Our final horray for the commune...climbing Mt. Toubkal (almost 14,000ft tall). Leaving after school on Friday, we drove to Imlil, a small village at the base of the mountain. Along the way we were stopped by the police for speeding slightly. Here in Morocco the police pull you over for whatever reason they want but I guess this was technically justified :) He told us the ticket would be 700dh (around $90). Then when we asked him to write the ticket he said to just give him 300dh...and the bribing began. We said, "No. Just write the ticket." knowing he didn't want to write the ticket because of all the work involved. He then went down to 200dh...I love Morocco...the corruption! We said no again. So he has us pull around to the other side of the street and gets his buddy. At this point Sarah starts speaking arabic with them. They are impressed. Then Tim says to them (while pointing at Sarah, Amber and I), "Zweena"...which in arabic means beautiful. So they call the other cop over and he asks for Sarah's phone number! And in the end...no ticket, no phone number for the cop, and directions to Imlil...a productive police interaction :)
Saturday morning we began our hike to the refuge lodge which was 2/3 of the way up the mountain. Other than altitude sickness it was great. We relaxed for the evening and got ready for our big day. With Sunday morning came snow, thunder, and lightning...maybe not the safest conditions for hiking a mountain?!! Thankfully it cleared up and we were able to begin around 7:30am. We made it to the summit in 4 hours but didn't get to enjoy the scenery because the top of the mountain was engulfed in a snow cloud. As we began our descent the snow began and we were pelted with ice-like snow...exactly what I would expect weather in Africa to be like in June :) This ended shortly and we were able to slide on our butts like sleds down the majority of the way back to the refuge. My conclusion: There is no better way to cure altitude sickness than to slide down a mountain on your butt! AND the 4 hour hike up became a 1.5 hour "hike" down! Once back at the refuge, we packed up our stuff, changed out of our wet pants, headed back to Imlil, and drove on to Marrakesh.
One final night in a hotel in Marrekesh and an early morning (4am) drive back to Casablanca ended our weekend excursion. And we got back just in time to proctor exams!
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