Samir 'Sammy Blue Eyes'

I briefly spoke of Samir in my Morocco post. I took 2 photos of him and I'm actually bummed because the images turned out blurry. A Holga camera work hazard, due to my shaky hands. AND the photo doesn't do his amazing aqua blue eyes any justice.

One of the things I love about traveling is meeting people. Samir is one of them. He was our taxi driver, and then became our tour guide. He did not speak a word of English, and we couldn't speak a word of Arabic or French. But we all managed to communicate with each other, which is the most beautiful part of our relationship with him.

He had the biggest smile, and was a very welcoming and patient man. He was at ease and didn't seem to mind the language barrier. He took us to five towns a few hours from Fez. We had tea with a Berber family, fed monkeys at a nature reserve; which I was absolutely freaking out about, because I thought they would turn on us. We walked through market towns and had lunch in the 'Swiss Alps' of Morocco.

One thing I will never forget is when Samir literally hopped over rock faces at look out point we went to. Tim and my friend Vi were struggling to climb over these rocks. Samir was dressed in a suit and leather dress shoes, dancing over them as if it was like a walk in the park.