Sahara!

I am probably the most exfoliated that I will ever be in my life... the Sahara leaves no edges unsanded!

This past weekend I went on the ALIF program trip to the Sahara where they put us up in beautiful hotels with gorgeous pools. It was a much more luxurious trip than my friends and I would have planned on our own, but the desert it much harder to just wonder around until you find a hostel... and we were glad we did not have to do the nine hour drive on our own. 

As we drove south from Fez, the landscape gradually became more mountainous, and homogenous in color. As the green faded, dull colored shrubs and rocks covered the hill sides. The narrow road we were driving on was well kept, but very windy, as it snaked its way through the sandy colored mountains. Every once and awhile you would look down at a green valley with walls of the sandy colored earth rising on either side. We made a quick stop at one of these valleys...

When we made it to our first hotel, berbers welcomed us with musical instruments, and quickly dragged us into dance...

The first hotel was beautiful, complete with a large outdoor pool, and a smaller indoor pool with a hot tub. A buffet dinner was waiting for us, and we alternated swimming with eating, and later in the evening, swimming and drinking. It was a lot of fun, and we had pretty much complete freedom to run around in bikinis and be as loud as you want. It was a nice to break from the constant stares you get on the streets of Fez.

Just playing around in the pool!
We even got some synchronized choreography going
later that afternoon!

The next day we slept in a little, and prepared for the camel ride. When we arrived at the second hotel where the camels were at, we just dropped our bags off and got our scarves tied around our head in the traditional turban style...

Before we mounted our camels... the scarves were more than necessary, not only to protect your skin from the sun, but to prevent the very fine sand carried by the wind to get into your eyes and nose, and worst of all into your lungs. 

We rode our camels into the setting sun.

When we reached one of the largest sand dunes between Morocco and Algeria we dismounted and began to climb...

We we got back down from the dune, we enjoyed a traditional berber dinner and danced the night away while the berbers played various traditional instruments. 

Many students decided to sleep on the sand dunes where the stars stood out brilliantly against the thick darkness. I decided to pull my mattress out of the berber tent and sleep with my other girlfriends inside the berber camp. There we were protected from the sand but we were also able to enjoy the dry desert air. On our way down from exploring the large sand dune in the pitch darkness, one of our friends came up to us and told us that one of our friends, Jacob, was very sick. He was throwing up and had severe abdominal pain. The berbers had apparently tried to improve his stomach pains by placing him face-down on a cup they had put in the sand so that it dug into his stomach. They commenced to push hard on his back, and message his limbs as he writhed in pain. In his delirium, he tried to roll away from the berbers, trying to get away from the pain. He couldn't hold anything down, and he was severely dehydrated. A group of students stayed up with him all night long, slowly giving him water from a wet cloth. There was not much we could do for him, so we just came and checked on him every once and awhile, and by morning he was awake, but still very weak. We all got up right before sunrise... which was only a few hours after we had fallen asleep, and we mounted our camels to start the long walk back to the hotel. Jacob was driven back, over the sand-dunes, and slowly began regaining his strength as he slept at the hotel. As we made our way back, we enjoyed a spectacular sunrise over the sand-dunes which was a mixed blessing. As beautiful and welcoming as the sun was, it also brought the stifling heat. The temperature increase was rapid, and unforgiving. Thankfully we left early enough, that our ride was quite pleasant, and I found myself nodding off to sleep in time with the rise and fall of my camel's easy stride.