In April 2006, I joined my good friend Marian Orloff-Bagley on a trip outfitted by Ihab Zaki of Spiekerman Travel Service ( www.mideasttrvl.com) to Algeria. I was last there in 1974 on the long cross-AFrica trip with the group from Siafu, but that 1974 trip only touched a few places in southern Algeria, in the Sahel. This trip was more wide-ranging, and started with a jolt.
