Who knew it rained in the desert....

Hokay, so, EPIC ADVENTURE: The Southern Excursion.

We went all around Eastern/Southern Morocco, and saw A LOT. First we went to a winery/large farm to learn about agriculture in Morocco. We got to see the process for growing olive trees. They start out with very temperature and humidity controlled with little seeds. They then move them progressively out to the outdoors.

Apparently they also have an air cannon that blows away hail so it doesn't damage the plants..wish i could have gotten a picture...but I did not. We also got to see the winery, a nice change from the heat outside.
Then we got to see the Barbary Macaque (monkey native to the Cedar Forest of the Middle Atlas). They were very tourist friendly and I got some really cool pictures.

Then we went to Azrou (a city in the middle atlas mountains, it means rock in Berber), we then proceeded to climb the giant rock that has a crown on top of it. Woot!

Then of course the EPIC SANDSTORM. Prolly the best thing ever. We had been on the sand dunes for approximately 20 minutes when we realized that there appeared to be a large storm coming our way. Our director insisted we start to return to the auberge. So we began to turn around. It took several more minutes for all of us to realize that we would not be making it back to the auberge before it came upon us. There was a definite moment of "oh snap that storm is gigantic and we are so not going to make it back." So our very skilled camel guides got us to a lower area of the dunes and covered us in blankets after several minutes. After waiting around 20 minutes in the storm we realized it was not going to stop and went back on the camels (I named my Achmed). I covered my face the whole time with a scarf to protect myself from wind, sand, rain, and hail. Basically a once in a lifetime adventure. It was SOOOO cool.



The morning after we woke up before dawn to see the sunset over the dunes. It was beautiful.

We learned a little about Berber culture and saw the architecture....if you could call it that. Mud and straw buildings in the rain = worst plan ever. We also got to see the palm oases in the desert and the mild form of irrigation they use, just underground well systems which then form a pool from which the people move mud around to force the water to the palm trees.

Then everyone got stomach sick (roughly half the group) and the next few days are somewhat uneventful. We went to Marrakech, which was awesome and realized Rabat is NOT a tourist city, Marrakech is. There's a beautiful minaret that I took a million sunset pictures with. And also monkeys, snake charmers, sotry tellers, and so many nuts and dried fruit I would have eaten had I not been ill *sigh*
Finally we went to the ocean town of Essouira which was also beautiful. Apparantly the fish was excellent...but I was still kinda sick so I only ate soup (which was also great). Overall most people came back a little ill but it was a wonderful adventure and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything!