Happy Anniversary!

Two Glorious Years! On November 10th we will have been married for two years. We went out this weekend to the Middle Atlas mountains to celebrate. We stayed at a Gite (our first Moroccan Gite) located between Azrou and Ifrane. It was very nice and basic owned by a Berber couple who have been running it out of their home for ten years. There were three other French families who are working in Casablanca. We got together for Breakfast and Diner. Two of the men there were Science teachers at two French schools.

The main reason we chose to stay here was to hire a guide and go on a nice long hike. This was our first time hiring a guide so we new we would learn a lot from the experience. The Gite arranged the guide for us but warned us that it might not go as planned so be firm about what we wanted. We didn't know what we wanted so we just went on a adventure.

We met the guide in Azrou who then told us that we would take a taxi to Ain Leuh. We offered our car instead and hopped in the car. We drove for another 45 minutes while he was on the phone giving orders to people about the hike. We were supposed to meet up with a French group who were going on a three day hike. Since we were behind schedule (though we didn't know this), the French group went ahead of us and the guide. We arrived at a house in Ain Leuh and met two men and two mules. After waiting 10 minutes, the guide, Saoud, told us that something had come up and that we would go ahead with one of his companions Rachid. It was then that we asked where we were going. We showed him our map and said that where we were going was not on the map! Good times. We then started our hike with the mules and two men. After walking for an hour, we found ourselves on a road. We started walking on the road. The two men started getting worried because they couldn't find the French group. We continued walking along the road for an hour. I kept asking in my best Arabic when do we get off the road but they told us not to worry. We didn't pay them to walk us along a road! We eventually got off the road and started walking down a very rough dirt road. After another hour and half we met up with our original guide Saoud (he must have gotten a ride to this village and met us going the other direction. He was still looking for the French group. We waited another half hour as they looked for the group. They finally gave up and we continued walking to this village Zaoula d'Ifrane. About four km from the village they stopped and started to make lunch. Rachid took us along to the village. On the way we saw monkeys and then continue further to look at caves in the cliffs and to see a waterfall from a distance. When we came back the French group had arrived. There were about 15 of them and they didn't act like they had been lost. It was 3:30 pm by then. We were getting worried not just because we were tired from hiking more than 4 hours but we knew we would not make it back in time by sunset. This experience reminded Marc of many hikes in Guinea. We ate a quick lunch of Kefta sandwiches and then, along with Rachid, started back up the mountain. After two hours of hiking we said good bye to the sun and arrived at the road. Rachid offered to wave down a car if one passed. After two minutes a large truck came by and stopped for us. It was a perfect way to celebrate our Anniversary. Tired and in a run down enormous truck with all the Islamic paraphernalia Moroccan trucks normally carry! We made it back to the car after thirty minutes of driving - we were both thankful that we didn't have to hike another two hours.

We arrived back at the Gite and the other french families were eager to hear our story with our Guide. It was a great experience and we learned alot about what to do next time with a hiking Guide. We drove back today while planning our next adventure.





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