Marrakesh

Marrakesh is a city in Morocco that is much more touristy than Casablanca. We all knew it wouldn't be a complete trip to Africa without riding camels and ATVs through the desert (bucket list: check!), and you can't do these activities in Casablanca so we booked a day trip to Marrakesh. After a train ride there, we got to explore a little bit of the city and grab lunch before our camel riding and ATV trip started. This excursion took up most of our day before our train back to Casablanca at night and it was honestly one of the best days of my life.

After our lunch in Marrakesh, our tour came and picked us up from the heart of the city and brought us out to the desert where we would get to ride ATVs for a few hours. It was amazing and I really don't have much else to say about this experience. What I lack in words I make up for in pictures.... some of my favorites are below. Our tour guide doubled as a professional photographer (Not really, but he definitely knew what he was doing!) and took all of the cool photos of my friends and I standing on/jumping off of our ATVs.

Towards the end of our ATV ride, we stopped at a house in the desert of a Berber family where we got to try their mint tea refreshments. Moroccan mint tea is probably the most famous emblem of Morocco; a really common souvenir are Moroccan tea cups. I stole this photo from the internet but this is what they look like!

The tea is served hot and is really sweet... and I mean realllly sweet. It tastes like a super sugary fruit flavored tea more than mint, although you can still taste the mint. Below are two images from our stop -- the first is our tea we got to try and the second is the backyard of the house we stopped at!

After we finished our ATV ride, we were driven to a camel farm in Palmeraie, an oasis in Morocco. We were dressed in jilbabs and Saharan scarves and then got to see two baby camels. The first picture below is a baby, only ten days old, and we got to watch it struggle to stand up. Of course, Mom (the second picture) wasn't far away and made sure we didn't get too close to her baby.

Finally, we got to ride camels! At first, I questioned the treatment of these camels as they seemed like their sole purpose was to give tourists rides throughout the desert and were treated poorly by the locals. However, I learned a little bit this day about how the camels are actually treated and did a little research on my own afterwards to learn that this isn't the case at all. These camels are known as the "ships of the desert" and the Moroccans truly love their camels. They have been used for thousands of years and without them, trade throughout the Sahara would not have been possible. Their culture is evidently very different from mine which is really the biggest reason why I was so skeptical of the treatment of these camels at first.

Anyway, back to our camel ride! After riding ATVs, the camels seemed to be traveling sooo slowly. These camels can actually run at paces up to 40 mph, but ours merely moved faster than a stroll. It was relaxing and gave us time to soak in our surroundings and talk with one another. And how fitting -- our camel ride took place on a Wednesday... Happy Hump Day! :) Of course, I have many pictures from my camel ride...