 |
| Marrakech, Morocco taken from the plane as we were landing |
Wow, what a trip! I have been calling our moving locations “travel days”. I may have to rethink that name because its taking the fun out of travel. This was not one of those exciting travel days. It just takes too long to recover from the packing, lugging suitcases to the airport, getting from our destination airport to a cab or in this trips case, a chartered bus and then from the bus terminal to our holiday home, buying groceries and unpacking.
 |
| Our Prop plane, only loads from the back door. |
It is usually a little stressful and we just take it in stride but this time it was quite a bit more than we bargained for. It usually turns out OK and this time it did just that, but it was just too much. For the first time, I was close to tears. I ended up with a migraine and a fever blister. This shouldn’t be this stressful!
 |
| Marrakech airport |
Will we stop traveling? Of course not! We will just figure out how to deal with these days better. We left sunny Tenerife, Canary Islands at 6:45 am on Sunday morning, made it to the airport on time, checked in, paid our €150 Euros for the 3rd piece of luggage and was so relieved it made it on the plane. We were told it may not. We had a stopover in Las Palmas, Canary Islands before embarking on a 2 1/2 hour flight to Marrakech, Morocco.
 |
| One of the nicer buildings along the route |
Our flight was delayed leaving Tenerife, giving us only 15 minutes to make our connection flight to Marrakech. We not only had a very smooth flight on both planes but the customer service of this airline, Binter Canarias, was amazing. A representative met us at the plane (several others on the plane were making the same connection) and escorted us to the other plane, that was delayed by waiting on us. This is a budget airlines.
 |
| Our roadside view from the bus to Essaouira |
I have tried to stay away from anything that’s not associated with an alliance with Delta, American or United but this was the most direct, saving us several hours of travel time by flying to Spain first, and cost efficient, so after some research and looking at mostly positive reviews on tripadvisor.com, we decided to go with it.
 |
| Donkey (or mule) led carts. Guess they don’t need license plates? |
This plane was a turbo-prop plane. 4 seats wide, two on each side, 72 seats. I DO NOT like turbo prop planes. Especially traveling across the Atlantic Ocean for 2 1/2 hours. But, Chuck was comfortable with it and I determined if we are going to die, we will die together! We were totally amazed at how smooth this plane was, how great they treated their passengers and of course the cost, aside from the last piece of luggage we had to pay for.
 |
| Scariest thing I have ever seen! |
They provided lunch, wet towels to wash your hands, snacks and drinks. It was a good experience and if I had to travel on this type of plane again, I wouldn’t be hesitant to use this airline.
We landed in Marrakech and then gathered our luggage. As we are leaving, we had to have our luggage scanned before exiting the airport. Why? I’m assuming so nothing is brought into the country that’s considered contraband.
 |
| Camel taking a lunch break. |
Apparently we didn’t come up on their radar as they pushed us on through. The funny part was that as we were watching others pick up their (up to) 50 pound bags and put them on the conveyor and then picking them up on the other end to put back on their carts, the young man must have felt sorry for us as he told us NO, he would do it. For once, we felt grateful for being old! Getting through security, we pushed the cart of bags to the outside and found a guy standing there with our name on a card. Our driver! I have always wanted to feel that important. It was cool.
 |
| Horse and Donkey (or mule) led cart – main freeway had more of these that had better tires. |
He was really nice. He drove us to the bus station. We asked him if he was from Morocco and he said in perfect english, yes, my skin is black. I am a true Moroccan. His skin color was actually very bronze and he was a good looking man. I told Chuck he was probably a ladies man. He mentioned that we should spend 3 days in the desert while here. I said, we aren’t already there?
 |
| One town we passed through. This was shopping stores. |
We were handed off to the representative who sold us the tickets. This gentleman was British. Peter was from England and he’s so very nice. We had such a great conversation with him that we are going to meet him for dinner one night when we are back in Marrakech. He actually gets the fact that we are not on holiday/vacation but that we are living a nomadic lifestyle, of sorts, in different parts of the world.
 |
| Another shopping area but look to the right you’ll see sheep. We saw sheep and goats in herds. |
Not many people understand that concept when we try to explain it.
We didn’t change our Euros to Dirham (local currency in Morocco with the code of MAD so we call it MAD money) because everywhere I read, it stated Euros were widely used. WRONG! And we soon found out how wrong we were. Peter gave use 210 Dirham (MAD) for 20 Euros. He was really nice to make sure we got the right exchange rate. 1 MAD is $.10 USD and €.09 Euros. I was just happy he made the change for us as we had no time for a bank withdrawal before boarding the bus.
 |
| Small walls were everywhere, sometimes surrounding villages, others with animals inside and some we just couldn’t figure it out. |
We had to pay 5 MAD/dirham (.52 cents USD) per bag. Guess that makes up for the €150 Euros for one bag? Not even close! I’m still reeling over that one. The bus ride was 3 hours. It really wasn’t bad. We had the first row of seats so we had a good view. And boy did we see a lot! At first we were amazed at how desolate the land was. So dry and very little, if any, greenery. The houses were anywhere from a decent looking stucco home/apartment to a dilapidated, curtain for a door hole in the wall.
 |
| A more popular shopping village |
And sometimes, these could be right next door to each other. The main roads are in great shape. It was a pleasant ride but during the ride watching the way the others drove all over the road, not stopping for people, just yelling at them for crossing the road and waving hand gestures to get out of the way, we decided we made a wise choice not to rent a car.
 |
| A lot of stray cats around. This one was at the bus station visiting everyone. |
The quality of life here is beyond anything I have ever imagined. We are truly blessed in our country. People need to appreciate what they have and stop complaining because their Starbucks coffee isn’t made to their liking or their cell phone isn’t the new iPhone X. Along our drive we noticed many different forms of transportation. Cars is number one but there were almost as many bicycles, carts with donkeys, trucks with a cow in the back hanging on for dear life, camels and small motorbikes everywhere, some with an entire family riding it.
 |
| Bicycles or walking. Also, this person was fully dressed in full length Burqa with a Niqab, meaning her face is fully covered. You could only see her eyes. She was wearing clogs on her feet. |
One family had a mother and father and two children sandwiched between them, only the Father wearing a helmet. Some motorbike drivers had helmets but the passenger, often a child, did not. This was the most unbelievable thing I have ever seen. God has truly blessed us and I will continue to thank Him every single day.
This isn’t the half of it. I’ll continue tomorrow with the rest of the story to include getting to our apartment, buying groceries and the daily muslim prayers. I hope you enjoy the photos, all from my iPhone, mostly through the windshield of a plane or bus. You’ll be astonished.
May God bless you always!
Chuck & Lea Ann
WorldTravelReynolds 