Nomads

  Day 3 of our tour was the highlight for me.  We started off from our beloved Chez Pierre,
 where Ed got the recipe for fakkas from the fille' in the kitchen with the help of our guide Moustafa who translated.

 We made a quick stop at the grocery store for our picnic lunch, and took off through the Dades Gorge, with hairpin turns and breathtaking

We were so lucky to hit the village of Msemir on market day, where we bought some plastic shoes for the nomad children we planned to visit later that day.  Then we went off road, supposedly onto a dirt road -but how our drivers Moustafa and Hassan were able to tell where to head the Land Cruisers was beyond us! it was several hours of bouncing and gasps at their driving skill, when we stopped for a picnic in the cold cold wind  ( Did I mention it was still snowing in the morning?)
views.  




Back in the cars, through rocky terrain and desolation, til we came upon the nomads.

Can't even describe this experience.   As soon as we stopped the car, several nomad children, including an 8 year old girl, came running down from their tents to greet us and grab the bag of shoes we brought.  We walked up the rocky path to their settlement of two tents and were invited into one where we met two women and assorted kids from the 8 Yr old girl to a baby on the younger woman's back.  The tent was made of poles with black woven blanket for the roof and sides.  The floor was dirt with piles of blankets and rugs which we perched on and against. It was about 4 feet high at most, so we crouched to get in. The young woman served us the usual mint tea with sugar (we had also brought tea and sugar as gifts); she had a small fire in the center of the tent to which she added scrub to burn, and heated water in a black iron tea kettle, and made the tea in a teapot and served it to us in the usual small glasses.  She noticed that Anita did not get tea and was sure to get her a glass.

We were so grateful to our Berber drivers, Moustafa and Hassan, who don't have much English or French but were able to engage the family and the assorted 7 or so small children.  The shoes were passed around and tried on by some of the kids.  then the girl went to get her drum / tambourine like instrument, and the music started. She per cussed amazingly well, and her mother started to sing with our drivers singing along with them, then the girl also started singing back and forth with her mother. Lots of smiling and laughing all around.

As we left the older woman (by older I mean maybe 28?) showed us her tent with the loom where she was weaving a blanket.

Ait Benhaddou to Dades Gorge

We started at the World Heritage site Kasbah Ait Benhaddou, which is where many famous films were made, including Game of Thrones most recently.  We continued on the route of the trans Saharan caravans, driving through Ouarzazate, which has become the site of several film studios, and on to Skoura where we took a walk from a hotel with a panoramic view to the little village.  Then on to the valley of the roses, Kelaa Mgouna, where we were able to take a walk on some private land where some Berber women were harvesting alfalfa (we didn't take photos). It was so surprising to walk along a little stream used for irrigation and see all the green in the midst of the dusty dry mountains.

We drove through the Dades, end on end of red rock mountains with some new and some crumbling buildings built into the sides of the rock. In the valley below were oases of bright green plots of crops and tall poplar and fig trees.

Arrived at Chez Pierre, our Berber inn, to an amazing gourmet meal of quail, followed by brown sugar tart.  And it started to snow!!

Authentic Morocco

We were  all very happy to be picked up by our tour drivers at the riad who got us out of Marrakech much more efficiently than we got ourselves in! We divided into two cars as Marge thoughtfully arranged, so we would each have a window.

Our car held Moustafa the driver who speaks no language in common with any of us but loves to sing and drives exquisitely, and Moustafa the guide who studied linguistics at the university and has excellent English.

We left Marrakech and drove towards the central High Atlas Mountains,

with frequent stops for views.  The Tizi-n-Tichka is a winding narrow hairpin-turning road and if you can ignore the testosterone and advertising, this video gives a great picture of why I was handing on for dear life: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sh_6jpjPA8 We drove through the pass to the village of Telouet, where we had a lunch of omelette and our first salad (chopped tomatoes and peppers!) in a Berber home. Our host then showed us some of his Berber artifacts and then to a room (yet another,) full of beautiful rugs.

We visited the Kasbah of el Glaoui, former war lord and pasha who died in the 50s and left a crumbling palace with a beautiful vista of the village.  We drove through the Ounila valley, dusty red rock mountains with a green valley below. On  to a salt mine and then arrived at our hotel in Tamdaght, the Kasbah  of the stork, where the Moustafas, Hassan the other driver, and the host of the kasbah picked up a banjo (!) and drums and entertained us with Berber and Arab music as we drank our welcoming mint tea.

Marrakech day two and three

One morning we walked to the Palais el-Badi.  We loved the storks nesting on the roofs and soaring over our heads.  Then to the Saadian tombs.  And the Ali ben Youssef medersa, with the tiny cells for students.

Some of us found the mellah, or Jewish quarter, and asked for the synagogue.  We were taken into a huge rug shop where they tried to convince us it had been a synagogue in the past, and wanted to show us rugs.  Finally they relented and had a fellow lead us to the actual synagogue which was not so interesting to look at but had some interesting historical displays on the walls.

We had a nice dinner at a very old restaurant Dar el Salaam which was as beautiful as any of the monuments we had seen! Nice meal followed by a dancer balancing a tray of candles on her head, and then a voluptuous belly dancer.

Marrakech day one

After a lovely breakfast of crepes, yogurt, and Moroccan bread, we left the medina to find  two grands taxis to go to the Majorelle gardens. Our driver took us past the courts where he showed us all the illegally parked cars, which the gendarmes ignored because they belonged to the lawyers. The gardens were magnificent and will add photos later.  Wandered the souks in the afternoon. Candy bought a rug after much deliberating and drinking of mint tea with the seller.  In the evening we went to the Djemaa el-Fna (ancient square with snake charmers, trained monkeys, and lots of other performers and vendors) to find dinner.

Riding on the Marrakech Express

We had a lovely drive from Essouaria to the outskirts of Marrakech, followed by an exciting and sometimes terrifying ride into the city (taxis trying to edge Elizabeth out from following Anita who had Marge the navigator at her side) to find the car park where we could drop the bags and most of the passengers.  Those who delivered the cars back to the rental agency have their own tale to tell (suffice to say that Anita spent over an hour standing on the center of a busy street hoping against home that her lost companions would have to come back that way eventually, which they did,)

The rest of us found a tiny man to pull all the luggage in a cart through the souks of the medina to the lovely riad Bougainevillier, where we were served the usual lovely mint tea as we checked in.

Essaouria updates

A few more posts from Essaouira: the Jewish quarter, how to shut up shop, and a birding expedition with lots of flowers. And one more: the trip from Essaouira to Marrakesh -Caroline