Tinghir and the Todra Gorge

we took a 6 hour bus ride from marrakesh to reach our next destination, tinghir, which seemed to me to be a modern day "downtown" to the village we were staying at in the todra gorge, which is actually a few villages away by cab.
joy of joys, this lovely bus ride started at 7 am and wasn't all that comfortable. but i did try to get some sleep, and luckily there were two stops - one for coffee and to use the bathroom (during which the lack of western toilets did not please me), and another for lunch (where i was overjoyed by the presence of western toilets).
there was some nice scenery along the way though.

and i got to watch mom attempt to text our host. look how hard she concentrates on it! haha

finally, however, we arrived in tinghir and just had to wait for our host's friend to come get us (long story short our host ironically had to head to marrakesh to visit the consolate while we were on our way to meet him, but anyways). while we were waiting though, we had a few people try to talk to us and a couple guys even tried to tell us they could find us a place to stay. one (and one of the younger ones i might add), turned to me and told me he had a guest house where i could sleep. i told him no thanks, but thanks for the offer haha.
the friend did arrive though and drove us first into the gorge to check it out before taking us to the hotel we would be staying in the first night.

we arrived at the hotel and met the very welcoming owner and his nephew (who would actually become our guide and go with us to the desert). we started off with some food. typical bread with amazing honey and butter so creamy and light when i first looked at it i seriously thought it was brie cheese. and some olive oil. and olives and apricot jam (though i didn't either of those).

we then got to go up to the roof of the hotel and get a view of the village. i have to say it's MUCH smaller than my view from fourviere in lyon, but it's nice.

mom and dad ended up taking a hike while i decided to crash in our room since i was already completely exhausted. and we weren't even halfway done!
that night we had dinner with other guests as well as the owner his nephew/our new friend nabile. drums were brought out as well as some other guitarish looking thing that i have no idea what it was called.

as the evening came to a close i was ecstatic that i would be able to take a shower (we hadn't had a working one available to us in marrakesh), though i didn't learn until after i had taken my fairly cold shower that warm water was available if i asked for it. but at least i was clean again!

and stylish too...

we slept in until 9 the following morning and took our time eating breakfast (the same food we had been provided with upon arriving). but soon enough we were getting ready for our day and heading to the school near by with nabile where our host, abdelaziz, teaches so we could see hi and when he would actually be ready to see us. he teaches a class of fifth graders and they were all so cute. they were excited to see americans and tried to teach me numbers. in bereber and arabic i might add, which made it even more difficult for me when i was struggling in the first place haha. i think i'll stick to french for now.

then we met nabile's uncle in my dad's search for new batteries for his camera. which ended in his inviting us into his shop for tea, us reading him postcards that he had received, and my parent's buying a carpet from him.

we ate lunch back at the hotel when abdelaziz finally came to join us, and then went on a hike to move all of our stuff to his apartment where we would be staying that night. (other than in marrakesh, we wouldn't be spending more than one night in the same beds).
remember how i said "downtown" was a cab ride away from the village we were staying in? well we walked about halfway there as we tried to catch a cab to get us there more quickly. luckily this meant walking more downhill than anything, because it was far more enjoyable than having to walk would have been. and nabile even made my mom an oragami camel with grass!

i also particularly enjoyed the different signs warning cars to be careful.

and eventually we got a cab to take us the rest of the way. i was able to buy postcards which i had been forgetting to do on past trips, and we picked up some food our host would cook for us later. my parents also bought some wine which only exists there so the tourists can buy it because i guess it's illegal for muslims to drink.
after making plans with a cab driver to come up to the village to get us early the next morning so we could catch our bus to the desert, we headed back up to the village for the evening.
evening festivities involved hanging out with the hotel people, but this time at a blind mans house, and listening to them play their music.

and around 10pm we finally headed back to our host's place to eat some dinner. oh yea, they eat dinner pretty late here. and then bed time! because of the whole snoring situation i was allowed to sleep in a separate room from my parents which made me super happy of course. :)