Day 706: A visit to Morocco

In the summer of 2005, I traveled to Morocco on a Fulbright Scholarship.  Scheduled to last a month, I planned ahead to come home after 2 1/2 weeks because Colin was coming home on leave and I did not want to miss seeing him.  Although I missed some tour highlights, I didn't regret the decision cause he had such a tough summer.  It was also the summer Mary moved into her new house in Dunkirk and my sister Nancy moved into their new house in Crestwood, KY.  We spent weeks helping Mary paint, clean and move and then traveled to KY to help Nancy and Glenn.  Looking back, it was the right thing to do.

Of all the trips I took, Morocco was the most difficult, mostly because of the intense heat.  I learned a great deal and saw some remarkable sights.  Without my notebooks, I can't remember the names of all the sites we visited, but the experiences were unforgettable.

Approaching the Atlas Mts in a bus that was not air conditioned, the temperature was 110 degrees.  I felt like I was being cooked alive.  No matter what I did to cool my body, it was not enough.  Finally, we came to an oasis where there was a hotel and the guide spoke to the manager.  They gave me an air-conditioned room that cooled to the 80s.  I entered the room, ran a tub full of cold water and plunged into it.  When I felt cooled, I left the water for the next bath because it is so precious.  After sleeping a few hours, I went back to the tub and found it full of red ants!  They had climbed up the wall, gone over the edge and drowned in the tub.  

A grainery

Moroccan suq

Thistle