[caption id="attachment_2573" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Camel Parking Lot"]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/img_3602.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-2573" title="Camel Parking Lot" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/img_3602.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" /></a>[/caption]

I am pretty sure that as a liberal and nearly-vegetarian I am the kind of person who shouldn't like the idea of camel rides let alone want to ride one.  Oh well. I rode one this past week in Essaouira and loved it. I liked it so much that I've been thinking about other vacations I can go on in order to ride camels. Yeah, I probably shouldn't be admitting that.

[caption id="attachment_2574" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="My Camel&#39;s Head"]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/img_3621.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-2574" title="My Camel's Head" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/img_3621.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" /></a>[/caption]

A. and I rode camels on the beach. They are pretty big animals and a little bit intimidating at first. But nearly as smelly as I assumed they would be. The scariest part was when your camel stands up or sits down with you on it. There's a sense that you're going to fall off the front. <!--more-->They stand up on their back legs first so you lurch forward and then they stand up on their front legs while you hold on tightly.

[caption id="attachment_2575" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Views from My Camel Crossing a River"]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/img_3640.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-2575" title="Camel Crossing a River" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/img_3640.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" /></a>[/caption]

My camel was Blanco and A.'s was Cappuccino. Blanco is older than Cappuccino. Cappuccino is still a teenager so Blanco took the lead.

[caption id="attachment_2576" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Our Camels: Blanco and Cappiccano"]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/img_3670.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-2576" title="Our Camels " src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/img_3670.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" /></a>[/caption]

After you're on the camel it's pretty easy going. Well, aside from the wind that threatened to blow me off my camel. Okay, maybe it wasn't <em>that</em> windy but it was windy and there was sand flying. I mean just look at my hair. It was windy out there.

[caption id="attachment_2579" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="At Jimi Hendrix&#39;s House"]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/img_3691.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-2579" title="At Jimi Hendrix's House" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/img_3691.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" /></a>[/caption]

We had a lot to see.  From sand, to the ocean, some Portuguese ruins and a house that Jimi Hendrix lived in for a couple of weeks which hippies now camp out.

[caption id="attachment_2580" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Our Camel Guide"]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/img_3682.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-2580" title="Our Camel Guide" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/img_3682.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" /></a>[/caption]

We also had some galloping to do. Man, these camels can move. This was the most fun. I had no idea how fast these animals could go. I mean, they don't really come off as fast animals.

[caption id="attachment_2583" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Scenes from my Camel"]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/img_3664.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-2583" title="Scenes from my Camel" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/img_3664.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" /></a>[/caption]

We also had some snacking to do. Blanco and Cappuccino loved to stop and snack on green things. What made this even better was that our camel guide like to say in thick English, "Cappuccino's hungry!" when ever the camels stopped to nibble on things. I got a huge kick out of it-- I also really liked encouraging my camel in Arabic.

Yalla - lets go!!