There are places in the world that can defy a travel writer’s art. There are scenes that are so breathtaking that they completely defeat him. I feel that dunes of Taghit have defeated me.Taghit is an oasis village on the edge of the Grand Erg Occidental, Algeria’s western sea of sand. It is a small […]
At the beginning and the end of things
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
I am in Ain Sefra now. Here is where the Atlas Mountains end and the Grand Erg Occidental, the Sahara’s great western sea of sand, begins. Or it is where the mountains begin and the sand sea ends. A traveler decides his parameters based on the place he most wants to be. That is his […]
In Tlemcen
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
I am still in Tlemcen, in northwestern Algeria, paying for my laziness. I didn’t feel like doing my desert-dirty laundry so I brought it to a cleaners. It will take two days to wash, which is actually three because I straddled the Friday holiday. And they won’t be done until tomorrow in the late morning […]
Last Days Among the Saharawi
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
On my last day in the camps I had lunch on the edge of a minefield. I was only about 300 metres from the wall that separates the Saharawi from their homeland. As we sat there eating tuna sandwiches and barbecuing strips of camel meat on the tiny fire our driver prepared, Moroccan soldiers watched […]
March
01
Photos from the Camps
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Here are a few of my favourite photos from my days in the Saharawi refugee camps. This girl was part of the parade marking the Saharawi ‘National Day’, February 27th. They celebrated the day before, however, because all the foreigners who were in the camps for the race were leaving on the 27th. A Saharawi […]
February
26
Among the Saharawi
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
I feel like I am a long way from anywhere right now. I am in Smara, the largest of the Saharawi refugee camps in southwestern Algeria. These camps have housed Saharawi people since the mid-1970s when thousands were expelled from their land in the Western Sahara by the Moroccan army. In 1981, the Moroccans built […]
From Dead to Red to Med
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Greetings all. I am in Algiers now after nearly two weeks of luxury. I attended my first travel media tour in Jordan and while bus tours and big groups are not the way I prefer to travel, I could get used to five star hotels and free meals in posh restaurants. The tour brought us […]
Welcome to Elsewhere
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Greetings, and welcome to the first posting of Elsewhere.I’ve been thinking about starting a blog about my travels and writing – and the writing and travels of others – for quite some time now. Today, just hours before I head to Algeria and Morocco to begin research for a new book, seems as good a […]
