Day 13 Monday March 14. Sunrise at The Sahara

I Got up at 6 in the  morning to be able to see the sunrise.

I was not dissappointed, the new day started slowly with the sun

just peaking in the horizon and then suddenly  it went very fast
with the sun getting out faster and faster

next minute, more light

An then the minute after, moe light

You can barely see the houses, they are made of mud, so it looks

just like the earth, this is Hassi Labied, the town next to the Dunes

                                                                     I was on the roof of the hotel

                                                                           The town next to the Dunes is called Hassi Labied

This is where I had breakfast, it is the patio of the hotel, there were many birds singing in this patio and the breakfast was very good. Eggs served in the pan they cook them, bread, tea, mermelade, butter, olives.
it is about 8 in the  morning.

old tiles style,like the ones at my grrandmother's

                       house in Ahuacapan.

The patio lead to my room, this is the entryway to the corridor for the rooom that had windows to the patio.

long walk to the entry to the hotel

Entrance to the Sahara hotel it was priced 30 dlls per person including dinner and breakfast,I believe during high season is more. There were no other people at the hotel, it was not high
season and many groups had cancelled due to concerns of
political stability, but in reality, there were no reasons to be
concerned. The place was peaceful and the people who worked there were very friendly and low key.

Waiting for transportation to leave to my next destination

They look so slim, In Egypt they looked a little bigger, at least that is how I remember it.

No I did not ride this dromedary, I did not want to be sore and unable to walk later

                                               

The hotel is built Kasbah style

and is next to Erg Chebi, the tallest dunes, it is close to the border with Algeria

This is  Erg Chebbi  one of two ergs (large areas of windblown sand dunes) in Morocco.
Most of Morocco’s desert is made up of flat, rockier terrain known as hamada, but Erg Chebbi has sweeping dunes that reach 525 feet in height. Both the 1999 movie The Mummy and 2005’s Sahara were filmed at Erg Chebbi.
 The most pleasant times to visit the dunes are in spring and autumn when days aren’t as hot as in summer and nights don’t get as cold as they do during winter.  Erg Chebbi is  in eastern Morocco near the Algerian border. I arrived at Merzouga from  the small town of Rissani by  public transportation and then I took a
taxi to the hotel in the small village of Hassi Labied.  I inmediately went walking on the dunes, it is like the beach dunes in Cape Cod but bigger and with  higher sand hills.


This man works at the  hotel, he was really nice, he spoke Spanish, Arabic, Berber, French and  English
he served my breakfast and we had some conversation in Spanish during my time there.

making adobes

This is how you make them, it looks like fun, making mud cakes in a  mold. I was born in a house made of adobes in Mexico, my Dad built it and made the adobes like this man, although making enough to build a house takes a long time

A turban keeps the sun from hitting your head and you remain  cool, also on sand storms it protects your head, face, ears.

I liked his turban made of very nice material with colors ockre and tan and brown, I liked  it so much that when I saw one for sale I bought it and I brought it as a souvenir.

All the doors are wood and handmade. The flors are of bick, the walls of mud the ceilings of  bamboo. You get the idea. All is natural and made of natural elements. it gives you a very nice feeling of wellbeing, comfort, in touch with earth, groundeness.

Carpets handmade by Berbers at the hotel for decoration on the  walls.

the ceiling with bamboo

the taxi driver

Merzouga, I think

Girls going to school

Morocco flag is red

We had a sand desert storm