Morocco was everything I expected and a lot more. Snow! Roman Ruins! Mint Tea! Fall off the bone beef!
I expected friendly people, because that’s what I’ve found throughout the world. I expected sand, because, well, duh. It was all great. Rick’s Cafe had little realism, but it is still a fun memory. All in all, it was time very well spent. Our guide Ben was open, frank and very flexible.
I’ve attached a few videos.
Monday, February 19. I leave tomorrow (7:20). I go to Paris for two nights, but only as reconnaissance for a longer trip someday with Yoriko. No pictures, no story. I’ll do a Morocco Wrap story when I can.
Today we traveled from Marrakesh to Casablanca. Very boring. Most of my time in Casablanca has been in heavy traffic. Lunch was my last chicken tagine and it was very good. In the afternoon we got our first tour of a mosque, one of the largest in the world. The tower is the tallest one for any faith in the world: 684 feet. Very pretty. The interior can hold 30,000 people. The problem is 1) the high cost which wasn’t spent on more pressing issues (built in the 1990’s) and 2) no one goes routinely. There are mosques everywhere. Prayers are five times a day, ten minutes each. It makes no sense to go to this mosque. It’s busy during Fridays in Ramadan, but otherwise it’s mostly empty.
After dinner many of us visited Rick’s Cafe, opened by a retired U.S. Embassy employee to satisfy visitors with a nostalgic love of the movie Casablanca. It’s not a very close replica (the piano is a grand), but it was fun. They run the movie on a screen all the time. Those of us who had the movie memorized were probably irritating those who had never(!) seen it.
Quick story, which is good. I leave at 4AM tomorrow.
At a truck stop. Fancy stuff.
Car wash.
It’s huge.
It’s big on the inside too. No shoes allowed. There are balconies on both sides of the main hall for women.
Hard to see, but the ceilings under the balconies are very pretty.
Faucets for men to wash themselves (three times) before prayers. There are others for women.
Lamp, gin martini, movie. Got it all in one photo.
Sunday, February 18. Rather than walk around the city or visit the gardens, five of us hired a guide to take us into the Atlas Mountains for a three hour hike. We hiked up to the jump off point for climbing the tallest mountain in Morocco, Mt. Toubkal, 4,167 meters. Gorgeous scenery. Our guide knew everyone in the area as well as many American movie quotes. Like Mohammad of a few days ago, he self-taught himself English. Just a great time. Others did a bicycle ride that exceeded their expectations. Still others toured the local garden and had their own great experiences. Summing up, a great time by all.
I took a great photo! See below.
In the evening we gathered to express our impressions of the tour. I was frankly surprised by the number of companions that felt they’d learned a lot about muslims, I.e., (I guess) that they’re not all bad people. I never thought they were. My experience in Bahrain and my background in history taught me that. Anyway, I loved the desert as well as all the people we met. Dinner was excellent, though I’d have preferred beef tagine rather than chicken.
Tomorrow we go to Casablanca.
Approaching the mountains.
Rental equipment for people climbing the mountain.
Note village. Mosque is most prominent.
Sheep are ubiquitous.
My photo of the trip. the boy is on a ledge without a fence. Terrifying.
Boy was walking around this little area with drop-offs on two sides.
The view of our Riad, bottom to top.
Entrance to our farewell dinner restaurant. Very posh.
Saturday, February 17. A relatively easy day. The first. Morning was a walking tour of a palace, necropolis, and the exterior of a mosque. At lunch I split off and had lamb Tagine. I really liked the beef variety but wanted to expand my horizons. Not as good. Part of the concept of tagine is soaking up the juices with bread. I’ve had enough bread to last several months. An odd feature of Morocco is the scarcity of normal coke. Coke Zero is everywhere, but not the standard version.
Had sugar cane and lemon juice. They squeeze the juice out of the trunks. Excellent.
The afternoon was another stroll through the medina/souk, another view from a rooftop terrance, then a comfortable siesta on the roof of the hotel, drinking wine and eating peanuts. The first time I’ve really goofed off on the trip.
In the evening we did a carriage ride through the new sections of the city. Weird riding through busy city streets. Brave horses. Dinner was almost normal. Excellent filet mignon. $20.
Outside the hotel.
Inside the hotel.
Deliveries in the 21st century.
Note the tongue. Sad.
The palace. Every ceiling is different.
Reflections through the windows.
Koutoubia Mosque, built in the 12th century, sister to the unfinished one in Rabat. 253 feet tall. A ramp was used for donkeys to carry the “caller to prayers” up five times a day.
Sugar cane and lemon juice. Delicious.
The questionable benefits of sugar cane juice.
That picture of the square yesterday? What it looks like in the day.
Monkeys are far more popular than snakes. Duh.
Yes, he’s selling dentures.
A mobile blacksmith. They’re about to stand up and yell at my companions for taking their picture without permission. I wisely stood elsewhere. And snapped quickly.
What I’m drinking at the moment. It’s liquid. And alcohol. Makes it wine I guess.
Friday, February 16. Mountain pass to Marrakesh. Pretty scary for me (fear of falling). The driver seemed to be late for a date with a bat out of Hell. When you can’t see any part of the road from the bus window, you know we’re close to the cliff. Nice scenery, though it was cloudy. Lots of apparently vacant villages, abandoned by shepherds and farmers until the Spring.
Reached the valley floor safely and entered Marrakesh. What a mob!! Donkey pulled wagons, scooters, and bikes use the narrow alleys, seemingly making magical passes through masses of unconcerned crowds. Every shop has a hawker. Stare at an item for more than 2 seconds and someone is all over you offering a deal. It got old very quickly for me. Fez was more my style.
The central market was just what movies hint at. Snakes, acrobats, monkeys, hanna tattooists, fruits, nuts, horse and carriage rides, etc. Cafes with rooftop patios (“Consumption Obligatory”). A huge area in the middle with small, claustrophobic eateries. We had dinner at one. Ben, being a native, got a special small plate of cow brains, cow tongue, and goat’s head. I tasted each. And I was sober! Tasted like chicken I guess.
My room is tiny. Have squeeze between the sink and wall to reach the toilet. It’s what I get for being a junior member of the OAT family. The rooms improve as your number of trips increase. That said, the hotel is a perfect example of a prevailing culture: the interior is very decorative, the external looks like a halfway house.
“God, Country, King”. Ubiquitous.
The high point of the mountain pass. In meters.
Camouflage homes.
At a rest stop.
Immediately outside our hotel door.
Spice shop. This is only a fraction of their collection.
I stayed far away. A charmer thought I was distant to avoid paying an expected tip for snapping picture. Truth is I am scared of snakes.
Cow brains, cow tongue, goat head. Yum. (Sarcasm)
Thursday, February 16. A unique feature of Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) tours is their Day in the Life experience. We visited a family home in the ancient town of Aït Benhaddou. More accurately, we visited the new town next to the old town. Our local guide, Mohammad, was both fantastic and fascinating. With no formal schooling he spoke French, Spanish, Arab, Berber and (thankfully) English. He was very deliberate in his speaking, always trying to use not only the right words but also the correct context. An amazing young (34) man. He’d been an extra (as had almost everyone in town) in several American movies, such as The Gladiator.
We first toured a traditional home, complete with earthen oven and stable. Very nice guest room. Surprisingly well equipped kitchen. The tour took a long time because everyone had many questions and Mohammad had well thought out answers. Next we went down to the farmland and learned how to cut alfalfa, all the while peppering Mohammad with more questions. Saw an artist painting, using sugar-based paint. He’d heat the underside to burn the sugar. Amazing results.
Ben was a little anxious at the length of time we spent, but was pleased that we were so involved. After tea (of course) we visited the Imik Smik Women’s Association. This new group is intended to energize the town’s women and give them a feeling of self worth. It was very clear that traditional cultural habits in the small towns are very much in force, so their effort to have their own business is a large step forward. They bake/sell cookies and bread. They’re also beginning to make carpets. We have lunch at one of their homes and afterward they dressed up one couple as bride and groom. Then they applied temporary tattoos to the ladies, something of a tradition in Morocco. It looked creepy to me. This group is funded in part by OAT. I made a donation to another OAT funded project in Mongolia, and I did the same here, though I’m a little concerned that the website is three years out of date.
I made balloons for the women. They seemed to enjoy them.
After a return to our hotel we found a liquor store for liquid supplies, then had dinner at a French restaurant. A good day, but I missed the desert. Exercised.
Ouarzazate is a popular location for films. This is a statue in a traffic circle.
A movie set.
A movie studio with several sets.
Mohammad.
The home’s oven for bread. It’s right next to the [stable] room.
Their donkey. It’s physically in the home, along with goats, and hens.
Their guest room.
While other tourists take photos of old buildings . . .
. . . We learn how to cut alfalfa from a local farmer. Her husband does construction work.
The yellow includes a component of sugar, which when burned, turns dark.
The completed work.
The Q&A with the head of the Women’s group. The town’s men are now 50/50 on the propriety of a women’s cooperative. Progress.
One of their products. Yum.
Hanna temporary tattoos. The paste dries and rubs off after a few hours, leaving a pinkish impression for a few days.
Our “newlyweds!”
Wednesday, February 14. Early departure to the city of Ouarzazate (You try to pronounce it!). I felt colder than yesterday, though others thought the reverse. Returned to our large bus. Drove past hundreds of ancient wells which reached down to a large underground river from the mountains. At the photo stop a mass of screaming happy young teenagers surrounded us. I thought it was mildly silly, but everyone else loved it. (Ben calls photo stops “Japan Stops”, apparently because Japanese tourists only take pictures, then move on.)
We visited a school for first graders who wanted to shake hands with everyone. Very cute. They recited a number of chants(?), to which our group sang Itsy Bitsy Spider (and explained it). Too many for balloons.
Toured a Berber Museum, which I found very interesting. A lot of their farming and clothing looked remarkably similar to Navaho. Lots of dissimilarities from Arab dress.
Lunch was at a place preparing for a flood. Two turkeys, two peacocks, two geese, two ducks, etc. Great food, as usual.
Several abandoned cities made of adobe. Everyone had moved to nearby buildings made of concrete. Spooky.
Ladies doing laundry in the river. Lots of litter in the fields. Drove through the country’s capital city of roses.
Hotel is massive and modern. Japanese and Chinese. Poor wifi. Fruit basket. $9 beer. Buffet dinner. Had good lasagna. Exercised.
Yesterday I walked just to the center (lower) dune. About 4.5 miles round trip. In sand. I’m impressed.
Entrance to a ksar, a walled city. This is the only entrance.
One of the passageways.
One of the other passageways.
Classroom.
Morocco has a LOT of cats. Really, a lot.
Farmland again.
Abandoned city. Adobe is cooler than concrete, but much more fragile.
Nice fire station.
On the “Road of one thousand Kasbahs”. It may be true.
City centers often have a traffic circle with the emblem of the city. This one is the rose.
Tuesday, February 13. Cold morning. Passable sunrise. Skipped breakfast. No exercise (read on!). Early departure. First stop, our camel ride. Everyone was very excited at first, but by the end (90 minutes?) folks were talking about home. Pictures aplenty. Docile. Unlike Mongolia, where we skirted the dunes, here we rode right up them. Very cool.
Next, a farmer of date palms. Learned a lot, such as there are male and female palms. Five types of dates. Beautiful donkey. Grows other crops to feed his family. Gave a daughter a dog shaped balloon, who for once didn’t immediately start disassembling it.
Fossils. Seen fossils, so not so much fun. Tough choice to take big rock with lots of images or a small one with only one. Went with the latter.
Last was a music and dance demonstration from old southern Morocco. Thought to have medicinal value. Some of the group got up the dance along.
Back at camp for lunch. Then I set out on a safari of my own to one of the taller dunes. I didn’t expect to make it, but it was worth a shot. Got to the base, but bailed due to a blister. I doubt I’d have made it anyway. I had a time and water limit. Great hike anyway. Nearly none of the hike was in a straight line due steep dunes. There were three camps right at the base of the tall dune. One had a wall made of water bottles filled with sand. Innovative. It was an extremely memorable two hour hike. Said hello to a passing camel caravan of Americans. Saw a pickup truck stuck in the sand. They got out before I could offer my stuck-in-snow removal skills.
For dinner we had the Moroccan equivalent of a calzone. Perhaps the first dinner that didn’t work. Dry, bland. But it was the first below norms dinner in two weeks. No complaints. The evening conversation was about knee issues. Old age stories. But we were in Morocco, so clearly pain wasn’t going to slow us down.
Today was primarily why I wanted to visit Morocco. Perfect.
Sunrise
I’m looking better than in Mongolia.
I’m pretty sure that that’s a camel’s smile.
One happy girl. At least until the balloon pops.
Sharon lost her contacts? (No, fossil hunting.)
No inhibitions. I’m not in the picture.
Water bottles filled with sand.
Get a camel!
Monday, February 12. Exercised. Waded into the unheated pool. Bone-chilling. Hotel had two camels! My first view of African camels. Leaving our large bags on the bus, we departed for the Sahara in four 4x4s. First stop was a fossil factory/showroom. Fascinating display of sliced rocks filled with marine fossils. They convert some to furniture or small souvenirs, others into artwork. I bought nothing.
Next we stopped briefly at ancient ruins from 800 AD. Not much left. Drove on.
In the distance were large sand dunes. We soon after took off across the desert, avoiding the occasional smallish dunes. Bumps, Mongolia sized. Our camp was about 2 miles from the massive mountains of sand, with smaller dunes in between. The tents were simple in design, though each had a massive bed, toilet and shower! With power. No wifi. Lunch was burger and fries, with Ben stuffing the fries in the bread. I took a very leisurely hike into the dunes, getting passed by three camels. Marvelous feeling to be alone (somewhat) in the Sahara.
Later we visited some nomads, comprised mostly of women, including some who looked like teenagers but were actually in their twenties. Two had babies on their back, covered with blankets. As with Mongolians, they had solar power, a car battery, and a cell phone. Discovered how they took showers. Had tea. Hurt my knee (again) crawling into the low tent. Forgot my balloons!!
Next was sunset at Ben’s favorite perch. Truly outstanding, with a nice building in the picture. Group pictures. It got quite cold very quickly.
Dinner included a lesson on how to cook a meal with a tagine. Recorded the process for future use at home. Great meal.
The stars came out with no moon. Wonderful view. I had a star viewing app which helped everyone learn what was what.
Great day.
Our ride.
Cutting rock is dirty work.
The camp.
Small room, no heat, but nice enough. Solar power, so no ugly power lines. Solar heated hot water.
Just about the only wildlife were these little bugs.
Camels!
The two girls (women?) in the foreground are each carrying a baby on their backs. Spiderman blanket!
Their shower. Wrap a blanket around the poles, pour water.
Obligatory tea. The pour is from a height to produce foam.
Sunday, February 11. Note: Tomorrow we travel to the Sahara. Though our tents will have bathrooms and power, there will be no Wifi. Barbarians. Expect nothing more before Wednesday.
Departed Fez for a nine+ hour drive south. Hit the Atlas Mountains and snow. And traffic. (BTW, the road’s center line is clearly an optional-use demarkation.) Ben predicted that the combination of Sunday and snow in the mountains would be a real draw, and he was not wrong. We were stopped for about fifteen minutes at one point only because illegal parking had turned the road into one long one way. The snow was beautiful. Everyone was having a great time with it.
Monkeys along the road. Stray dogs looking for handouts. A stop at a convenience store crowded with Japanese. Old cemeteries with a unmarked stones at the head and feet. A very large dam. (Morocco gets 20% of their power through water.) Ben gave us a briefing on the Western Sahara issue. It’s not a controversy: It’s Moroccan, period. Algeria begs to differ. Ben also told us the story of meeting his wife. It was all to keep us alert during the drive, but it was also very informative.
Stopped for a snack at roadside lamb restaurant. The pre-extension folks had already done it, but the others had not. Wonderful again. A man was selling pretty bats which turned out to be meant to fend off carjackers. Everyone should have one under their seat.
The snow rapidly ended, though the mountain view stayed with us for over half the drive. We entered red rock territory. Not unlike Arizona, though there were no mesa or buttes. Our hotel is again marvelous. Large room, large shower. We had a buffet which was a nice departure from a set menu. (Lunch was great soup, river trout, and tasty apple pie, the town’s signature item.) We’re about 30 miles from the Sahara.
This is the halfway point for my three week adventure. No exercise today owing to the long drive.
Interesting Adventurer. By herself.
There is a LOT of snow in Morocco.
I had no idea I took this picture. I was trying for the house.
Sledding. Huge traffic jam on the road.
Down the eastern side of the mountain.
Poor picture, but the sticks are to place under the car seat. For defense.
Interesting cover for the bread.
Restaurant.
Our hotel.