so still have much to see. Now, off to explore!

no internet cafes

so, apparently internet cafes are few and far between in Spain. Damn the advance of personal technology devices. I´m hoping they are a little more prevalent in Morocco. My guess would be that they are. Anyway, we misplaced our Morocco guide book on the plane ride over here. So, after hunting around in Ceuta we now have a new Morocco guide book, in Spanish! Yay! Well, I guess we get the Spanish language refresher we meant to do before the trip after all! Ah, what and adventure.

Hopefully, we can start blogging regularly once we cross the border. Tomorrow Morocco!

-Kaz

Funny Lost Photos

I was playing with my phone today and found a bunch of pictures that I thought were funny.

So here they are.

If cats could sing this would be what it looks like when they hit a high note. She looks like she's rocking out, "Waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh! Yeah!"



This was one of the weirdest sensations I've ever had. It was like an improve everywhere moment. We were at a performance around Halloween, having a drink in the lobby when people dressed as zombies started coming in at different intervals and just milling around with the crowd. This happened over a period of about 10-15 minutes. That was weird enough but there were other people who had come in costume to the performance, so it wasn't that out of place. It just seemed like they had all come from some costume theme party or something. After a while Thriller started to play very softly over the loudspeakers. Then a little louder, then louder, then louder. Suddenly all the zombie people started shuffling from all over the room to congregate in the center. Just as Michael Jackson started singing they all broke out into the Thriller dance routine. And they were really, really good.




I guess you could classify the teen magazines and the wildlife magazines together. Just makes sense when you think about it.






Ticker trying to figure out what the chickens are doing in the house.



Ticker stalking the chickens. Didn't last long. She got pretty freaked out when the tried to fly.



The most disturbing cats ever pictured on a litter box. They look like they are from the village of the damned. Waaaay too much Photo editing involved.



I woke up one day and my hair was like this. Thought it was funny.

Who needs therapy when you have Walmart?

Why do so many people choose to have their breakdowns in Walmart, or rather, why do people who have no qualms about having large arguments in public do their shopping at Walmart?

I stopped by the Mart, (haha so clever), on my way home today, and as I was browsing the cork board selection a young, slightly disheveled woman and her 4 year oldish son walked over and started looking at the decorative paper clips about 6 feet away down the aisle.

I was just about to pick the cork board that most accurately represents who I am as a person when a short young guy comes storming up and declares in a fairly loud voice:

"Well, f*@# you then if you're going to ignore me like that! You can get your own goddamn Coke!"

He then throws a set of car keys at her feet and storms off.

I glanced over to see him already halfway down the aisle. As I turned back to the cork boards I tried to imagine what must have happened to cause such a reaction. Meanwhile, the woman is telling her kid to pick up the keys and getting annoyed that he isn't doing it right away.

A couple minutes later I've decided to consider the dry erase boards instead and am still trying to piece together the scene that caused all this when he comes storming back.

Woman, "How was I ignoring you?"
Guy, "You've been ignoring me all f*#@ing day!"
Woman, "No, I wasn't."
Guy, "Bullshit, what about McDonald's?"

Guy is pretty steamed and as he storms off again with parting shots regarding the woman's "fat ass" I begin to suspect that these two might not 'make it' as a couple.

It's funny too. Because despite having a loud and fairly personal argument in a very public place, and me being only about 6 feet away, I'm guessing he's that special type of dude who would question what the hell I was looking at if he caught me glancing in their direction while this was taking place.

Man, I love Walmart. In that spirit here are some pics from the recent pages at www.peopleofwalmart.com. I like the first guy's Elvis license plate.