we had another longish drive from Ourzazate (1 issue there was that i was running out of Moroccan money, and had a feeling that ATMs were going to be tough to find amongst the sand dunes - so i went looking for a bank machine - Mohamed at Dar Kamar made me think it was a short walk to a bank past the Ibis Hotel - maybe a shortish walk when it's not 95 degrees out! and it was slightly uphill - so i was a bit frazzled when i got the Ibis and saw nothing like a machine - the guy at the front desk there could not have been more charming - and i was in no mood to try my limited French so i was SO happy when he spoke very good English - and stayed charming when i returned even more frazzled after getting 'sorry we don't want to give you any money' - or the equivalent in French and Arabic - messages on the ATM - he walked me through the lobby to a map of Ourzazate that unfortunately showed that the only ATMs besides that one were in the center of town, several kilometers away - in other words, i was NOT walking there - note to self to maybe bring another ATM card and also another (non-Amex) credit card on future trips (my Visa was turned down inexplicably at the hammam in Marrakech and then worked everywhere else) - my other main point was how very nice the Moroccans are even if you don't speak a word of French (or Arabic or Berber))
actually by now we were fluent in Arabic :-) at least to the point of usually remembering to say 'bismillah' at the start of each enterprise (including eating a meal) and 'hamdullah' at the end, especially e.g. after Lahsen had navigated some gnarly switchbacks up and down stony mountain roads - bismillah means literally 'in the name of god' and hamdullah is 'praise be to god' - we also knew the very common word 'yella' (let's go) - sadly that was about the extent of our knowledge, and my painful hours of trying to learn Arabic from Pimsleur (still in my opinion the absolute best way to learn a language and you can usually get the CD's free from the library) had mostly gone to waste
speaking of roads, the rocks in the landscape (and there is usually NOTHING in view except dirt and rocks and the occasional lizard) are burnt black from the sun - hard to imagine that people lived in this country, and would ride in caravans, sometimes consisting of thousands of camels, for weeks at a time - Timbuktu to Zagora (our stop tonight) was historically one of the major trade routes and took 52 days
we stopped for lunch at a restaurant called Chez Omar that was a little touristy but excellent value - each of our entrees (mine was the chicken brochette) was 30 dirhams (about 3 euros), and then we hit the road again for a couple of hours of black rocks
we half jokingly asked Lahsen if our hotel that night had a pool and were SO happy when he said yes! of course we had no bathing suits (in the suitcases) but we made do with t-shirts over underwear and i don't think anyone really cared
getting more and more perturbed about the missing bags, since it's now getting to the point where there are no airports to send them to even if they are found, so best case is looking like we will not get them until the end of our stay in Morocco, if then
aside from that small matter the trip has been fantastic - the most welcoming lovely people, delicious food, exotic scenery, a great fun crazy driver/guide/bodyguard/Berber-guru - this is a beautiful country and we are very lucky to be here!
