First Week in Morocco

Hey there All,



The past week has been busy and fun. I arrived safe and sound last thursday the 24th in Marrakesh, Morocco. Shortly after arriving in the main square i meet with Evan and our host Ahmed, who is a masters student at the local university. His house has been a great place to crash, fll of fun characters and much laughing. We contacted him through a really cool website Couchsurfing.com, which is how we plant to use through our travels. The basic idea of the project is to connect travelers with folks who are willing to offer their couch and host folks from around the world. Back in Seattle we have hosted and toured travelers, and set up events, and Evan used the site to connect with folks while he was traveling through asia earlier this year.

The first couple days were spend touring the city and meeting other Coushsurfers. We spent the first day with a surfer from Brazil, touring the never ending maze of narrow market streets. Then next evening we meet up with Evans friend Sjoukje from the Netherlands who will be traveling with us until the 13th. We then went to the meeting of the Marrakesh couch sufing group, which was about 20 or so folks. About half were local hosts, and the other half were travelers from all over. The meeting is essentially just an excuse to get together and chat about anything from language to places to travel.

In these few days we got to be good friends with our host Ahmed and his house full of great guys. He has been an amazingly generous host, opening his house and his life to the three of us, making us tea, letting us take over his room, and helping us navigate the city. This is the amazing part of couchsurfing, insted of being stuck at a hotel, we have been able to make a friend in the city, which has deepened the expereince greatly.

On Sunday the 26th we convinced (not hard) Ahmed that he wanted to come with us to do some trekking in the Atlas mountins, which he had never visited. Since it is so late in the season we were not able to go through the High Atlas, as snow is already covering the passes and the guest houses are closed. Insted we did a 4 day route out of Imlil area near the high peaks, which had some amazing views of both the high peaks and the dry flat land to the west. For the 4 nights we stayed in guest houses, or Gites, which allowed us to carry only small day packs. Ahmed was invaluable in helping to translate and get us good deals, as most of the guides and guest house owners are ruthless in trying to get as much money out of tourist as possible. Below are a few photos along the way.

Evan and Sjoukje enjoying some tea. We got a good portion of out hydration from tea along the way, so sugary and delicious.

A good potion of the walking was on narrow roads between villages. It was great to see that all ofthe illages took on the color of the soils around, on one hill a grey, with a deep red on the opposing hill.

Evan and Ahmed with the daily cloud cover building over the high peaks.


After we were done freezing in the mountins we went back to Marrakesh to spend a rainy day with our friends at Ahmeds house. Once the passes cleared today we were able to catch a 5 hour bus over the Atlas to the semi desert town of Ouarzazate, which is where numerous movies including Gladiator have been filmed. We will be spending a few days here before mking out way north to meet Hala and Adam in Fes.

Folks should send me addresses and phone numbers, as I lost the note book I wrote them in.

Passing through London

Hey there,

So, after leaving the trail crew in North Central Washington, I have gotten a good tour of the states and am now in London, and will fly out tomorrow afternoon for Morocco. I first went back to Seattle to prepare a poster that I presented at the Soil Science Society of America conference in Houston. In Houston I not only meet alot of fascinating researchers, but got a chance to meet some couchsurfers randomly in the park, a guy from Idaho who came down to help with the clean-up who was staying with a really cool local. After a night of getting to know them I was very much back in the mood to travel, seeing new places, and getting to know great people.

After that I went back up to Michigan and Minnesota to visit with the folks, and them to Chicago to hang out with the bro before catching my flight to London. In Chicago I had an interesting start to the trip by leaving my credit card at a restaurant, and just when I thought I was ready to go, I realized i forgot my Typhoid pills in the fridge. No worries, I just got a nice tour of Chicago picking up all my forgotten belongings, while getting another chance to play with my really cute nephew and still getting to the airport with plenty of time.

Once in London I took the train across town to my fiends Hala and Adam's place, which is above the pub where they both work. After a quick lunch I headed back into town to so some sight seeing. I hopped off the tube near the financial district, and took a walk up the River Themes, seeing many of the historic sights of London. Here are a few shameless tourist photos:

Me with the London bridge

Hey look its Big Ben, with my goofy face next to it.

Well, now I am about to turn in after a great concert at the pub. I'm looking forward to meeting up with Evan tomorrow in Morocco to figure out where we are going to go hiking.

Next Adventure - West Africa

Hey there All,

In the next few days I will be starting on my next adventure, this time through West Africa.


I Arrive in Marrakesh, Morocco via London on October 23rd , and will travel with my good friend Evan to visit our friend Brian Bragg at his Peace Corps home in Cameroon. In addition to visiting, I plan to take a close look at community benefits from Fair Trade Cocoa, and at traditional crops of the region.

The only fixed points on the Itinerary are our arrival dates, and that we will be in Cameroon for the holidays. We will have many options in our trip, but some of my thoughts on where this will take me:

1) We will probably spend our time at the beginning in Morocco catching the last of the trekking season in the High Atlas, and will fly to Cameroon either from Morocco, or from Dakar, Senegal in Early to mid December.

2) Once in Cameroon, we plan on some hard core hanging out with Bragg, hopefully getting involved in some of the work in the area, and traveling in some of the country with him. We may be there a matter of a few weeks, or a few months, or use it as a base camp while traveling in the area.

3) There is a potential side trip to visit and volunteer with another friend, Sheela in Uganda. If we head that way, we will probably fly into Nairobi, and I will probably take the chance to tour the region, including Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania.

4) Once we are ready to move on from Bragg and Sheela, we will begin our overland journey North. We both prefer the mountains and deserts so will probably stay inland more than hugging the coast. This will consist of alot of busing and sight seeing, but when we find a nice place, we may be there for a week or more.

5) As we get into the Cocoa producing regions of West Africa, especially Ghana, I will begin spending alot of time getting getting in contact with some Fair Trade organizations and farmer unions. To really get a good idea of the benefits of Fair Trade practices, I must get a good feeling for how the cocoa is grown, transported and sold, which most likely take multiple months. I am excited to get my hand dirty working on some farms, talking to farmers and union/ trade officials as well as agricultural workers in the Non Governmental Organizations (NGO's).

6) The general route will take us from Cameroon through East Nigeria, up to the deserts of Niger, southern Algeria, and Mali before heading south to the wetter areas of Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote de Iviore, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Senegal, The Gambia, Mauritania, and back to Morocco. If we have the energy and finances we may then head east towards the mid-east, through Algeria, Lybia and Egypt.

7) Wherever this trip takes us is sure to be an excellent adventure. The whole trip may take as little as 6 months, or could be well over a year, depending on finances and desire to come home.

While I am away I will post on this blog every time that I can, with stories and pictures from the road. Those who want to follow and comment on this blog can sign up, which is super easy, especially if you have a Gmail account. I will check my regular email, but with the length of time between checking, messages can easily get lost, so posting a reply here, or contacting me on Couchsurfing are the best bets.

Also check out Evans blog at http://evansjourney.blogspot.com/ for more about or trip.