Stuck in Morocco: North Carolina tourists trapped due to COVID-19

When three Durham friends boarded a plane to Morocco on March 7, they never imagined they wouldn’t have a way to return to the United States.

“Our tour group is trying to get out but they shut down the airspace,” Camille Blommer, a 58-year-old Durham resident, said by phone from Marrakesh.

Morocco’s government announced on Sunday it was banning travel to and from the country due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

The country had its first case of COVID-19 in early March. By Tuesday that number had climbed to 44 patients and two deaths.

U.S. State Department officials said on the department’s website that it was trying to find ways out for Americans stuck in the African country.

But Blommer said she has been told it was the United States, not Moroccan authorities, that seems unconcerned about its stranded citizens.

Blommer booked her trip through Overseas Adventure Travel, a travel company for people over 50 years old. The company allows people from all over to book trips and meet up with up to 16 people, often strangers, in Morocco to travel together.

Outdoor Adventure Travel spokeswoman Ann Shannon said the company is working with the U.S. Embassy in Morocco and hopes to get the travelers out of the country in the next four to five days. In the meantime, the group’s guide plans to stay with them, Shannon said.

Besides the three Durham friends — Blommer, Ivona Piper and Paula Breedlove — the group has 11 other tourists. The oldest woman is 85. Blommer is the youngest.

Blommer said except for one woman who has developed a cough, everyone in the group is healthy.

When she booked her trip, she was promised an adventure through places like Fez, the Sahara Desert, the High Atlas Mountains, Marrakesh and Casablanca.

She arrived in Morocco on March 7 for a 15-day trip. She was in the middle of exploring the country when she received an email from Air France. Her flight back to the United States on March 22 had been canceled.

Then restaurants, bars and museums in Morocco began closing.

“It is not mandatory that people stay in their homes, but it is suggested,” Blommer said.

Blommer said her tour group is one of three staying at her hotel, a bed and breakfast in Marrakesh. Her tour guide is a resident of the city and has taken the opinion that as long as the group has a tour bus they might as well drive around and see the country. And that’s what they’ve been doing.

The other groups, Blommer said, haven’t been so lucky, with tour guides forcing them to stay at the hotel.

Meanwhile, she said, Outdoor Adventure Travel has stayed in constant communication with the group as the company tries to get them home. Blommer said there are three airlines authorized to make emergency flights with Morroco’s permission. But the company also told the group that the United States seems passive about their plight.

So the group, with residents of Los Angeles, Florida, Maine, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., are calling their senators asking for help.

The hotel has agreed to let the group stay as long as they need to, with the travel company paying the bill. Additional expenses incurred will cost the travelers though.

Blommer said her biggest concern right now is what they will do if hotels are shut down.

Blommer said the Moroccan people have treated them with kindness and compassion, making them feel safe so far from their homes.

So for now Blommer is exploring the country and waiting for a call telling her she can leave.

“You have to go with the flow,” Blommer said. “I’m not overly concerned. I know we’ll get back eventually.”

This story was originally published March 18, 2020 at 10:25 AM.