I’m currently on my plane writing these notes… I’m almost forcing myself to put down some ideas before getting home. It’s easy to get back to your routine and let these intense moments fade away… especially during this week, as people are busy last-minute present shopping and gorging themselves on food. To be honest words fail me to describe the things I experienced last days.

Everything began some months ago when I spontaneously bought a flight to Morocco together with two of my friends, I found cheap flights and obviously the first question was: why not?

After a serious research my mind was set on having an authentic experience, meeting the nomads and getting to see how they live.

Little did I know that trip will be so much more than expected, it will be shocking, breathtaking and eye opening at the same time.

I met our guide Said on instagram, knowing he is a guide I e-mailed him, telling him what we were looking for. He immediately answered and let us know what to expect.

Said is a Berber born in the Desert, he spent his first 5 years as a nomad, his parents then decided to move in to a small village and Said went to school to learn how to write. “Life is hard for nomads, people need lots of money to send their kids to school”, Said reports. Despite this, Said speaks English better than lots of people with university degrees. He also learned different languages while working with tourists as a Camel guide. Later a friend of his gave him a website and he started organising different tours in Morocco.

We spent 5 full days with the Berbers, both our driver and our guide are Berbers – they consider themselves the free people: no religion, no fixed traditions, no worries for tomorrow, no constraints, no social norms.

Here are some of the things we took with us:

• You can live with less

We visited a nomad Berber family that changed our perception about life. Those people live with nothing, are always ready to pack their tents and move in search for food. When they have money they buy flour to last them several months.

They cook outside and eat some sort of pancakes with vegetables and spices.

They sleep on the floor, in their hand-made tents and use two rugs instead of a mattresses.

Their kids however live freely and run barefoot, those kids are excited to receive the smallest bonbon, their smiles are so warm they melt your heart.

They are happy!

• Enjoy life

Maybe the Berbers don’t have an easy life but they surely know how to make a party out of it. They spend the nights around the fire, playing drums, singing and dancing. They are closer to the nature and always look up for shooting stars.

• Worry less and live in the present

We befriended our guides and spent the evenings till midnight talking to them. They amused themselves telling us riddles such as: “how do you put a camel in a fridge in 3 moves?” “How do you put an elephant in the fridge in 4 moves” “3 persons cross a river: one sees the river and touches it, one sees the river but doesn’t touch it and the third person doesn’t see and doesn’t touch the river. who are these people?”

They made us focus on the present, no words about yesterday, nothing to worry about tomorrow. We often anticipated how we’re going to feel the next day, spending too much time out and not getting enough sleep… their answer was always: “tomorrow is another day, let’s enjoye now”.

• Be generous and have an open heart

Both Said (our guide) and Mohamed (our driver) invited us to have lunch with their families.

Everyone made us feel so welcomed, they wanted to get to know us, our stories, they shared with us so many details of their lives and showed us how they live with no filters.

I have no words to thank these people for the amazing experiences but I will always keep these magic moments and lessons deep down my heart.

Thank you,

Claudia x

If you want a similar experience visit: http://www.morocco-desert-merzouga.com/ (not sponsored, not an add, just happy customers)