Last 2 Days in Africa

October 2 & 3rd.
 
Ok, so the last 2 days weren't nearly as packed as the first, and we were starting to get a bit worn out from vacation so things went at a much slower pace. On Friday we went to Morocco's version of a botanical garden, which is basically more varieties of cacti than you can possibly imagine. I don't know how I have successfully killed two terrariums of cacti in a row (hopefully mom is working her magic on my 3rd try right now) while these people can grow 20 foot tall monstrosities. Anyway- we just walked around the gardens for a bit before heading to a Moroccan palace. The palace was nothing like the French or Spanish varieties- absolutely no furniture and the ceilings were the only highly decorated portions- the walls were completely white. Not terribly impressive but we appreciated it nonetheless. We hit the souks again for a bit more bargaining and headed home to rest up before dinner. Our tour guides from the day before had yet again proposed to us an evening spectacle. In hindsight they built it up to be a lot cooler than it was but I'll tell you anyway.

That evening they picked us up in their van and drove us to the outskirts of town to a strip of large resort-ish things. We were seated in a beautiful multi-colored tent, partial open to the outside, surrounded by many small fires and costumed Moroccans playing drums and other instruments. It was basically Africa's equivalent of a dinner theater and throughout the night they piled our table with amazing food while dancers, fire breathers, and musicians filed through the tents performing. The highlight for me was definitely the ENORMOUS haunch of goat that they pretty much plopped in the middle of our table. They didn't give us any silverware but instructed us to eat it Moroccan style- with our fingers. We were all ridiculously hungry and probably looked rather scary tearing into that giant hunk of meat. There were also some wonderfuly spiced cous-cous dishes which in all their glory comprised an entire dinner course. After tea and dessert there was one final horseback performance outdoors with lots of random gun shooting and whooping. There was another appearance by camels and the chance to ride them again but the line was too long. The part that we didn't really enjoy was that they specifically told us we had to tip the dancers and our driver even though we had paid an all-inclusive already too-expensive price. We decided to let it go though and called the evening a success.

We had an afternoon flight on Saturday so we decided to use our last morning, suprise, exploring the souks. There were a few last minute purchases and shady encounters with locals in back alleys. At one point I turned around to find a snake (I found out later it was wooden) being thrust in my face. Needless to say I screamed and ran about halfway through the souks before the rest of the group caught up with me. Just prior to that I had left the stall of a vendor who was unwilling to give me the price I asked for, mid-way through tears and being comforted the same vendor came back trying to finalize the purchase. He thought I was crying about our unsuccessful bargaining and gave me the price I wanted on the spot- so if you're really dedicated you can add crying on command to the list of how to bargain in Morocco. Finally with the day halfway spent we returned to our hotel to check out. There was a brief panic when all of the girls crap didn't fit in our backbacks but we resolved this by making the boys each carry an extra bag :) One still-rather-scary taxi ride to the airport later and we changed in the last of our Dirhams and said goodbye to Africa. Overall it was one of the most incredible and out of my comfort-zone experiences that I've ever had. (I've heard that's good for you, Jamie) Even though Africa and I didn't get along so well at first I'm positive it won't be my last trip there- I'm just going to bring lots of empty bags next time and all of you to help me. :)