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The Different Faces of Morocco To the Kasbah and BeyondI think it was her long dark eyelashes that first attracted me to Ms.Zagora. That's not to say she didn't have a classic profile with beautifulbrown hair, a slender neck and long shapely legs, but it was thoseeyelashes that caught my eye. Then again, it might have been the wayshe could suck up ten gallons of water in a single swig that impressed methe most. But according to our Berber guide, Ahmed, most camels cando this.My wife and I recently spent two weeks in Morocco, mesmerizedby the fabled souks and medinas of Fez, Marrakech, Meknes, and MoulayIndress, along with the more modern environs of Casablanca, Rabat, and Tangier. But, before returning home we made a side trip to the remoteoutpost of Zagora for a camel trek into the Saharan desert.111Let me say right off the Sahara can drive a person mad. Theinsufferable heat, the vast expanse of nothingness, the relentless shiftingsands. Ok, Ok, we were there in practically winter and the temperaturewas a balmy 80 degrees and we only took a 3-day trek of at most 40miles. I can dream, can't I ?But I did live out a childhood fantasy of crossing at least a tinycorner of the Sahara on a camel caravan. It was a rather small caravan,my wife riding atop Miss Timbuktu and myself riding Lady, both Malidesert camels, while two smaller Moroccan mountain camels, Ms. Zagoraand Madame Butterfly, carried our provisions. We weren't really giventhe keys to the camels but had two young Berber nomads, Ahmed andBrime, who were born and raised in the Sahara, lead us in and hopefully

out of the desert. Ahmed told me the camels didn't have names so wenamed them ourselves. All four were females and we christened themaccording to their personalities; although after I got caught downwind of Lady on the second day when she decided to relieve herself, I wonderedif we had named her properly.Many people believe that Morocco is just one big desert which isfar from the truth. It is a country roughly the size and shape of Californiaon the northwest corner of Africa with a mountain range, the AtlasMountains, running lengthwise through the country. North and west of the mountains along the Atlantic Ocean is a rich agricultural plain withadequate rain for growing a wide variety of crops, the climate not unlikethat of coastal California. The Atlas Mountains shield the moist coastalwinds from the desert conditions that lie to the south and east. The first peoples to inhabit Morocco were the Berbers, who haveinhabited the area since Neolithic times. Nowadays, however, thepopulation is mostly Berber and Arab with the Arabs constituting themajority in the coastal urban areas of Casablanca, Rabat, and Tangier,and the Berbers being the majority in the rural mountainous and desertareas. Although the Berbers might be called the American Indians of Morocco and the Arabs, who came to Morocco in the 8th century, mightbe compared with European Americans, the Berbers still occupy amainstream position in Moroccan life and in the rural mountain areas, theculture is Berber.We met Ahmed and Brime in a camel coral in Zagora where theywere already busy loading the braying and spitting camels with supplies.A short time later tents, food, water and everything required for threedays in the desert was loaded, and we were on our way at last, down adusty road lined with mud houses, to the Sahara and past a smallunobtrusive sign that read: Timbuktu 52 Days. Ahmed and Brime leadMiss Timbuktu and Lady, respectively, my wife floating along ten feetabove the ground on Miss Timbuktu and myself on Lady, with the

Moroccan pack camels, Ms. Zagora and Madame Butterfly, bringing upthe rear. An hour later the houses and road trickled out and before uslay, well, nothing. It was just a stony wind-scaped landscape over whichfor the next three hours we would spend getting accustomed to therolling motion of our camels and taking in this surreal place. Then, all of a sudden Lady stopped and Ahmed points to the ground. This would beour home for the night.I couldn't help but contrast the stark isolation of the desert withthe rush of humanity we had experienced over the past two weeks in themedinas (old towns) and souks (markets) of Fez and Marrakech. We had joined eighteen other Americans in Casablanca two weeks earlier on aMaupintour grand tour of Morocco. I ask Frank, a retired machine-toolengineer from Chicago, why he and his wife came to Morocco."We ate at the Moroccan pavilion in Epcot and it just us startedthinking," he said. Kim, a young lawyer from New York, traveling abroadfor the first time, told me she purchased a Moroccan vase in New Yorkand she too started wondering about the place. As for the rest of group,they had been everywhere else.So, for the next two weeks with our Moroccan guide, Said, leadingthe way, we visited more souks, medinas, kasbahs, and mosques; sawmore Moroccan mosaics, handcrafted silver, and handwoven carpets;and ate more tajine, cous cous and pastila (pidgeon pie) than I care tomention. We also saw veiled and tatooed Berber women in colorfulgowns bedecked with tons of silver jewlery along the roads in the AtlasMountains, and visited Berber villages where people still plow withdonkeys and travel on burros. Apart from a rare satellite dish poweredby batteries, things haven't changed since biblical times. I wonderedabout a person watching Bay Watch in a mud house without electricity orindoor plumbing.