Zagora Desert Excursion

I've been going back and forth on whether to include all of this excursion in one post or split it up. But seeing as that indecision has only encouraged further procrastination - and given that's it's already a month after my trip, further procrastination is not really desirable - I've decided that it will be easier for me to get a little bit written at a time. [And probably easier for you to read because as one post, it would be entirely too long.]

So! Here's a little bit about the beginning of the 2 day excursion I took from Marrakesh, Morocco.

Me enjoying the wonderfully warm and sunny weather. April is the perfect time to visit Morocco.

I booked this excursion online before I left through gomoco.net because I am super paranoid about having things planned out. [Well, at least partially. I did wait until the day before leaving Soria to book it, but whatever.] There were some conflicting reviews online about the company, but overall, I'm really happy with how it turned out.

I want to say a little bit about the booking, in case anyone wants to visit Morocco :) I picked this website because it was almost the only one that offered an inexpensive shared group tour. As in, a tour group that accepted people traveling on their own. Lots of companies advertise private tours, which are probably great for families, but way out of my living-on-a-monthly-stipend budget.

My tour cost around 50 euros, which paid for transportation, dinner and breakfast at the camp, and sleeping in the tents. There was a 20% deposit for booking online, after which the booking company directed you to pay when you were picked up the morning of the trip.

But I had to argue with the train station pick up driver, and his boss on the phone, because he expected me to pay then. Luckily, my online research had forewarned me that this could happen, so I was prepared to argue. It may not have been much money, but I was definitely not handing over anything until I was actually leaving on the trip.

A beautiful map of the area. Points of interest on the tour: Kasbah Aït Ben Haddou, Zagora, and Ouarzazate.

As it turns out, it would have been super easy to book the trip from one of the hostels I stayed in, but I ended up spending about the same amount of money AND got a free ride from the train station to my hostel, which after my interesting train trip made it 100% worth it.

Speaking of hostels...that first night I stayed in an interesting little hostel - it was insanely cheap and they served mint tea at check-in and made us a wonderful free dinner. But there were several reasons it was so cheap, namely: I had a top bunk and I felt like I was going to pull the whole bed down on top of me every time I climbed up the ladder. Seriously.

Far too early the next morning, I precariously got out of bed, fought for a free bathroom [again, I'm not even exaggerating that much], stuffed all my things into my backpack, and headed back to the drop off/pick up point.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited. I asked just about every tourist van I saw if they were from the tour company I had booked with, but most of them were doing airport transport. Finally, there was a guy who at least knew of the company. He spoke enough English to indicate that they weren't there yet but he would tell me when they were.

At this point, I was mad that I had skipped the hostel's homemade breakfast and terrified that the van had left without me. It was super reassuring to know that I had only paid 15 euros so far, which wasn't a terrible price for the train station pickup if I ended up having to pay for a different excursion.

The nice, comfy tourist van. They're supposed to be air conditioned, but I couldn't tell if this one was or not.

But then, after 45 agonizing minutes, a caravan of vehicles, as well as a mass of people from the nearby hostels and hotels, appeared at exactly the same time. [Apparently, they had all gotten the memo about the actual time the tour started.]

I was directed to a guy who seemed to be organizing the chaotic groups and paid the rest of my fee, then followed him as he went looking for an open seat.

Two interesting things happened in this chaos. First, I heard someone call out my name, which threw me for a moment because I do not have the most common name in the world AND it was pronounced correctly. Then I saw a fellow auxiliar who happened to have been sitting next to me on the flight over. In what has to be one of the biggest coincidences of all time, he and his group of friends happened to have almost the exact same itinerary as me, excursion and all.

And second, when they finally found a van with open seats, I ended up being the only American with a bunch of people from Denmark. And it wasn't that there was a big group of them traveling together - there was a school group with 12 people, leaving 3 open seats in the van. So I took one of them, and then the other two were taken by a mother and daughter also from Denmark.

Two separate groups of Danish people who had never met before just happened to be on the same excursion and end up in the same car.

From a country with a smaller population than the entire city of Dallas.

The odds must be astronomical.

We settled into our seats, stopped to get some gas, and then the adventure really began.