Morocco, Day 3

Today, we had a reservation on a camel riding trip. So, we got up, ate our breakfast, and met the trip leaders at the desk. Apparently, the Palmeraie area is also known as the camel district, because we saw 5 or so groups of camels all saddled up and ready for tourists. We got to ours and hopped out of the car. One of the special perks of our tour was that they provided costumes for us. So, we put on our costumes.

We sat on the camels and tried no to  fall off as they stood up. After that, it wasn't too hard to keep our seats. The ride was about an hour long. Thank goodness it was nice and cool, or I think it would have been rather unpleasant. As it was, it was not the most comfortable thing in the world. My hips hurt from being in that position and my calves were really irritated from rubbing against the saddle blanket. Other than that, though, it was pretty fun. Max said it was really relaxing for him.

Em getting ready to kiss one of the babies

When we got back, they had mint tea for us to drink. I'm not a fan of hot beverages other than cocoa, so it wasn't my favorite, but it wasn't as disgusting as regular tea. Em loved it. Our transportation wasn't there quite yet, so we hung out with the camels a bit. The guys brought over one of the babies for us to see. There were three of them. Two were 2 weeks old, and one was 1 week old. One of the moms went out for a ride just as we were getting back, and her baby was following, crying. It was so cute. The guys didn't let it get too far before they brought it back, though.

We didn't do much that afternoon other than hang out at the hotel. We had already finished our shopping, so we didn't feel like going back down to the medina. So, we went to the pool and watched a lot of TV. The hotel had satellite, so there were German channels, French channels, Arabic channels, and British channels. The British ones were mostly news, so we didn't watch much of that. Though, we did watch the British version of Skating with the Stars. We watched a show in Arabic that seemed to highlight the silly things that westerners do when they have too much money and too much time on their hands. In French, we watched some karaoke show and their Top Chef. Not a dubbed one, or something like Top Chef, an actual French Top Chef. In German, we watched lots of stuff. The Germans apparently really like dubbed American TV, so we watched Sabrina the Teenage Witch, The Simpsons, How I Met Your Mother, and several other shows. We discovered that Family Guy is inappropriate, no matter if you can understand the language or not.

We had seen a T-shirt in the medina for Hard Rock Marrakech, and we thought that might be fun. So, while Max and Em were in the pool, I went and asked at the front desk if there really was a Hard Rock there, or if that had been a fake. They said there really was. So, Max & Em got out of the pool, and we got ready to go. When we got back to the lobby (the only place with internet access), we looked online for the address to give a cab driver. Alas, the front desk was wrong, there is no Hard Rock Marrakech. So, we just went back to our room.

Oh, two things about the hotel buffet that I loved - the tea bar (though I didn't partake, Emma did) and the spice bar. The tea bar was just big bowls of tea stuff - rosemary, chamomile, rose petals, etc. The spice bar was in little tagines. It was so cute.

tea bar

spice bar