Marrakesh - Essaouira

This is the guy carrying our stuff from the hotel to our bikes today morning:

This is our bikes parked on the first stop on this boring route to Essaouira:

Boring straights most of the way:

Essaouira though is not boring at all. A total different world compared to the other places in Morocco so far. Bright colours, laid back, people at the stores are MUCH more cool and you can have a look at things taking your time without any frustrating behaviour from them, quite wonderful! Have a look:

Marrakesh

Το Μαρακές μου προσφέρει ένα από τα ισχυρότερα πολιτιστικά σοκ της ζωής μου. Μοιάζει με Μοναστηράκι που έχει πάρει LSD σε εμπόλεμη ζώνη. Την ίδια στιγμή μπροστά στα μάτια σου και τη μύτη σου πλακώνουν οι πλέον έντονες και αντίθετες εμπειρίες. Η μύτη ίσως υποφέρει ακόμη περισσότερο: Κύμινο, σκατά, ψαρίλα, κολόνιες, κρεατίλα, διάφορα άλλα μπαχαρικά, πάλι κύμινο, πάλι σκατά, ξανά ψαρίλα, γλυκά, χυμοί πορτοκαλιού, τσάι και ξανά από την αρχή. Το μενού για τα μάτια δεν είναι και πολύ φτωχότερο: Κάθε είδους μαγαζιά στα στενοσόκακα όπου μπορεί να σε πατήσουν διάφορα οχήματα (από ποδήλατα και σκούτερ μέχρι ζωήλατα κάρα και τρίκυκλα - όλα σφαίρα). Στην πλατεία δε (Jemma el Fnaa) το βράδυ γίνεται ο απίστευτος χαμός: Αμέτρητα υπαίθρια εστιατόρια ψήνουν μπροστά στα μάτια σου τα πάντα (καλαμάρια, ψάρια, λουκάνικα, κοτόπουλα, αρνιά και δε συμμαζεύεται) και περιμένουν τους πελάτες σε τραπέζια με πάγκους και στρογγυλά ψωμιά (το φαΐ εκεί ήταν το καλύτερο που δοκιμάσαμε ως τώρα), πιο πέρα σε ένα κύκλο χορεύουν άντρες με μαύρη μπούρκα και φουστάνια, αλλού ένας τύπος δίνει παράσταση ουρλιάζοντας στα περιστέρια και στη μέση τεράστια κάρα με άπειρα πορτοκάλια στύβουν χυμούς (πολύ νόστιμους). Χαζεύεις μια βιτρίνα με όμορφα ξυλόγλυπτα, σε κοιτά μια γάτα με το ένα μάτι βγαλμένο, πίσω σου ένα σπίτι σα βομβαρδισμένο, δίπλα μια ωραία πικροδάφνη και κάποιος σου την πέφτει να σου πουλήσει - προτείνει το οτιδήποτε...τότε ξέρεις ότι είσαι στο Μαρακές.

Turtles in cages waiting to become soup:

The nice waitress of Cafe des Epices (nice rock music there)

Inside a "Teleboutique"

Our brave friend John had a shave:

That cat kept looking at me...

...all the way...

Morrocan doors:

Click to see a bird nest in the middle:

Ait Ben Haddou - Marrakesh

Was a nice morning at Ait Ben Haddou both because of the beautiful sunrise and my better stomach condition:

What wasn't as good though was the look of our bikes due to last night's sandstorm. My bike never looked that miserable:

We took the N9 to make it to Marrakesh. Short ride but the middle part of it is really nice. First we made it up to the pass of Tichka (2296m)

It was literally freezing up there. 

Some funny lorries on the way going too slow (dangerous):

The route crosses the forests of Toufliht and Tagargoust so the vegetation changed dramatically:

It's an amazing route that gives you an idea about how Moroccan Alps would look like but the heavy traffic and the terrible tarmac with lots of gravel on it requires all of your attention. Funny lorries there as well:

Marrakesh welcomed as with its awful smell and insane traffic. I've already commented a lot on people's behaviour so just imagine that here things feel like 10 times more terrible. Some OK guys are still around but the rest is beyond belief. I appreciate more and more the women and the donkeys of this country. The only ones who don't test your boiling point.

This is were I'll sleep tonight:

We got some diarrhea and nausea pills from a kind girl in the nearby pharmacy just in case. Actually there's still a couple of us on problems. I asked that girl if they sell off such stuff around that time every year and she said "Yes! Not only you - even we locals suffer as well..."

Ait Ben Haddou

This town is famous as it hosted scenes for movies like Lawrence of Arabia. It's a picturesque one but the wind was crazy making the sky look white from the sand and dust so didn't give me a chance to walk the whole thing and picture it. Here's a few ones I managed to take:

Beautiful old doors I managed to picture before the owner came out to break our balls trying to sell us his stuff:

I must admit that the Riad Maktoub where we stayed offers the best personnel I've seen so far.

Very kind and helpful, offered to wash my clothes free of charge (haven't paid the whole bill yet so can't tell you if it's real value for money). It's rare around here to see that people pay attention to other things except your money so I felt like mentioning this nice exception. However, I just came up with another crappy thing about Morocco: I went to the local store to buy some bottled water and the bottles looked to me a bit weird...as if they were not sealed properly while the fridge had lots of water at the bottom. I said to myself "don't tell me they sell imitations of bottled water!". Well...they actually do that too! You can find numerous experiences like this around the net. Hard to comment...

And did I mention I already had more than enough of the same 3-4 dishes that they offer as Moroccan food everywhere? Which by the way (except Cous Cous) is not at all proper food when you have stomach problems like half of Morocco visitors do. And they all like to flood these dishes with cumin...arghhh!

The wind tries to break my window, cats are screaming outside, my stomach feels kinda confident for another night of fight with the local gastronomy I just consumed and I have to get some sleep...

Todra gorge - Ait Ben Haddou

Remember I wondered who's next to have tummy problems? Well, it's actually all of us now with me being the worst case. A complete nightmare that I can't remember when it was the last time I had anything like this but I will spare you the disgusting details. Completely exhausted and dehydrated I got myself on the bike. We met some extremely wide roads on the way that looked to me as if they started an airport and then changed plans:

We often met this kind of walls in the middle of nowhere:

Heading west we made a detour to Dades gorge which is a well known must:

Really unique rock formations in that gorge:

The last half part of that route up to Ait Ben Haddou was the worst I've ever done as I was completely drained, unable to walk more than 10 meters in a row. Still wonder how I managed to arrive in one piece. After a good sleep now I am much better already.