Sahara Trip
so i figured i'd just post this to my journal just in case. it's my second newsletter to my loved ones about my trip to the sahara this weekend.
we're in our third week now and i can't imagine going home any time soon, sorry mom. our weekends are limited and we have so many great ideas for weekend trips. this weekend we were in the sahara. we left friday and stayed at this INCREDIBLE hotel about 5 hours away. we had dinner and jumped in the pool, the best part... the shower!!! the rooms were magnificent, and i had to wash my hair twice to have an excuse for taking such a long shower! anyways, we hung out by the pool, bar and on the terrace looking at the stars that night. the next morning we had breakfast, jumped in the pool, showered yet again (woo!) and got back on the bus to head to the next hotel. we got there at about 4 left our stuff in a couple rooms, and made our way towards the camels.
it was awesome. we found which caravans we wanted to get on in our little groups and such and made our way through the sand towards the camp we were staying at. camel saddles are not the most comfortable of saddles. we rode dromedaries, which means one-hump camels. we rode for about 2 hours up and down the dunes... riding a camel downhill is pretty scary because their feet sick into the sand and they go pretty slowly, and you think their legs are going to buckle, but they never failed us in keeping us on top. we reached the tomboktu oasis (hotel tomboktu as well by the way). we found tents and put our stuff down, then all that wanted to go (which was all of us) tryed to climb up the biggest sand dune we had seen right next to the camp. I got about 1/4 of the way up and my group and i decided to kill ourselves, we were already exhausted from lack of sleep, swimming a lot the night before, and riding the camels. so we hung out up there for a while and let the overachievers take pictures of the sunset from up there, which they claimed wasn't great, so i'm not too disappointed i didn't make it up there.
we had dinner and then went out away from the camp to hear a lecture on constellations and the history of astronomy which i had already known about most of being as how i just took astronomy. the night sky was INCREDIBLE. imagine going to the planetarium and they pretend to turn off all of the lights in south florida, but a thousand times better. we saw a few shooting stars and then danced to people playing the drums by candle light. a wonderful experience. and everytime you looked up the stars would catch your eye and you'd be sucked in again. it was so dark, the only way we could see the huge mountain sized dune directly beside us was because you couldn't see the stars you knew were right behind it.
our group slept outside our tents on our matresses falling asleep under the stars... truly wonderful. we woke up at 5 AM to watch the sunrise, and then got back on the camels to head back to the hotel for breakfast, a dip in the pool, and showers. then we got back on the bus by 930 to head home. had lunch, and got home at 630, so we had a nine hour bus ride which wasn't as bad as it sounds because we were all so exhausted we slept for a considerable amount of it.
everyone is so exhausted, and sore in so many places. bony butts hurt, inner thighs, and for those of us that aleviated ourself from riding side-saddle have our obliques hurting too. all worth the experience we had.
so when it comes to weekend trips i've been to sefrou which we did last sunday since we had class that saturday. this weekend, we'll probably just go somewhere sunday because we've been invited to a wedding this saturday! our teacher invited us to one so we're going to buy jalabas today after class in the old medina.
feel free to e-mail me whenever, i love getting mail! oh, and those of you that want postcards, e-mail me your addresses, and if you want any scarves (hand woven in the medina) or blankets or anything else, let me know, if you'll pay me back for them i'll be glad to send/bring them back home. sorry, i would get you all souvenirs if i wasn't a broke college student (not really broke, simply self-sufficient, but that doesn't sound as funny). i'm off to take a nap now, and if any of you would like to see some pictures from my trip can check out the following links.
mostly throughout our first week around fez, some of the sacred music festival, and our tour of the old medina
http://ufl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000216&l=bfd6d&id=1101240059
a free performance by this great moroccan band called darga, our experince in a moroccan club, and our trip to sefrou
http://ufl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000217&l=93651&id=1101240059
hanging out with my villa family, cooking lessons with layla, and shopping for scarves in the old medina look at the picture of the scarves and let me know if you want one, the scarves like we wore in the sahara cost about 5 dollars and are wonderful, so let me know if you want any.
http://ufl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000223&l=c0857&id=1101240059
trip to hotels before the camels
http://ufl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000225&l=62fae&id=1101240059
camels into the desert and on
http://ufl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000226&l=10983&id=1101240059
sorry this was so long! but some people actually like all the detail surprisingly enough.
love you guys!!!
~*Maui*~
we're in our third week now and i can't imagine going home any time soon, sorry mom. our weekends are limited and we have so many great ideas for weekend trips. this weekend we were in the sahara. we left friday and stayed at this INCREDIBLE hotel about 5 hours away. we had dinner and jumped in the pool, the best part... the shower!!! the rooms were magnificent, and i had to wash my hair twice to have an excuse for taking such a long shower! anyways, we hung out by the pool, bar and on the terrace looking at the stars that night. the next morning we had breakfast, jumped in the pool, showered yet again (woo!) and got back on the bus to head to the next hotel. we got there at about 4 left our stuff in a couple rooms, and made our way towards the camels.
it was awesome. we found which caravans we wanted to get on in our little groups and such and made our way through the sand towards the camp we were staying at. camel saddles are not the most comfortable of saddles. we rode dromedaries, which means one-hump camels. we rode for about 2 hours up and down the dunes... riding a camel downhill is pretty scary because their feet sick into the sand and they go pretty slowly, and you think their legs are going to buckle, but they never failed us in keeping us on top. we reached the tomboktu oasis (hotel tomboktu as well by the way). we found tents and put our stuff down, then all that wanted to go (which was all of us) tryed to climb up the biggest sand dune we had seen right next to the camp. I got about 1/4 of the way up and my group and i decided to kill ourselves, we were already exhausted from lack of sleep, swimming a lot the night before, and riding the camels. so we hung out up there for a while and let the overachievers take pictures of the sunset from up there, which they claimed wasn't great, so i'm not too disappointed i didn't make it up there.
we had dinner and then went out away from the camp to hear a lecture on constellations and the history of astronomy which i had already known about most of being as how i just took astronomy. the night sky was INCREDIBLE. imagine going to the planetarium and they pretend to turn off all of the lights in south florida, but a thousand times better. we saw a few shooting stars and then danced to people playing the drums by candle light. a wonderful experience. and everytime you looked up the stars would catch your eye and you'd be sucked in again. it was so dark, the only way we could see the huge mountain sized dune directly beside us was because you couldn't see the stars you knew were right behind it.
our group slept outside our tents on our matresses falling asleep under the stars... truly wonderful. we woke up at 5 AM to watch the sunrise, and then got back on the camels to head back to the hotel for breakfast, a dip in the pool, and showers. then we got back on the bus by 930 to head home. had lunch, and got home at 630, so we had a nine hour bus ride which wasn't as bad as it sounds because we were all so exhausted we slept for a considerable amount of it.
everyone is so exhausted, and sore in so many places. bony butts hurt, inner thighs, and for those of us that aleviated ourself from riding side-saddle have our obliques hurting too. all worth the experience we had.
so when it comes to weekend trips i've been to sefrou which we did last sunday since we had class that saturday. this weekend, we'll probably just go somewhere sunday because we've been invited to a wedding this saturday! our teacher invited us to one so we're going to buy jalabas today after class in the old medina.
feel free to e-mail me whenever, i love getting mail! oh, and those of you that want postcards, e-mail me your addresses, and if you want any scarves (hand woven in the medina) or blankets or anything else, let me know, if you'll pay me back for them i'll be glad to send/bring them back home. sorry, i would get you all souvenirs if i wasn't a broke college student (not really broke, simply self-sufficient, but that doesn't sound as funny). i'm off to take a nap now, and if any of you would like to see some pictures from my trip can check out the following links.
mostly throughout our first week around fez, some of the sacred music festival, and our tour of the old medina
http://ufl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000216&l=bfd6d&id=1101240059
a free performance by this great moroccan band called darga, our experince in a moroccan club, and our trip to sefrou
http://ufl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000217&l=93651&id=1101240059
hanging out with my villa family, cooking lessons with layla, and shopping for scarves in the old medina look at the picture of the scarves and let me know if you want one, the scarves like we wore in the sahara cost about 5 dollars and are wonderful, so let me know if you want any.
http://ufl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000223&l=c0857&id=1101240059
trip to hotels before the camels
http://ufl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000225&l=62fae&id=1101240059
camels into the desert and on
http://ufl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000226&l=10983&id=1101240059
sorry this was so long! but some people actually like all the detail surprisingly enough.
love you guys!!!
~*Maui*~