11:30 pm Ouarzazate

After the medieval melée of Fes and the rural, crumbling charm of AÏt Ben Haddou, it was a waste of time to try and appreciate Ouarzazate. But, faced with a couple hours free - not really long enough to go check out the other sights in the region - I figured, what the hell. Plus, after two days of relatively little exercise, I was itching to get out and just walk around.

What a waste of time. This city was founded by the French in the 1930s and has all the charm (and the cheap master-planned look) of Phoenix, a city I loathe. I kept waiting for a tarantula or rattlesnake to appear and complete the comparison. I won't waste any more time on it than to say, it was a good walk but I didn't gain anything from it besides exercise. I wasn't expecting much, the town is known more as a good base from which to see other places than a destination on itself.

I'm very much enjoying having a car here. Moroccan roads are quite good, on fact considering this is a pretty poor country, I have to say the infrastructure as a whole is very good. I'd even venture to say the roads are in better shape than Atlanta, although to be honest that says more about Atlanta than it does about Morocco!!

I've had a hell of a time finding working Internet here, but I definitely have it in Marrakech so I'm not too worried about it. There is wireless in the hotel - I pic up the signal - but I can't get any kind of server to respond. This isn't my strong suit anyway, so I'm writing it off as a loss and this'll be part of a mass upload. Hope no one is worried about me :-)

Tomorrow I leave this pit and head back to Marrakech via a different route. I have to be back by 4 and I have no idea how long the drive will take, hopefully not too long as I don't want to be charged extra!! I will miss my little car, it's a silver Kia and I have named her Fatima.

Oh - that reminds me! Moroccan radio is quite interesting; you can find almost anything you want on there but you have to wait for it as the stations don't seem to stick as strictly to one theme as they do in the US. I was flipping through on my way out of Marrakech yesterday and it was a little unsettling (and HIGHLY amusing) to suddenly hear Littlejohn yell "YEAH!!!". Particularly after Berber tribal music. Yeah, this country's pretty awesome.