It's The Journey

The Pillars of Hercules

The Pillars of Hercules
Originally uploaded by Lou Ann Granger

-- with love for the journey

Sunset from Marrakesh

Other Interesting Sights of Marrakesh

Windows, Doors, Arches of Marrakesh

Rugs, Spices, Ceramics of Marrakesh

People of Marrakesh

Towers and Palaces of Marrakesh

 

Streets of Marrakesh

Walls of Marrakesh

Road to Marrakesh

Marrakesh - 28 April 2008

Marrakesh - April 27, 2008

That was an amazing exciting and ultimately frustrating day. Not enough time to find out how it really feels to travel there. I was glad for the long coach trip from Casablanca to Marrakesh on the new highway and some quiet time to just see and absorb the surroundings. Lots to be seen, modern cities and older villages, lovely estates and small hovels. Many people using donkeys and other farm animals for farming and transportation.

On the road, however, modern cars and trucks and motorcycles, enjoying a lovely drive out in the countryside. The earth changes its colors and at points is very red, other times a more yellow color, and the colors of the buildings change accordingly.

Marrakesh is very modern in parts, with lovely new apartment buildings, although a certain sensibility to the traditional forms and colors, perhaps by imperial decree.

Inside the walls of the old city and inside the Medina, a different story. Narrow and wonderfully confusing passageways with lots of shops and riads and arches and doorways.

It would be so much fun to just wander around and not worry about the constraints of time or of the group. A much too short time for shopping and to pick out a few little but colorful spice dishes. No time really to search for treasures, despite the many interesting shops. A taste of the exotic in the many colorful spices on display, and of course, the square, the marvelous Djemaa-el-F'na, with its snake charmers even in the bright light of day. I wonder what it is like to be there in the magic evening time and to have your fortune told in the middle of the Night Market of Marrakesh.

Would you like my mask,
Would you like my mirror,
Cries the man in the shadowing hood.

You can look at yourself,
You can look at each other,
You can look at the face, the face of your God.

-- Loreena McKcKennitt, lyrics from Marrakesh Night Market

I do not need the fortuneteller to tell me that I will be back.

A Short Stop in Dakar, Senegal - 24 April 2008

A very brief stop in Dakar, on the westernmost tip of Africa. Only 6 hours, I wish I knew why it's such a short stop.

Just enough time to see a little of the port city, no time to go inland.

And yet, it is enough to get a sense of the strangeness. Strange sights, strange people, strange birds, strange trees. Enough to remind me that there are many other people leading perfectly fine lives that are totally different than mine in places totally different than any I have visited before.

Some of the streets look like a normal American city with cars and taxis, and then you turn around and there is a crazy colored bus coming, or someone is leading goats across the street.

A trading center, ships from all over the world, and many handcrafts. Juxtapositions of wealth and poverty, modern and old, color and monochrome, sea and land.

This is the edge of Africa, any further west and you are in the Atlantic Ocean.

I buy a few mementoes, little teak and ebony carvings, a colorful doll, some fabric, pictures done with feathers, and a necklace. I hope they'll help me hold onto my memories until I can return again.

Fortaleza Brazil - April 20

South of the Amazon River and south of the Equator, this city is near the eastern tip of Brazil.  A refueling stop, mostly, although I found it to be an interesting city and full of surprises.

Was not expecting lots of high-rise apartments along the beach, but it reminded me of Miami Beach (or perhaps Rio de Janeiro, where I haven't been yet).  Beautiful architecture and lots of colors.  The other buildings in the city are also colorful, and even the grafitti is colorful.  Perhaps influenced by the Amazon rainforest?

Culture as well, with an interesting museum with exhbits of masks by artisans and also an exhibit about Vaqueros (cowboys).  An Opera House, supposedly reminiscent of the Grand Opera House of the Amazons in Manaus, Brazil, which is way inland on the Amazon River.  I suppose I'll have to go there someday and find out for myself.

Crossing the Equator, April 19

Fwd: Crossing the Equator, April 19
Originally uploaded by Lou Ann Granger

Between Devil's Island and Fortaleza, Brazil, we pass south of the mouth of the Amazon River, and then cross the Equator.

There are all sorts of rituals of the sea involved in such a portentous crossing, and the cruise ships do their own recreation. Lots of silliness, but with some basis in tradition, and the initiation rites by which newer sailors proved that they were indeed up to the rigors of seafaring.

King Neptune presides, and there is much silliness with syrups and jello and stuff. Supposedly many of the crew who were crossing for the first time had their heads shaved (although I don't know that for sure). I am glad this is not my first crossing.

ALMOST (but not quite ...) to Devil's Island

We paused offshore for a couple of hours, hoping the seas would settle and allow tendering to Devil's Island.  Looked like a tropical paradise, instead of islands of heartbreak.  Close by shore off French Guiana, maybe we could see the shore, maybe it was the eye playing tricks.

I looked out and it seemed so close, and it almost didn't seem to matter because while here, it seems to easy to think about getting back at some time in the future.  I think this is the way of travelers, it seems so easy to come back to a place while you are here.  Yet, once you get home, these places seem so impossibly far away.

I don't know if I'll be back here or not.  It is so far out of the way (which I guess was the point of using this as a penal colony).  I wonder what the island 'feels' like now.  Perhaps the spirits of those who suffered here have asked us to respect their sufferings and to stay away for now.  And return some other time if we are ready for their message.

17 April 2008

Southernmost House photo at Dawn

Rising at dawn, one last look at a lovely place before setting out on the Grand Adventure.

Stepping Off The Edge - Southernmost House in Key West

This has been hard to start.   Somehow, it's been a struggle.  Hard to blog, hard to journal, hard to do a visual travelogue.  Maybe didn't know where to start.

The voyage starts with a struggle.  A 20-day Transatlantic Cruise, the cruise of my lifelong dreams.

And yet, to start, I must first go to the edge.  The southernmost point in the continental US, the Southernmost House in Key West.  This is the edge of the known, beyond here there is nowhere to go without stepping off into the sea.  The house is beautiful, a wonderful bed & breakfast that will be a perfect workshop location for Destiny Voyages and Juliana Coles next January (see www.destinyvoyages.com for more information).  It is comfortable, there is a little museum inside.

It is at the edge.  I guess I linger for a little while, for the comforts of home, before heading off into the unknown.  I'll be back soon enough, but I must leave this safe place and go exploring first. 

12 April 2008

Approaching Domenica!

Approaching Domenica!
Originally uploaded by Lou Ann Granger

-- with love for the journey

Getting ready for a Transatlantic cruise!

Getting ready for a Transatlantic cruise!
Originally uploaded by Lou Ann Granger

-- with love for the journey

Delphi street still life

Delphi street still life
Originally uploaded by echoesdesvoyages

Full credit to Cheryl for noticing this little scene during our walk
to the archaeological site.

-- with love for the journey