Africa, Morocco
Jonathan Jung
THE SAHARA

September 27, 2017

Today was a looooong drive from Fes to the Sahara just outside of the city of Merzouga. A friend of a friend runs the Sahara Garden. Brahim coordinated everything for us and welcomed us upon our arrival with open arms. Truly an amazing human being. We were welcomed with dinner and singing and dancing around a bonfire.

THE SAHARA
Africa, Morocco
Jonathan Jung
CHEFCHAOUEN

September 24, 2017

Our second stop in Morocco was the blue city of Chefchaoen. A small city located up on a hill, wandering thru the medina surrounded by so many shades of blue was quite a different experience from Tangier. We stayed at Casa Perleta, a small bed and breakfast recommended by our friend. It was perfectly located within the upper hill area of the medina. The blue hues of the walls of Chefchaoen are believed to have originated when the Jews came while escaping Hilter in the 1930s. The blue is said to serve as a reminder to lead a spiritual life while symbolizing the sky and heaven.

CHEFCHAOUEN
Europe, Iceland
Jonathan Jung
ICELAND - CHASING THE AURORA BOREALIS

September 11 - 15, 2017

Enroute to our close friends' wedding in Greece we found a cheap flight to Paris via Reykjavik, Iceland and decided to take advantage and do a little stopover in an effort to (fingers crossed) see the northern lights. We decided to restrict our few days to just the southern highlights along the coast. The first thing we noticed was that even though it was supposedly shoulder/low season in Iceland there were significantly more people than when we came the year before in August.

ICELAND - CHASING THE AURORA BOREALIS

cliff dwellings

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MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK, MONUMENT VALLEY AND CANYON DE CHELLY

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MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK, MONUMENT VALLEY AND CANYON DE CHELLY

We did a lot of driving again today as we headed out to Mesa Verde and down thru Monument Valley to spend the night at Canyon de Chelly (pronounced "shay" not "shelly"). Mesa Verde has some of the largest Anasazi cliff dwelling ruins around. Pretty impressive. From a distance, it reminded me of the scene in Zoolander with the Center for Children Who Can’t Read Good that’s made for ants, because from a distance that’s exactly what these cliff dwellings look like. But up close…they really are incredible, these people labored intensely to build these villages and communities over a thousand years ago.