Update from Ouaouizarht..

Sorry its been a while since my last update and a lot has happened.. So this may have to be a brief overview once again.. and possibly full of typos due to the fact Im using an Arabic keyboard...

So, After we got most of the gear unpacked and organiwed here in Ouaouizarth Emil and I had the task of driving back up to Tangier hopping of the ferry to Algeciras Spain and retrieiving a pallet full of gear that had been shipped from Ethiopia. Sounds simple enough unless you take into account the fact we had to leave the van in Morocco and man handle 300 kg of gear into taxis and onto the ferry by ourselves.

When we arrived in Spain it proved to be more difficult then we thought to find a taxi driver willing to load down their vehicle with two river guides and a ton of gear.. So we decided to hitch hike over to the town of La Linea, where the shipping company was located, and try to get the guys their to help us arrange the transport of the gear back to the ferry terminal.

After about an hour of walking and no one stopping to offer a ride we asked around and found the bus station that supposedly would service La Linea.. after waiting around there for a bit, and with time running a bit short already, we flagged down a taxi and found our way to the shipping company... which was of course closed for the next couple hours for their lunch break..

Emil and I killed some time by wandering around a fairly industrial part of the city until we found a grocery store and stocked up on some bread and cheese and had ourselves a nice break people watching and enjoying a meal after being on the go for the past 12 hours or so..

When the guys finally showed back up to work, almost an hour later then promise, the offered to drive us to the ferry Terminal back in Algeciras.. for a fee of course.. but it was actually a bit cheaper then hiring a taxi to do the transport for us.

Then the real work began... since there are no porters or even baggage carts on the Spain side of the ferry it took emil and I about an hour and a half to lug the gear into the ferry terminal up two flights of stairs and to the customs post where the boarder guards were so amused at how absurd the amount of gear we were carrying that they didnt even take a look inside any of it..

We got a bit of help once we made it through the security check point from some kids who had hitch hiked down from England and to show our thanks we helped them navigate their way through the border proceedures since Emil and I had already been through this a couple of times before and offered them a ride once we made it back into Morocco..

After the hour long ferry ride we made if back to Tangier and with the help of some slightly overly paid porters we naviagated through customs without much hassel and had the van loaded and ready for the 11 hour drive back to Ouaouizarth..

With little or no sleep over the last two days we barely made it out of Tangier before we pulled over and got a couple hours of sleep at a truck stop and made it back to Ouaouizarth the nex day with out much trouble..

Ive spent most of my time since then on the river Ahansel.. which is absolutely gorgeous and has been changing dramatically each time Ive been on it due to the dropping water levels.

Some nights at camp or when we stop for lunch some of the local nomadic Berber people come and watch us pretty curiously. We usually offer them some food and try to communicate with them through mostly hand gestures and a few common words we both know.

The area we raft through is very remote but it still has inhabitants that live high up on the canyon walls in mud brick homes or even in some Casbas that we float past. When we are rafting down the like to call out at us from up in the hills or from the river banks and all seem very happy and amused to see a bunch of goofy looking westerners floating down their river.

The other night at camp a man was passing through after tending his feilds.. he was complaining of a headache and had a potatoe taped to his head to supposedly cure him of his alement... After a bit of talking with him it seemed like the cause of his headache was from sinus pressure and was probably only suffering from a cold so I offered him a bit of tylenol cold medicine to relive him of some of the symptoms..

The river we run here is pretty amazing and every day is veryunique... there is usually one or two days of pretty intense rapids which have led to a couple of wrapped boats... some interesting and long z-drag operations and a few close calls with wrapping and flipping paddle rafts. Since the river has been changing so dramatically every time I go down it it really has tested my water reading abilities and has kept things interesting. There also are some very narrow gorges on the last day and a trying experience paddling through what we call the soup. The soup is bassically where the river pours out into the lake and becomes clogged with all the wood and debris that has been carried down the river. It can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours of paddling, pulling, and sweating until we reach the clear blue waters of lake Bin Ouiden. We then meet a boat that tows us for an hour or so to the other side of the lake just outside of Ouaouizarht.

I have a few days to kill here in Ouaouizarht where we have an apartment and a garage to store all of our gear.. Mohamid, who is our landlord and also lives directly above us, usually cooks us huge meals of Couscous, Chicken, and Curried vegetables on Fridays if we are around. Fridays are the holy day around here and they also are the evenings with a lot activity around town.. Kids running around and playing in the streets.. wedding parties driving through town a couple dozen times honking their horns.. and the men crowd into the cafes to watch soccer matches and drink tea.

Today is Saturday and it really feels like it around here with out tons of work going on. It also seems to be the day all the women do the washing and there is laundry hanging up every where.. including huge carpets that have been washed and are hanging off the roofs of the buildings to dry. A lot people seem to go to the lake for picnics and spend all day relaxing on the beach on Saturdays and the town has a mass exodus in the early moring with an equally large amoutn of people returning in the evening. Its also the morning where fishermen come around to sell the weeks catch... Tembo and I picked up a half kilo for 5 Dirham today(about 50 cents) and should have a pretty tasty and filling dinner tonight...

I leave for another 6 day trip on Monday the 12th and after that I only have one or two more trips down the river...

Ali also gets here the day after I get done with this next trip and is staying here to travel through Morocco with me until we fly back to Detroit together from Portugal on May 20th..

That will give us about 15 days to travel through Morocco, Spain, and Portugal after the season is done here and hopefully allow us to still have some money banked up for our move to New York later this summer...

I guess thats all for now.. sorry this post isnt very well organized or even spell checked yet...check facebook for photos for now since it takes way too long to upload them on here..