I’m back! Arrived in Marrakech late yesterday after a day on the road retracing the steps we had driven on our first day. It is my favorite area, I’ve learned, and it was fun to see the beauty in reverse.

There’s a sadness about leaving the Moroccan countryside for me. It is majestic and grand; unbelievably stark and beautiful and lush and desolate all at once. As I’ve learned about myself through traveling, I like that. I like stark places; wide-open spaces, places that make me realize how small I am and how big the world is. Places that make me realize how much there is to see, and feel, and experience. It was yesterday, in this beautiful valley with brilliant blue skies and the hot sun that I felt like crying. Crying from joy! Every trip has a moment like this for me. In Antarctica it was when we went through the Lemaire Channel. In Japan it was in Hiroshima. In Bali it was on the coast at a monastery. At my place in Florida it is on the beach at sunset. In Morocco it was in this valley.

So there’s a sadness about leaving the countryside and there’s a desperate feeling about it as well. I took hundreds of pictures and enjoyed every single second of the time, even more than I already have been! I will post some of what I saw and I will continue recounting the individual days of the trip so far on other posts…

Suffice to say this much: I love Morocco. I love the people and I love the energy.