Lundy Says-Amusing Info from Lundy Wilder

Camels in front of the modern side of the river. We walked across the rocky riverbed to get to the ancient city. Dave on a terrace overlooking an ancient adobe village on a hill side. This old settlement has been used in lots of movies. Especially the Jesus movies. We walked across a wide dried up river bed to go climb into the old city. It is a UN Historic Landmark w/ official status and all. Up into the Atlas Mountains. Mostly very dry except for the valleys where lots of fruit trees and are and vegestables are grown. Lots of sheep...very Biblical looking. Daniel said the water table in Morocco has dropped from something like 20 ft to 65 ft. Everything is much drier and many streams and rivers are dried up what once ran all year. Now they only run when the snows melt. Wells must now be dug much deeper. I am really convinced that there are way too many people in both countries we visited on this trip. I do nto know how they grow enuf food for the population in Morocco. Ditto Spain.

A bicycle fish peddler rode down the street calling out his wares. He and/or his bike-shop smelled to HIGH HEAVENS of old dead fish and cats followed him all the way...click photos to see a little bigger. I didnt want to upload them too big or it would take forever in this hotel lobby. Me, Ouidad, Daniel and his daughter Manu and a big delicious dinner of couscous with veggies and chicken in Daniel´s home. Stuff for sale in the old city market. A lot like it was in Jerusalém. Pretty claustrophobic. Didnt buy anything there. Was just not up for a 30 minute haggle in very foreign languages and that is the only way. Time is of no matter in Marrakesh, so they consider the selling process just that, a process.

The old city part where there is a big open area where snake charmers, monkey trainers, and various entertainers hang out and put on a show. One of the big attractions for locals are the story tellers, where you see a crowd of people gathered around...lots of smoke in the air from vendors selling stuff cooked on small charcoal fires. Hard to breathe there. One of the mosque towers near the old city part of Marrakesh. Dave relaxing on the sofa on the inner terrace of the upstairs guest area at Daniel´s house. Note the cement floor. It is an old hex tile floor. Ok--finally got it by way of a lot of work-arounds. And the Spanish version does not have the links to post, etc, in the same location as the English version, so you can´t just guess BTW. This is a photo of a dead tree along the street and on top of the wacked off truck are crane nests. So it is made into sort of a sculptural thing. This was in a very clean, nice small city , Uarzazate , near the motion picture hot-spot of Morocco

Attempting to post more photos but dammit all google accounts redirect immediately to the Spanish version and I cant figure out which link is the new post one and one is to report the blog as offensive and I dont want to hit the wrong one !

One photo here is of a modern Marrakesh house, everything is the same color, new and old. Everything ! The whole work force plus us posed for a photo out front. Daniel is the one in the "centerfold" pose. Outside at the factory we had hot tea and cookies in the shade.

This is one of our mold patterns , it is a very complicated one. On the floor are the tiles that Daniel is making for us. He is almost done with the tiles for the order. Inside the factory it is amazing that they get so much done in so small a space. Very well organized. Here we are standing outside of Syba Tiles in Marrakesh. Me on left, the factory director, Danile the factory owner and Dave.

Donkey carts are mixed in with regular traffic. And on one pays any attention to the lines on the road. The outside of Daniel´s house.

Dave on the outer terrace. We had sunny days every day. The inside part of the terrace outside our bedroom on the top floor of the house. Daniel´s daughter in the fairy winds (upside down) and the fairy skirt that we brought her.

Hello from Madrid. Dave got the little laptop to get online so maybe now I can post some photos. In Marrakesh I just didn't have time. We shortened our trip there by two days to allow for more time in Spain. We love Spain. And there is so much to see.

Check the daily beach update video from Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Rebecca is so cute, she could tell you that your hair was on fire and it would seem like good news :o) Check Daily Beach Update

Pres Obama and about 50 secret servicemen and motorcyclists flew by this afternoon. It was a thrill to me ! It was impossible for me to tell which of the several identical black suv's he was in and I think that was the whole idea. Click photos to see them big. Click again after it opens to see it really big. In the back of my head I sorta expected to see a magnetic sign that said Mr.President, or flags waving or the Pope-mobile and a smiling, waving Mr. Obama. Dave and I took our folding chairs and some light picnic supplies up to the end of the driveway. Immediately a sheriff showed up and kindly told me that the Secret Service wanted us 75 yards back ...we both agreed that was excessive. He told me to move our chairs back about 20 ft since there were thick palmettos and trees and he couldn't see us there from his 'post' . So we did. He told us that the caravan would come flying by fast and he was right. Since the whole road was closed, they could do as they pleased.

Took these photos today on West Beach here in Gulf Shores. Really sad. No clean-up in sight when we were there. We were told that some men show up at high tide and remove some oil from the sand manually w/ shovels and then tide goes out after they are gone leaving most of the oil. Click the photos to see large versions. Lundy