Road Trip Morocco

Geez, this is ridiculously tardy, but I need to talk about the road trip we took during our week off in April. In short, it was both a lot of fun and genuinely terrifying.

We decided to embark on this adventure with our friends Soufiane and Greg. Soufiane is a 23 year old from "Jersey" (which is tattoed on his arm) who has Moroccan parents and returned here last year to teach at the ALC. He introduced us to his former co-worker Greg, 22, who lives in Oudaya and has become our favorite neighbor. These boys are pretty much our best pals in Morocco. Despite their proximity in age, Greg is like 22 going on 30, whereas Soufiane is more like 23 going on 17. I am opening with these remarks so you can appreciate the folly of putting Soufiane "in charge of the trip".

After much time spent negotiating where we were going to go, the day of departure approached and we still did not have a plan. For anything. This was of very little concern to my free-wheeling 20-something cohorts, but I was skeptical: Where exactly were we going again? (we had changed the route about 6 times) Who exactly was going? (Soufiane kept threatening to bail at the last minute) Did anyone have a map? How well were Moroccan roads marked? What would we do if we ran out of gas in the desert? What were the chances that Soufiane, our designated driver, would wreck the rental car? As it turned out, they were right not to fret about most of this stuff, as a road trip in Morocco is not too different from one in Arizona, in terms of both safety and scenery. We left almost 48 hours later than originally "planned", but we remained flexible and were able to see all the things we wanted to: some pretty Colorado-esque towns in the Middle Atlas, Merzouga and the fringe of the Sahara Desert, the Todra Gorge, Ourzazate and its movie studios, the incredible red rocks and green valleys of the Atlas en route to Marrakesh, and a brief tour of Casablanca at night. But on the point of Soufiane's driving skill, we did miscalculate a bit...

The night before the departure I had had an "intervention" of sorts with him, both trying to convince him not to bail on us, and to seek some assurance that he would take the driving responsbility seriously and not get us killed. I was successful on the first point, but it is a complete waste of breath to suggest to The World's Greatest Driver, who is 23 years old (going on 17), that perhaps a more defensive driving style would suit the purposes of our trip (which in my mind was to "see the country", not to "get from point A to B in as little time as possible"). Perhaps it seems I am dwelling on this too much, but after only a few hours in the car, I was seriously in tears, wishing that I had said a proper goodbye to my family and thinking how upset they would be if they knew what a dangerous situation I had voluntarily put myself in. The chances of dying in a car crash are much higher than most other seemingly dangerous activities, and I felt that our chances that day were as high as 5%. And as for the rental car making it out unscathed, I gave that about a 0%, especially after Molly and Greg had to McGyver a way to fix the bumper to the car (it involved plastic bags and hair bands). When Soufiane decided to drive the 2-wheel-drive Honda Jazz into a sand dune, and (surprise!) got stuck, I pretty much lost hope.

Despite all this, the trip turned out to be my favorite experience in Morocco, and we, as well as the car, made it back in one piece (though even Nazha remarked that I returned somewhat pale, and Greg and I in particular probably lost 10 years off our life in the mountains between Ourzazate and Marrakesh, an extremely treacherous route that nonetheless did not deter Soufiane from passing on the left around blind curves). The highlight for me was our night in the desert, playing cards around a candle until the wee hours and sleeping in Berber tents under the incredible starry sky. On that night, I felt that I was meant to be in Morocco.

You can get the blow by blow via my photo album here.

As a final note, Soufiane is going through a rough time right now, and while I can't exactly forgive his driving, I would like to say to him: Soufiane, "houya", thank you for getting us back home safely. You know I love you like a brother.