Lessons Learned – Morocco

No trip is perfect. Despite hours of thoughtful planning and packing, there are so many variables involved with travel that are completely out of our control. Even though it was wonderful, my recent trip to Morocco was not my smoothest. Below are some of the lessons I learned this time out.

Make Sure to Request Airline Notifications by All Methods Available

The first leg of my flight to Morocco ended up being canceled. Air France decided to strike the Friday I was set to fly from Houston to Paris, and I received notice of said strike the day before on my way to work. Thus commenced Type A freak out mode (THIS IS NOT PART OF THE PLAN!!). The only reason I was fortunate enough to get booked on a new flight to Paris that would allow me to make my connecting flight to Marrakech was because I just happened to check my email soon after the notification was sent out. I called Air France immediately, but by that time there were only a few sister airline rebooking options. In the future, I will make sure that the airline can contact me by every available method (text, email, smoke signal) so that I will be aware immediately of any issues with my itinerary.

Take Time to Go to the Doctor Before I Leave

I was battling sinus issues the week before I left for Morocco, but I was so busy wrapping up things at work and preparing for the trip that I just plowed through and hoped they would clear up without medical intervention. Long flights are never good for sinuses, so by the time I landed in Marrakech, I felt like my head was going to explode. Yep – full-blown sinus infection. Although I stayed at a really nice hotel, it did not have a hotel doctor on call, so I had a taxi driver take me in search of a late-night pharmacy. Unlike in the U.S. where it is hard to find anyone to prescribe you antibiotics these days, many places I travel to hand out medicine like candy so it was not surprising that I was immediately sold a high dosage pack of antibiotics. I felt a little better each day of the trip, and didn’t let it slow me down too much, but I really wish I had just taken the time to go to the doctor before I left. International travel is not cheap and it is not worth possibly ruining a trip because I am “too busy” to take care of myself.

Upload Pictures Throughout the Trip and Wait to Delete Any Until I Return

If you read my previous post, Morocco in Movies, you may have seen that I had absolutely no pictures from my time in Marrakech and the Atlas Mountains, and I have nothing/nobody to blame but myself. After my night of glamping in Zagora, I woke early to see the sunrise over the Sahara. I had not slept very well with my sinus infection so I was quite groggy. Having a few minutes of stillness before daylight, I started going through the pictures on my camera and deleting the bad ones. I got going too fast with the delete button and carelessly pressed Delete All! EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. GONE. I had captured so many amazing moments up to that point of the trip – I felt my stomach drop. Since buying my new camera, I usually take time during a trip to upload pictures to my phone as a back-up. However, this trip I didn’t do that (primarily because I was sick and would just crash at the end of each day). From now on, no matter what, I am going to upload to my phone as many pictures as possible at the end of each day and not delete any from my camera until I get home (and completely over my jet lag!).

Listen to Other Travelers’ Experiences, But Don’t Let Them Color My Own

As part of my normal trip planning process, I researched various travel websites/blogs about Morocco. Some of these included blogs by solo female travelers. Let’s just say that, based on what I read in those blogs, it sounded like the “metoo#” memo had not yet been circulated in Morocco. After traveling solo for 16+ years, I am no stranger to harassment and have developed pretty thick skin (and perfected my grandmother’s mal de ojo (evil eye) glare). However, some of the stories I read regarding women traveling alone in Morocco were down-right scary. Thankfully, besides a run-in with a snake charmer’s heavy who was not too pleased that I was taking pictures of his buddy’s snake through my zoom lens without paying the “suggested” tip (seriously, I was so far away – how on earth did he see me?), I had absolutely no issues with harassment on my trip. Not even when I got turned around and ended up walking through a super sketch area in Casablanca where I was pretty much the only woman around and a front row spectator to a fist fight between two grown men in the street. I always research the dangers/annoyances particular to a country to mentally prepare for the possibility of one of those things happening, but I think that some of what I read actually caused me to be a little too on guard this trip. For my next visit to Morocco (one day, I hope!), I will be much more relaxed based on my own great experience in the country.