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.

Saturday, February 10.  Cloudy day with occasional sprinkles.  After a 90 minute drive we arrived at Volubilis, an ancient Roman city.  The ruins have been partially unearthed.  There is very nice museum on the site and we had a very knowledgeable guide.  By knowledgeable, I mean he knew a lot about general Roman history.  He was able to give a perspective of the Empire and how Volubilis fit into it.

After lunch (meat on a stick, rice and french fries), we visited Meknas with it’s triple walled enclosure. There is a historic and huge granary still standing for the 1600’s.  The story is it could contain sufficient food to last 9 years.  “Take that with a grain of Salt”, Ben says.

After returning to Fez I went off on my own for a little while.  Had a sugared donut, bought more peanuts, and got a small plate of candies for the hotel staff.  Found shops that sell chickens that are alive during the shopping but dead during the buying.  I think I could rent a stall, install seats and rent them to tourists to just watch the traffic without being in the traffic.  There is no safe place to just stand.

We leave tomorrow to make a long drive to the fringe of the desert.  We’re not scheduled to actually see anything in particular, but I’ve no doubt that Ben will find something.  Monday our Sahara adventure begins.

At the Entrance.

The Basilica.

The home of the comedian.

Ancient (1600) granary.

Diagonal view.

Motorcycle repair shop.

In the back of the store is a platform with dozens of chickens.

Wednesday, February 9.  With the exception of one planned day off, I’ve stretched/exercised every day.  I’m eating in moderation, but wonderful peanuts are threatening overall success.

The Royal Palace of Fez has seven brass doors, one for each day of the week.  Pretty.  Discovered Fez is full of three wheeled motorcycles with large cargo racks.  From China.  Visited a very old synagogue that is being renovated with worldwide support, including from America.

Visited a 600 year-old pottery factory.  Very cool.  The demonstration included the creation of a pan and cover.  The artisan only eyeballed the diameters of both.  Perfect fit.  Next were two men chipping out pieces for a mosaic.  One did the rough cut, the other fine tuning.  The mosaic is assembled upside down with liquid cement, meaning the master can’t see the pieces.  Mistakes are cut out and replaced.  I didn’t ask why they don’t just use a glass platform and mirror.  The painters include women.  Paid by piece.  It’s cold today, so many didn’t show up.  I.e., there is no heating. I bought some stuff, including a tagine.

Camel meat is tough.  They also sell camel fat as an additive with eggs for breakfast.

Entered an ancient madrasa (religious school).  Morocco closed all private madrasas in 1957 and nationalized religious studies, which greatly reduced the spread of unsanctioned teaching.  Beautiful building.  It adjoins the oldest continuously functioning university in the world.

The stores in the medina were closed today.  Much easier walking, but much less interesting.

Lunch was great, again.  Chicken tagine.  I also tried a pastry loaded with honey.  Even for me, it was too sweet.

Last stop was a weaving factory.  Very old equipment.  Learned that they use the agave plant to make “silk”.  The agave fiber is white.  The manager joked that their agave keeps you warm, just in a different way than Mexico’s agave.  Not quite as soft as real silk, but just as pretty I think.

In the evening we split up into three groups to have dinner with a local family.  Very interesting.  Learned a lot.  To be neighborly, I ate five olives.  The host drank his soup straight out the bowl.  Perfect.

Looks a lot like New Orleans.

The sign says, in essence, “Be a good neighbor.” I need one of those.

Sign at the Synagogue.

Shaping the lid to the bowl on the left. Eyeballing it only. Perfect fit.

Preparing a rough cut for a mosaic.

Laying out the mosaic, upside down.

The painter.

Fez.

Out ruins in Fez.

Honey.

Camel meat.

Camel fat.

Washing before prayers. We can look, but not enter.

The madrasa. The photo doesn’t do justice to its beauty.

The medina when the shops are closed.

Loom.

Made from the agave plant.

My companions. They just blend right in with the community.

The entrance to the weavers factory and salesroom.

Thursday, February 8.  Pictures tell the tale.  Briefly, bus ride from Rabat to Fez.  At a market on the way Ben gave some of us 100 Dirham ($11) to buy fruits at a farmer’s market.  I’m not comfortable with the fact that he picked me first.  We proceeded to buy fruit.  I wasn’t concerned with sticking to the $11 limit.  I just wanted enough fruit to satisfy the mission of satisfying our breakfast desires for a few days.  Others took the mission to be to spend 100 and not go over.  Anyway, it was fun to interact with farmers.  Apples for 10 cents.

Our “Riad” is a former home for a large family, converted to a small hotel.  Installing bathrooms and an elevator constituted the main challenges.  Only pictures tell the story.

We met a local guise to give us the tour of the largest alley-based community in Africa, if not the world. Just incredible.  One thing though is that it wasn’t the universe-invading experience of Japan.  Everyone tended to leave an inch between bodies.  I never wanted to shove people simply out of anger.  Visited a 600 year-old tannery.  They handed out mint leaves before we climbed to a perch above the pools.  Good idea.  Smelled just as I’ve heard that tanneries smell.  Some of us bought leather products.

Ben was intending to take us to a mall’s foodcourt for dinner, but we asked to go have another moroccan dinner.  Great choice.  I had a grilled steak that wasn’t the best, but certainly well worth $12.  With wine.  (I should mention that dinner last night and lunch today included no olives! Tonight there were olives.  The world can continue spinning.)

The pictures tell a fuller story.  A great day.

One of the few unusual veggies. Massive celery-like.

Tell me this looks like the Morocco one expected.

Ben, our guide. He tried to (and somewhat succeeded) to give us lessons on the bus. But we kept falling asleep.

Our Riad.

Fancy door.

Our host. His family once counted 32. When it reached 9, he decided to convert the house to a Riad.

Lunch(!) setting.

Dining room.

Ceiling.

Veggies.

Main course. Egg, slightly spicy tiny meatballs, sauce.

Orange slices with cinnamon. Had this for dinner too.  Must be a local favorite.

View of main room from above.

Some of the paint work.

Screen used to hide occupants of a harem.

Renovations.

Vats used to color leather. Smelly.

Just one of several leather salesrooms.

Wednesday, February 7.  Introductory meeting.  Then we drove around.  The King’s office palace isn’t a residence.  He lives elsewhere when he is in Rabat.  There is some controversy in that he has many palaces and none are open to the public.  Some believe the palaces should be opened for a fee to collect revenue.  (BTW, in Tangier we drove past the Saudi King’s resort, which he visits for about a month each year.  Estimated revenue for Morocco: $460 million.)

There is a Roman ruin here which was a supply depot to prepare for incursions further south.  Next to it is an ancient mosque and necropolis.  Storks dominate the place.  Noisy storks.  I have video below that I hope works.  Ben gave a description of Moroccan society, starting with funerals and then being pulled towards marriage and divorce by the group’s curiosity.  Now that the entire group is here he is going into much more detail.

Next was the tomb of Mohammad V, who was King during WWII.  Much revered.  Excellent building. Mounted guards.  It’s located immediately adjoining a huge 800 year-old unfinished mosque.  The ruler building it died and no descendants choose to complete the work.

Stopped for lunch.  I skipped it.  Walked into the medina again.  A shop that makes beautiful pillows.  A pizza joint that smells just as a pizza joint should.  Cow skulls at a meat shop.  Quiet, well behaved beggars.  Shoes.  Musical instruments.  One fly-by-night hawker was selling purses that apparently fell off a truck because there was a crowd of women anxiously looking through the selection.  The seller seemed to be in a big hurry.

Museum of Money with a large art gallery inside.  Abstract art, which I’ve never been a fan of.  Lots of ancient coins.  They had one room with videos detailing how they make money, both coins and paper. Nearly everything was in Arabic and French.  Very little English.

The Casbah.  Ho hum.  Had tea and two little pastries.  Glad I skipped lunch.  On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the liquor store, located downstairs and labeled “Cave”.  Bought some wine.

Our official “Welcome” dinner was in a fantastic setting, complete with music.  High ceilings, beautiful artwork, bright(!) red bathroom.  Someone in the room had a birthday so the staff rolled out the dancing celebration.  Some of the group joined in.  Uninhibited is the word.  Food was great.  I didn’t get a picture of the main course, composed of peppers, tomatoes, and potatoes stuff with meat.  Everyone had a great time.

Tomorrow we leave the coast and head east to Fez (or Fes).  Ben says we’ll see the real Morocco.  It’s true that what I’ve seen so far seems a little more “Europe” than I expected.  Time will tell.

The King’s office palace.

Ancient mosque at Chellah.

The area has over 75 stork nests. Noisy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXGzVp7K8Gk&feature=youtu.be

An unfinished mosque tower from the 13th century.

Crypt of the current King’s grandfather. Revered for standing up to the Germans. “There are no Jews here. We are all Moroccans.”

They play soccer anywhere.

I skipped lunch. Perhaps I had a premonition. Yum.

This is a tomb, stuck in the middle of a community. Ben says it has to be some famous person, but he doesn’t know who.

Just the appetizers.

Desert. Layers of glazed hard crepe discs with a sweet sauce and almond sprinkles.

Tuesday, February 6.  Slow day.  Drove from Tangier on the expressway.  A typical expressway.  I slept.  Rained a little.

After arrival at a very nice hotel in downtown, we walked to a restaurant for a “snack”.  Turned into quite a meal.  I had Tajine Berbere.  Tajine is an earthenware pot.  Berbere is (apparently) a stew with very tender beef, green peas, and avocado.  You’re supposed to use bread to soak up the sauce, but I’d had enough bread.  It was very good.  Others had pizzas.

Afterwards we walked down to the medina and Jewish quarter.  Nothing much different than the other medinas we’ve seen.  Marvelous pastries, colorful clothing, candies, spices, shoes, shoes, shoes.

This was the end of our pre-extension tour.  At dinner we met the nine other members of the main tour.  Happily they all arrived okay, though I guess a few had some flight issues.

On the way to Rabat. Flat farmland. Extremely green.

The artist is famous, the person painted is not.

Spices. Just a sample of the dozens of stores.

Alleys that never end.

Monday, February 5.  This is one fantastic trip.  A simple transport to Tangier was captivating.  It began with a fairy tale morning, the sun revealing gorgeous snow covered mountains.  The drive along one side of a very pretty valley, totally green.  We stopped for a rest stop, where I finally burned my mouth on an excellent, very hot tea.

The entrance to Tangier began with a view of the lessor income housing.  Slightly depressing, though Ben said the country was working hard to eliminate “shanty towns”.  Encouraging.  A look at the debt as a percentage of GNP is not encouraging.  A question I’ll ask Ben about when the full group arrives tomorrow.

Anyway, Ben took us to the lighthouse that designates the separation between the Med and Atlantic.  Much further west than I thought. Cold, windy.  We didn’t stay long.  Then the Caves of Hercules.  This was an entertaining though totally fictitious stop.  The cave had an opening to the sea which looked like a map of Africa.  It was a nice piece of mythical fiction.  Enjoyable.

Lunch was at a French styled restaurant which Ben initially translated as “Beneath the Grill”. I immediately thought “rats”.  On arriving the French experts on the bus properly translated “On the Grill”.  Relief.  I had a terrible hot dog that was probably more food coloring than beef.  But it was a nice respite.  The side offering was “potatoes or fries”.  Fries are McDonald’s style, Potatoes are thicker french fries.  But they did have mashed potatoes.  They aimed to please.

The Medina/Kasbah was fun.  Lots of strange items available.  I never saw the carpet store I spent hours at in 1984.  Ben found the indigenous Jewish Synagogue.  Fortuitously, there was a man at the door willing and able to provide a tour.  Then a tour of the local Jewish cemetery.  I avoided both for some convoluted personal reasons, but everyone else really enjoyed them.  I enjoyed watching a fairly busy intersection.  Organized chaos. Saw a busload of young children go by.  Youthful ignorance is bliss.

After checking into the hotel I immediately left to find a hotel whose bar was considered an inspiration for “Rick’s” in the movie Casablanca.  Not.  But there were photos of famous people who visited the place.  I had some good Moroccan wine.  Better than Temecula, worse than anywhere else.  They provided peanuts, then olives(!), then potato chips.  Afterwards, I found the St. Andrews Church, which had a tower suspiciously similar to a mosque.  Camouflage?  Afterwards I walked through sections of the medina.

Dinner was fun.  It was the last one before ending our Pre-extension.  Tomorrow we join the other nine members for the main tour in Rabat.  Ben will most certainly be repeating things we’ve already heard.  I’m afraid I’ll drift off and miss some new nuggets of information.  I’ll have to stay alert.

The caves of Hercules. The hole is shaped like Africa. Coincidence?

At the entrance of the Caves of Hercules.

This is soap. Seriously.

Ben found this place. The person in the office admitted the group and gave a fascinating talk.

The only National Historical Landmark outside the USA..

Free cool water.

A school bus.

Moroccan wine. The peanuts, olives, and chips were provided gratis. Tried to turn away the olives, but my dislike was not believed. It’s Morocco.

 The Maps.me app founds this for me.

St. Andrews.

Very nice photo I think. Pretty mosque.

One of the entrances to the medina. I found my way out thanks to maps.me.