An Unspoken Bond
Hello all and welcome back to the blog. I’ve been silent for the past few weeks, so apologies for that, but blogging is hard and frankly time consuming (again another props to all professional bloggers, well done).
This week’s blog is going to have some new elements (quotes!) added to it and since it’s so long it will include subsections as well.
Where We Last Left Off….
Well I have 3 weeks of Marrakech to catch you up on and man was it a doozie….
When we last spoke I was at Grandma’s house enjoying some Level 3 fun (wtf am I talking about — refer to my last blog: CLICK HERE) and the hospitality of the Moroccan people.
And I am happy to report that none of that changed the entire time I was in Morocco. People would literally go out of their way to help you, no matter what you needed. That included our City Team Managers, including one who spent 3 hours with all of us at the post office so that we could send our various purchases home (rugs, scarves, oh my! they have AMAZING textiles in Morocco, worth a trip in itself). Also, the fantastic people at our co-working space, The Spot, who even drove us home two nights when our shuttle didn’t arrive. If you’re looking for a great co-working space in Marrakech look no further than The Spot.
But what else did I do the rest of the month? Just work? Well that did encompass a great deal of my time, I also went on several grand adventures, the first being in a magical land called the Ourika Valley.
Ourika Valley
“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”
Henry Miller
The weekend after grandma’s house a group of us decided to go to Ourika Valley (now pause for a moment, write this name down and vow to go). The day was crappy (cloudy and rainy) and we were thinking we may not be able to hike because it was going to be too slippery, but we were fortunate enough that the clouds cleared just as we arrived.
We met our tour guide, Rashid (after a thoroughly entertaining van ride with our driver who really enjoys Chinese pop), at the foot of Setti Fatma, the town that leads to the 7 waterfalls in the Ourika Valley. Rashid was born and raised in the Ourika Valley and he was going to lead us on a short hike to see the waterfalls and then later to his home for lunch.
Now pause for a second to reflect on that last sentence — this person who has never met us would be taking us to his own home to have a meal prepared by his wife, I was already impressed, but given the experience we had just had at Grandma’s house I was beginning to realize that the Moroccan people love welcoming you into their home.
So, we proceeded on the 1.5-hour hike to the waterfalls. The 7 waterfalls of Ourika Valley are a bit of a tourist trap, but none the less they are a sight to see and when we reached the top of the mountain (above the waterfall) we had an exceptional view of the Atlas Mountains, and if our day had ended there I would have been happy, but what proceeded next is what made the day so special.
We came back down the mountain and took a short ride to a nearby town where we were told we’d start a 30-minute hike to Rashid’s house. The town looked very much like small towns I’ve seen in Europe (just with a great Atlas Mountains backdrop), so I thought the 30 minutes was a bit of an over exaggeration, but, we went on a magical 30-minute hike through valleys, streams and mountains that brought us to Rashid’s house.
I can’t even put into the words the beauty we experienced that day, but I do have a cool photo that sums some of it up.
And the meal was amazing. You could feel the love that was put into the food and the pride that Rashid had for his town and home, that was handmade by him and had a weeping willow just outside it.
It was in this house and throughout the day that I realized I am much more capable than I ever thought. Before Remote Year I didn’t even hike up a steep hill, let alone the Atlas Mountains. And while the hike was for beginners, the rocks were slippery, there were no railings, bridges didn’t have sides and you could literally fall at any moment. But I had a sense of calm for most of the hike and told myself I can do this, and I will do this.
I was also fortunate to have a great group of people with me who would ask me questions to distract me when they sensed I was nervous. For example, asking me how many people play on a soccer field? Not an uncommon question for me but coming from someone who doesn’t play team sports it was a bit out of left field, but just what I needed to get through a rough patch on the hike.
I was not only seeing this amazing topography, but I was starting to see myself differently.
The hike and experience in Ourika Valley with 6 people I didn’t even know 2 months ago is one I will cherish forever. And to Rashid, his family and our amazing driver, Shukran.
Taghazout
“Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things — air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky — all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.”
Cesare Pavese
Taghazout (pronounced like it’s spelled) ……. oh Taghazout…just pause with me a moment. Taghazout is a small beach town about 3 hours west of Marrakech. 6 of us decided to change up the scenery for a week and spend 4 days visiting and working in Taghazout.
We rented an AirBnB literally on the water (our place was connected to the sea wall and during high tide the ocean water would come up on the sidewalk below) and I have to say upon first seeing it I was in awe. This was exactly the place I pictured it to be and I was so excited to spend the next 4 days here.
We checked in and because it was already late in the day (our driver had to stop to have a few chats along the way, typical Moroccan behavior) we had to rush to work. Well strike 1 for Taghazout we quickly found out the WIFI only worked upstairs, so the 6 of us crammed into the second floor to work for several hours. My working area ended up being a little nook in the hallway that I affectionately called “the cave” and I took three phone calls from a makeshift desk I made of throw pillows (Moroccans always have a lot of pillows). But I told myself if this is the biggest inconvenience then that’s ok. We finished working and had a lovely dinner (accompanied by a lot of cats, yes stray cats are a big thing in Morocco) and called it an early night with the sounds of the ocean lulling us to sleep.
The next day we decided to give surfing a try. To put it simply I’m terrible and I ended up just riding the waves in on my stomach. The tide was quite rough too and after getting wacked by several waves I called it a day. And again, work was calling. We had managed to find a gem of a place to work that day, World of Waves and I found towards the end of the day some very comfy couches that I could work on. We ended the day with dinner at a local favorite, Café Mouja, and played cards (differing rules on how to play President lead to some testy moments, but all in good fun).
Around 5am I got up to go to the bathroom (I’ve inherited my father’s bladder as I’ve gotten older) and when I got back in bed I had a terrible case of acid reflux. I thought it was a bit odd, but just ignored it. But two hours later it wasn’t going away and so I got up again to go to the bathroom and this time I knew things weren’t right. Without going into too much detail I realized immediately I had food poisoning. And the rest of the day was spent in bed.
But the story doesn’t end there…. another Ohana came back from surfing that day (she was good, so she went again) and she complained of feeling sick as well. Now I chalked it up to my crappy digestive system and her surfing too much.
As I got into bed that night I was finally feeling better, but I was happy to go back to Marrakech to rest up as I had a grand adventure in the Sahara in two days.
Well Taghazout reared its ugly head and around 2am two other Ohana started showing signs of food poisoning. At this point it was a trend and the only thing we all had in common from the entire week was that we all went surfing. Some light googling later and apparently Taghazout dumps its sewage into the ocean there, which causes ecoli. Our conclusion is that we all got ecoli. Now I’m not trying to shit on Taghazout, it is lovely, but I’d be very careful if you get in the water. As a friend who was also there and didn’t get sick put it, “My spirit told me to not get in the water”, dang I wish mine had told me that, I guess she was on vacation that day.
Sahara
“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.”
Tim Cahill
One day after returning from Taghazout most of our crew was supposed to leave to go on an epic 3-day trip to the Sahara Desert. This was a bucket list trip for us all but given how horrible we were all feeling we weren’t sure we’d make it. The drive back form Taghazout was unbearable with the winding roads, the overwhelming feeling of nauseousness and the impromptu stops we made (such as getting an oil change and tajine to go, because why not!), but we all limped through the gates of Babylon Apartments (yes that was the name of our complex) around 2pm.
Since I was feeling the best out of the crew I immediately went into recovery mode and trekked to the Carrefor for essentials (crackers, ginger ale, sprite, toilet paper) and anything to make us feel better. It also helped that our whole group was rooting for us too to be able to go to the Sahara, and several of them supplied us with various drugs, oils and homemade remedies (yes, we all ate cumin per grandma’s advice from earlier in the month).
But when 7:30am rolled around the next day we didn’t have our entire group, one was just too sick to go, and another found out for personal reasons the night before that she could not join. They were both understandably upset, but something else you learn while traveling for this long is your health and safety are of upmost importance. Nothing is more important than that.
So, onto the desert we went with 15 of us in a van that fit 16. We were told the drive was going to be long, but it ended up being a total of 26 hours (13 hours each way). The actual distance to the desert is only about a 6-hour drive, but given you have to drive through the entirety of the Atlas Mountains to get there that tends to slow things down a bit.
The first day was all driving and we spent the first night in a hotel. As this was approaching our 4th week in Morocco most of us had our fill of the local cuisine (tajine, kebab and couscous), so we were happy to find that pasta was an option for dinner (sorry Morocco the food is great, but sometimes I need a little variety).
The next day we drove into town to explore a bit and several members of the crew bought some lovely Berber rugs. At this point though I was getting antsy and just wanted to see that desert. Around 5pm my dreams came true and as we were blasting American rap music we pulled up to the spot to pick up our camels.
I was understandably nervous because I’ve never ridden a camel before but told myself it can’t be that much different from a horse. And by in large it wasn’t, but when that camel went downhill it hurt in all the wrong places — DO NOT EVER WEAR SHORTS ON A CAMEL, you need the protection.
But as I slowly let my camel fears fade away as I was enchanted by the beauty of the Sahara Desert around me. I had never seen this much pure sand in all these different shapes and forms before. It brought about a sense of calm and there were periods of time where I was just staring off into the distance.
We took a 1.5-hour camel ride to our overnight encampment and as soon as we arrived we acted like children. There was a large sand dune behind the camp and we all proceeded to climb up it (and let me tell you it was a bit of a tough climb). Most of the pictures you saw on Instagram and Facebook from that weekend were taken on that dune, the view was stunning.
We finished the evening with a family meal and some Berber hymns before settling into bed, lulled to sleep by the sounds of the desert.
We woke VERY early the next morning for our 6am departure by camel back to our van. The ride back was just as beautiful as we got to see the sunrise over the dunes. And my foray on the camel was going well too until I tried to get off that day and ended up ramming my leg into the saddle, causing a lovely bruise the size of an apple.
And then it was back to the van. Unlike before where the drive broken up into two days, we were going straight back. Now I’m not sure what happened, but the driver was upset with us and proceeded to drive like a bat out of hell for the first 75% of the trip. At the last rest stop before getting to Marrakech we had an intervention with him and he apologized and bought our program leader an ice cream. But those first 10 hours were nail biting. Shout out to the back-seat crew for keeping me sane through those harrowing 10 hours.
We arrived safely (barely we almost t-boned a moped two traffic circles from the apartment) around 7pm and promptly walked to the sushi place (once again I needed my variety).
And while there were many trials and tribulations leading up to and during the Sahara trip, the views and experience were worth it in the end.
You can’t escape the beauty of the Sahara.
Bye, Bye Africa
“Africa changes you forever, like nowhere on earth. Once you have been there, you will never be the same. But how do you begin to describe the magic to someone who has never felt it? How can you explain the fascination of this vast, dusty continent, whose oldest roads are elephant paths? Could it be because Africa is the place of all our beginnings, the cradle of mankind, where our species first stood upright on the savannahs of long ago?”
Brian Jackman
After the Sahara I settled into my last week in Marrakech and realized I hadn’t seen the sights, I’ve spent too much time away from Marrakech to remember to view the beauty in Marrakech, so with 24 hours left I visited the El Badi Palace and the Tombeaux Saadiens. I also had a lovely photoshoot as well, because why not!
Saturday morning, we packed up to depart from not only Marrakech, but Africa as a whole. I had spent two months on this continent that I had never visited before and now I couldn’t even imagine my life without having been here before. Each city came with their own unique challenges, but they also came with an intense beauty. Beauty in their surroundings, beauty in their people, beauty in their food, beauty in their experiences, beauty in the speechless moments and beauty in the friendships I started to form there.
“There is an unspoken bond you create with friends you travel with.” Kristen Sarah
So, to Africa, thank you for an amazing two months. To my Ohana thank you for being there and for living in those unspoken moments with me. I cannot wait to see what the next 10 months have in store for us.
Until next time you all.
Ohana Love.
Annie
