On the road

Valentine's Weekend part 1.
Part 2 here.
Part 3 here.
Part 4 here.

Due to the wonderful Christmas Othman and I had, we were all gifted out when Valentine's Day rolled around last week. So we decided to simply enjoy being in each other's company for a weekend away instead of the traditional gifts-dinner-and-chocolate routine. So last Saturday morning we headed out of Casa, destination: Oualidia, a small beach resort-ish town 2.5 hours south, where we were able to do just that—enjoy each other—despite myriad mishaps (from gloomy weather to keys getting locked in the car to one of my camera lenses falling to Othman flying off an ATV... but more on all that later). As always, I took a gajillion photos, so this will be the first of many posts about the weekend. 

On the drive down, once we got past the heavy rain in and outside of Casa, O suggested we stop on the side of the road for me to enjoy the photogenic scenery.

I had all sorts of fun with some macro photography using my telephoto lens.

While I just photographed the flowers, O gathered me a tiny, adorable bouquet.

And then we found a friend!

While I've definitely photographed them before, I don't think I've ever done a photoshoot with a donkey to this extent!

He was just too cute though. In the Moroccan cities we see so many badly treated working animals (mostly donkeys and horses) and it just breaks your heat. But as you leave the city and enter the rural areas where people are more in touch with nature and dependent on these animals they start looking better and better cared for. 

He and Othman even had a staring contest! But I think Mr. Donkey won.

Eventually we had to leave the cutie behind, and continue on our way...