MOROCCO, Christmas 2006

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Morocco was the first trip I had taken for about 7 years. I honestly don't remember how I decided on Morocco other than that I wanted somewhere unusual and with Islamic culture. Morocco seemed the safest at the time and also blended Islamic and northern Africa. I decided that the best way to see 
the highlights of the country as a solo traveler was through a guided tour. I used the company Cosmos which fit my budget needs. There are pluses and minuses, of course, traveling this way. As an introvert, I didn't care to spend almost all of my waking hours with a group of people (there were about 45) but I knew if  paid a premium for a single room that would help. So off  I went! This was the first adventure I had in many years. 

 Morocco was truly exotic and totally fascinating! I won't even attempt to right reviews on the hotels as they were all arranged through the travel company. They were comfortable places to sleep for the night. The best place was in the middle of the desert and very "moorish" in that it was a courtyard style hotel with beautiful rooms with tiled floors and lovely carved furniture. I truly wish I could remember the name of that place! I remember that it was in the Sahara area and near the area of fossils and Quarzazate. Okay, a perusal of the Cosmos site, led me to the Kasbah Tizimi which is the hotel that I enjoyed the most. Lovely place. 

 Much in Morocco HAS stayed fresh in my mind even though the trip was  a decade ago. In no particular order....

 1. The winding bus trip through the Atlas Mountains! Holy crap was this a bit terrifying!
2. Forsaking the tour lunch and sitting outside the lunch cafe, up top of the Atlas mountains, and munching on snacks and hearing the call to prayers in the mountains. 
3. Munching on apricots and olives
4. Any dish with couscous
5. The music and dances...albeit, touristy, but lovely to hear and see
6. New Years Eve in my hotel suite with a few other travelers...wining and dining on booze obtained by a traveler as well as munchies pilfered from the hotel buffet
7. Fes...like no place I had ever seen
8. Touring the sands of the Sahara on camel...wow...what a treat. I went with a fellow traveler and one other guide. A memory that will stay with me
9. The young boys selling fossil necklaces. I bought a fossil for each of my students and the young vendor was amazed that I bought so many. The teacher in me knows how sad that this young man is having to hawk goods to tourists instead of being in school
10. Did I mention the great eats
11. The great kasbah of Marrakesh

PHOTOS TO ENJOY! 
Sadly, another instance of lost photos. :(  They were conveniently placed in iPhoto and when that changed to Photo I seemed to have lost a lot of great snaps. Or at least I can't figure out how to get them back. *&^&%$$%er. I have since learned to put my pics on an external hard drive as well as Photo. I love Apple, but they screwed me up on this one! Fortunately, I put a few on Facebook, but only a few as this was the early days of FB. So I'm going to see if I uploaded any of the pics to one of those other photo sharing sites. Damn you Apple anyway! 
Oh awesome...I just found a lot of them on Snapfish...way to go Snapfish!















Wonderful tour guide through the dunes


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