Morocco Audio-Visual

Here's what my four days in Marrakech and around sounded like (remix):



And here's what it looked like:

Typical Medina scene, Marrakech

Horse and monkey

Nighttime, Place Jemaa el Fna, Marrakech

Moroccan disco ball

On camels at dusk

Berber beat (drum track in the mix above)

Desert sunrise

And back out again

11 Images from a Trip through Spain

1. Vaulted nave of the Gothic Cathedral, Barcelona

2. Cliff lookout of Ronda, Málaga

3. Big waves at Playa del Sardinero, Santander, Cantabria

4. Carving of the Palacio Nazaríes, Alhambra, Granada

5. Flamenco at Los Tarantos, Granada

6. Inside the Alcazaba, Alhambra, Granada

7. Sweet wines of Antigua Casa de Guardia, Málaga

8. Dusk in Potes, Picos de Europa

9. Door of the Passion Facade, Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

10. Bathhouse ceiling, Alhambra, Granada

11. Don Quijote's windmills, Consuegra, Castilla-La Mancha

My Tips for Renting a Car in Argentina

This little blog is doing alright, numbers-wise. I'm under no fantasies that this has to do with anything other than all the link love coming my way from Matador, but hey, it still feels good.

One thing this means is I've started getting offers of "partnership opportunities" from other travel and non-travel sites out there. I got one yesterday from NileGuide and another today from a company called IZEA. Both I turned down.

But I didn't say no to CheapOair when they contacted me last December. They were interested in having me write a short piece for their blog and posting a little link text here at WayWorded. In return, theoretically, I (and Matador, it turns out), would benefit from their link love.

I didn't agree so much because it seemed like a good deal (it didn't, actually), but that I was into writing about the idea I came up with--lessons learned renting a car in western Argentina.

After much delay (backlog from other eager participants, I guess), my post went up on CheapOair today. Here it is: 10 Tips for Renting a Car in Argentina. Hop over and check it out if you'd like. Or don't. There's nothing in it for you.

And, to fulfill the second part of the bargain, here's the link text they asked me to post:

[Big Airline Tickets Sale Going On Now through CheapOair.com. Book & Save an Extra $15.]

Ah, the slightly disturbing inner workings of online advertising.

Sky Colors, Buenos Aires

Virtual-->Personal

Yesterday morning I upped my handshake count of Matador staffers to 5, in an all-too-brief Austin brunch with Matador Nights editor Tom Gates and Matador Sports intern Lindi Horton.


These faces to names were added to Kate Sedgwick (other half of the Nights duo) and Adam Roy (head man at Sports), both of whom I met last year in Buenos Aires, and new intern Cathey Franke, a San Antonio local who joined Carey and me for lunch at Madhatters, a shared favorite Southtown joint.

How many more to go? I'm not even sure. Maybe about 30 just counting the team, and like 12,000 when that opens up to the community at large. Better get started.

Groupsource My Travel: Spain and Morocco

2003, Mediterranean coast

I may be deep into the homebuying process, but that doesn't mean I'm putting off an opportunity to hop on a plane and fly 5,000 miles across the ocean. We locked in our tickets back in December, anyway--before we knew whether the house dream was going to happen. So it's not total irresponsibility. But there's zero margin for missing our flight back--the scheduled closing date is three days after our return.

I've trained the upper half of Spain's Mediterranean coast a couple times, but this trip will be different. It starts in the north in Santander and Picos de Europa, stops in Barcelona for a day (Easter), and then settles in Málaga and Granada for a few before cruising back north to Madrid.

The final four days of overseasdom will roll out in Marrakech. This will be our first trip in 6 years sans-Lonely Planet. I've opted instead for Matador colleague Paul Sullivan's Hedonist's Guide to Marrakech. To be LP-free is liberating and disorienting. But I'm betting we survive.

That's the itinerary. Have you been to these places? If I were your puppet, where would you dangle me? Where to go, what to see. Groupsource me.