Morocco Day 7

It’s Easter Sunday and what a day! We had an early start - bags on the bus by 7:10 AM, breakfast at 7:15  and on the road by 8 AM. We ate on the terrace at the hotel restaurant and enjoyed a beautiful view of the Kasbah at Ait Benhaddou one more time before we left!

We headed out in a south-westerly direction, stopping for photos and a toilet break. We passed more kasbahs and many towns.

Because of these picturesque kasbahs, the Berber town of Ouarzazate is home to the CLA Film Studios.

Movies such as Lawrence of Arabia, The Last Temptation of Christ, Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven and part of the Game of Thrones TV series were filmed here. 

At our morning rest stop someone mentioned that they had just seen camels. I bustled over to the corner of the complex to have a look. Actually they were dromedaries. The difference, I learned, is that camels have two humps, whereas dromedaries have one. A young girl of about  9 or 10 years came out with a plastic Coke bottle, filled it with water from a hose, then waved it near the animal. Much to my amazement, the camel picked it up with it's lips, raised it high, drank it all, then dropped the bottle when he was done! The girl did this a couple of times. It was so funny to see the dromedary just drop it on the ground, almost like he was saying, "OK, I'm done! Now pick it up!" 

Abdellah pointed out a cemetery as we drove by, and talked about Berber funerary traditions. Being outside the culture, I wouldn't have recognized the area as a graveyard. The rocks that mark where the dead are buried looked quite unremarkable to me.

The road was straight for awhile but began to wind again as we went through a pass. When I say wind, I mean constant curves and hair pin turns. The scenery was in stark contrast to the day before. It was rocky, with little vegetation and quite bleak.

Our guide talks about useful Morocco and useless Morocco. This was definitely useless Morocco.

When we got to Zagora, it was time for lunch, but first we made a photo stop at the famous Timbuktu sign. There are various spellings, one of which is pictured in the photo. Nowadays, Timbuktu is a metaphor for a place 'at the end of the world'. But it is a real town in central Mali on the Niger River, 52 days away by camel. No thank you!

We were the only customers in a pretty little hotel restaurant. Our meal was pre-ordered for us: a delicious salad (tomatoes, cucumbers and onions), chicken tangine and fruit. I mostly ate salad as my stomach was feeling queasy again from all the twists and turns.

After lunch, the 4x4 jeeps were at the restaurant ready to take us to the desert camp. We had packed a small bag to take with us to Erg Chiggaga Desert Camp. Soon the road narrowed to a wide one lane. When oncoming traffic came, both drivers would pull over seemingly at the last second and bounce along the unpaved section of the road until the other vehicle was safely past. I have no idea how long we drove along that road as I had my eyes closed and tried to sleep. We made a stop for water and bought three 1.5 liters each!

After perhaps a couple of hours we turned off the pavement, or did the pavement just disappear? Then, THEN  that’s where the 4x4 vehicles became necessary. We seemingly drove where there were no roads at all. I had no idea how the drivers knew where they were going. It was like bouncing along in the rough fields at home in a pick-up truck, except that we were driving at ridiculously high speeds. I couldn’t see the speedometer which was probably a good thing.

Sometimes we would hit a bank of sand and just go flying. The blowing sand reminded me of a snow blizzard back home. At times, the visibility was close to zero.

We stopped a couple of times and finally arrived at the camp. There are several tents around in a circle. There is a dining tent and they gave us some mint tea, roasted nuts and wafer cookies.

There are even flush sit down toilets and electric lights in the tents. I’m not sure if everything is solar powered but there is a huge solar panel on one of the roofs.

After our refreshments we went for a dromedary ride. Our guide had told us to make sure we asked  for a Moroccan dromedary not an Algerian one as it would take us across the border instead of home! Haha! He got me good!

The animals were joined in 4 ‘trains’ and we headed off together for about half an hour. The sand constantly blows and there is no keeping it out of your hair, clothes, skin, eyes, shoes, etc. etc., so there is no use trying.

When we got back, we walked along the sand dunes taking photos of all kind.

It is 9 PM and we will soon be served supper – I hope. I must be feeling better as I am getting hungry. Poor Mikey is starving!

Supper was great! People laugh at me when I take food photos, but hey, aren't you glad I did?!!!

Morocco Day 6

Today was a long bus ride but an interesting one. We left Marrakesh at 9 AM and headed southwest along the highway, which are quite good in Morocco by the way. The terrain began to get hilly and then we started to climb. The driver drove pretty darned fast and there were lots of curves, and even hairpin turns.

I don’t normally get carsick, but I had to move to the front of the bus for a while. The zigzag motion while looking through my camera lens made me feel quite woozy. I wasn’t the only one who felt the motion of our bus.

The landscape was quite beautiful and the towns we passed were interesting. Some parts of Morocco haven’t changed in many years, except for the satellite dishes on a lot of homes, plus the use of cell phones everywhere. In Moroccan culture women, especially older ones, are respected and have a lot of say in the family. They also have a lot of work. Men everywhere seem to be drinking tea or sitting and visiting.

We went through the High Atlas mountains and stopped several times for the toilet or to take photos. At one of our stops we bought freshly squeezed orange juice. The oranges were squeezed through a metal press and I was amazed at how many oranges it took to fill a glass full.

 The highest point of the pass was Col du Tichka with an altitude of 2260 meters. I thought it might be cold but it was quite warm and there was always a nice breeze blowing. Some of the Americans thought it was cool, but not us – with 2 C and snow back home!

The place we were supposed to eat lunch at wasn’t ready for us so we continued on to Ait Ben Haddou. The restaurant we went to catered to tourists I think. It was fancy and the washrooms were passable (i.e. sit-down toilets with toilet paper.)

Our hotel was just down the road from the restaurant and the rooms are quite interesting. It is called la Kasbah and the rooms are quite old with intricately carved wooden doors. The curtains are Berber carpets and there are 3 twin beds for the 2 of us. The ceiling is also ornate. I wonder what this hotel was used for.

After dropping off our bags we headed over to the Ait Benhaddou Kasbah. It is an ancient Berber village with a ‘granary’ building at the very top that can be seen for miles. A few people still live in the Kasbah, but most live in more modern facilities across the small stream.

The place has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site and it is quite amazing. I took a lot of photos, from above and below. There is quite a climb to the top and my legs felt the strain later on.

Along the way, there are Berbers selling crafts such as rugs, jewellry and paintings.

I stopped to admire an artist at work and asked about his materials. He was painting on watercolor paper using tea and saffron. After the picture was painted, he held it over a propane flame, picture side up, and the ink darkened nicely. Of course I had to buy a small painting to show my artist friends back home.

As we got out of the Kasbah village, the sun came out and was setting. Beautiful! Supper is at the hotel restaurant down the street a little bit. We had traditional soup, and beef tagine. I ate too much – again! 

Morocco Day 5

The day in Marrakech started with a local guide in addition to Abdullah. We toured the Koutoubia Minaret with Mohammed, who is also a Berber.

Then we explored the historical sites of the Palais Bahia, as well as the Palais Badi. The grounds were large in area and some restoration has been taken place.

We got on the bus again and got a ride to the medina in the old quarter where we toured the alleys of the bustling souks. There were many interesting wares displayed and the women were anxious to shop. Just like Fes, we saw the various sections such as metal smith work, lanterns, shoes, leather goods, fabrics, etc.

One of the big differences between the two cities was that Marrakech is more touristy and modern. Instead of people yelling “Balag” to announce oncoming donkeys, a horn beep signalled the approach of small motorcycles. Sometimes we even saw women driving them – unheard of in Fes.

In the souks, we made a stop to visit the Medresa Ben Youssef. It wasn’t as peaceful as the one in Fes either, but filled with small and large groups of tourists. This made people-free photos quite difficult but I did what I could.

We would have dearly loved a break for water/coffee/Coca Cola and the chance to give our feet a rest but we continued on through the maze. Besides, we wouldn’t have been able to find our way out very easily anyway at that point!

Our next stop was at the spice/herbalist store. We were shown many different types of spices, herbs and concoctions to cure a multitude of ailments and we got the chance to smell everything.  There were cures for snoring, cold sores, bronchial congestion, psoriasis, headaches, constipation, weight loss, and sleeplessness to name a few. I bought a blend of 35 spices and herbs for cooking. The herbalist said it was for ‘people who don’t know how to cook – with this blend, it’s all done for you.” I also bought some mint tea of course. I was hoping it was like the Egyptian tea I got there, but it’s different. Anyway, mint is good!

Finally it was lunch time and I was ready to kill for a Coke Zero! Abdullah took us to a place he knew and it was good. I had a chicken shwarma platter and the meat was very delicious. After we were done, he let us loose for the rest of the day!

Mike and I headed over to the souks to start shopping for the things on our ‘list’. Our first attempt at negotiations didn’t go all that well, or so we thought. We picked up some silk table runners at what we first thought was an exorbitant price. But later we realized that we got pretty good quality for that price. Mike found a knife he liked. I found some Moroccan lanterns. Mike made a pretty good deal on a Berber mask and I bought some belly dancing coin belts. The way to get the best price is to walk away when they don’t like your offer. If you really want it, you throw out a low price, then they counter, and you counter, etc. etc. until you are both happy.

We were completely exhausted and headed to find refreshment of some type. We got a street table with a view of the goings on and ordered a juice and an ice cream sundae type of dish. Mine was chocolate and Mike’s was a most delicious pink kind of IC.

After that we were refreshed and Mike wanted to head out again to see the sun set and the craziness that is the square. Before I knew it, he had a snake wrapped around his neck and the owner was telling me to take a photo of him. The snake charmer also wanted to place one on me, several times in fact, and didn’t seem to comprehend that “No!” meant “NO WAY!!!!!”!

 We headed back towards the shopping area but didn’t want to enter the souks at night. Finding your way around in the daytime is bad enough.

Although we weren’t too hungry, I figured we should eat some kind of supper besides ice cream so we sat down at one of the long tables like we ate at last night. We ordered salad and pastilla. The salad and bread were good. The pastilla was nothing like what we had in Fes. I was short of cash (or so I thought) so we decided to walk back to the hotel even though my feet were screaming. Besides which, it was just as crowded as last night and getting a cab would have been impossible anyway.

I will have NO trouble sleeping tonight!!!

Morocco Day 4

We said goodbye to Fes at 8 AM and began to travel through farming country. There are lots of olive trees and it is quite green due to the many rivers in the area. I noticed a few red poppies growing wild in the countryside and there are many trees in bloom with white flowers.

Some of these are almonds and some are apples. Apparently this area is also good for cherries, plums and other fruit as well.

We are going through the Middle Atlas Mountains, and we are climbing a lot. Our driver is very experienced. He speeds when he can and crawls when there is lots of slow moving traffic especially going up hills. He sometimes waits until we reach the top of the hill, but occasionally he just passes. We have many near misses with other vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, trucks and tractors. Abdellah advised us when we first started out, “Just don’t look!”

We stopped in Ifrane to stretch our legs. Irfrane is the Switzerland of Morocco. The town’s claim to fame is a lion statue. It is a summer resort with many villas owned by well-off Moroccans. The roofs are very long and steep as they get a lot of snow in the winter.

As we drive (and today is about a 9 – 10 hour day on the bus) it is rare to go very far without seeing people. It’s not just in towns that we see people, but the countryside as well. People are walking, working, sitting, standing, riding and waiting. Men are sitting in cafes drinking tea, coffee or water and women are walking carrying bags, often with small children in tow.

We stopped in a small town and had lunch at a local restaurant. We were the only tourists. The meat was hanging from on high and it was either grilled or cooked in a tagine.

I ordered a lamb tagine. There wasn’t much meat in the dish but the vegetables were very tender and nicely flavoured. I found lots of photo ops while I was waiting.

The drive to Marrakesh was a long one and we made a few pit stops. One place had some lovely rose gardens behind the buildings. I did something I haven’t done before at one of the rest stops – there was no other choice. There were only squat toilets in each stall – porcelain ‘bowls’ on the floor with slightly elevated spots to place your feet.I was a little afraid of slipping but I survived!

There was a whole lot of napping happening on the bus especially in the afternoon. 

We arrived in Marrakech around 6 PM and got checked in. Then we headed to the Jemaa el Fna Square. The traffic was unreal and when we finally arrived, I understood why. The crowds were also unreal!

It took a lot of concentration to keep up with the group, not trip, watch our belongings, and not lose sight of the person ahead of you. We headed to the stall where we were to have supper but they weren’t ready for us yet so we took a walk around. It was hard to see anything really, because of all the people and I think our guide worried for our safety. It reminded me of a very, very busy fair grounds back home.

We sat at long benches with sheets of paper for placemats. When our meal came, it was very good – cooked vegetables, meat skewers and of course bread and water.

Rather than make the bus negotiate all that busy traffic after we were done, we walked back to the hotel, about 20-25 minutes away. Crossing the street was an adventure and it took quite awhile before the sidewalk traffic thinned out enough that our group didn't have to walk single file.

We have a late start to our day tomorrow so we get to sleep in, yeah!