Morocco 2023

Home! Long travel day, so exhausted but happy. Wonderful trip, with lots of impressions to digest... 

Spent the morning at a rug shop! (I know!!) where we bought an Amazigh kilim from a southern Moroccan tribe. It's the kind that is both woven and embroidered. They've been catching out eye all along, and we succumbed on our last day. You'll have to visit us, though, to see it, as it got wrapped up before I thought about taking a picture. Then on to the Abderrahman Slaoui Foundation Museum, basically a small private collection of stuff, much of it Asian. The main thing I liked was the collection of silver articulated fish that apparently were a reference to Jesus and we're hung from the ceilings of churches.I guess that put us in the mood for fish-- delicious seafood salad and grilled sardines for lunch! Took the train to the airport and made our way to a nearby hotel in anticipation of our stupid early flight tomorrow. Decided we'd had enough tagine and couscous, so had pizza even though it's our last chance for a while. Handmade, of course, with a white sauce, ...

Walking in the "new city" is definitely tricky --broken pavement, miscellaneous holes, uneven steps and motorcycles everywhere--except around the royal palace, where everything is clean, tidy and streets are blocked to vehicles. Tried to go to a music museum, but it was closed so went to the olive market instead. Nice sign, though! Successfully moved to our new hotel, a riad in the medina. After a nap ventured out for a walk through the medina, along the coast and back through what seemed to be endless markets for everything from shoes and cheap clothes to furniture makers and motorcycle repair. Definitely not targeting tourists! My favorite was a small van set up as a moveable coffee stand, solar powered...

Moving day, from Marrakech to Casablanca. Stopped for lunch at a home for unwed mothers. It's a very tough situation everywhere, but culturally extremely tough here. Then a guided tour of Mosquée Hassan 2, the third largest in the world and the only one in Morocco that allows non-muslims in. Then to our hotel. We decided to skip dinner and crash early. We, and everybody, are exhausted! So much to process, plus I seen to have s little cold--at least I hope that's all it is!

Not so much to report today: a bit of shopping, the primary museum we wanted to go to turned out to be closed on Tuesday. Our visit to the Museum of Culinary Arts was more successful. Interesting, but more reading than we had every four (it was 100 degrees again! They have a spectacular setup for cooking classes... Home for a nap, then a very interesting presentation from a woman who grew up in a very traditional village family, but she went to university, decided to stop wearing the hijab, and is intending to choose her own husband. Then official goodbye dinner with the group at a very nice (formerly French villa). We've been eating these foods, but it was a top-notch take on them.

Morning walking tour through a bunch of market areas--as usual, separate districts for wood, iron work, textiles, etc. Got bread fresh from the wood oven. Then to a carpet store for a very interesting presentation about different styles of carpets,  Ice cream for lunch, then home for a nap (already in the 90's). Late afternoon crazy carriage ride, with horses, cars, busses and a million motorcycles all sharing the road. One of our horses was white with an orange mane and tail (henna) Nice Spanish/Italian meal for a break, then home exhausted to laundry and bed!

Drove through the High Atlas Mountains to Marrakesh. The mountains are rocky and pretty much bare as the trees have been cut down (for firewood, building, etc.) And there isn't much rain even before the current drought. The valleys are plush, well irrigated farms. Once at Marrakesh, went to our Riad for lunch and got settled in our rooms. Then an introductory walking tour that took us through some market streets to the extremely ornate, 19th century Bahia Palace. Dinner was a variety of delicious street food in the Djemaa al Fna (the giant square that is full of everything from foodstalls of every kind to people selling everything to people who want to hang a snake around your neck and charge you for it. Sensory overload! 

Started the day with a typical thing for OAT tours, called "a day in the life". We visited a family in a small rural village where we"helped" feed alfalfa to their donkeys, leaned how to cut alfalfa by hand, make adobe bricks, etc. The man of the family has managed to buy an electric mill, so now he has a little wheat milling business to grind floor and couscous. Delicious couscous lunch--couscous made from fresh ground couscous and cooked "properly" is completely different from the from-the-box stuff we get at home. Then to the Imik Simik Women’s Association for Rural Development. This organization was started by women to help women learn to be independent and support each other in a rural, very male-dominated culture. They run a baking business that (now) supplies pastries to the town, as well as some other ventures. Very inspiring to meet them and see what they're doing. A few women started the association themselves. It's now 42 women, and reci...

Long drive today to get to our next stop, Ouarzazate, but with interesting landscape and stupid along the way. Stops included a 14th century underground canal to deliver water to fields 10 miles away from the "mother well". It's not still operational, but you can see the piles of dirt resulting from the digging. Then a museum about Amazigh culture. Eventually got to our very lovely riad, went for a walk, then dinner on the roof-tip terrace where we got both a spectacular sunset and moonrise at the same time (the picture is the moon!)

Another amazing day! Started with a camel ride across the dunes. The camels here are single hump, so each person gets their own. No muzzles on these camels, but they were very well behaved. Next stop was to learn something about gnaouan music (people from father south in Africa who ended up in Morocco). We had a lesson on drumming, then played along to a couple songs. Next stop a nomadic family. They stay in one place for the winter now, and have built an adobe house (with solar power) in the desert near a well. Climate change means the desert is expanding, so not clear what will happen. As usual in Morocco, we were served mint tea and homemade bread. They mostly make money now by renting out their the camels for tourists. Soon they will head to the High Atlas to get out of the heat. Then to our tent camp. Rather miserable afternoon-- temperature 100+ degrees and windy so sand everywhere. But then it finally cooled off enough to enjoy a bunch more activities: watched them prepare the c...

This area is one of the centers of the fossil trade in the world. It was interesting to see many large and beautiful fossils, but disturbing to see them being carved into coffee tables, bathroom sinks, etc. It was presented to us as a positive thing, providing jobs for many rural people who desperately need them, but (from my reading) also exploitive of the workers and worrisome in terms of preserving a natural/cultural/scientific resource. Interesting, difficult trade-offs! Then a visit to a family living in an old neighborhood in a small town. The mother was very welcoming, offering tea and freshly baked bread. We also met her youngest son (15 years old), who plans to become an engineer. The older sons are working as porters/laborers in the markets. Very interesting to see their house and learn a bit about their lives and ambitions. You can see their TV in the photo, and the cabinet with their most important possessions (behind Hassan pouring tea). They live in the one room! Makes me...

Early start for a long drive over the Middle Atlas mountains (and a bit of the High Atlas) to Erfoud. Much of the landscape looked similar to the southwest (buildings or off adobe, scrubby desert), but interesting. Many semi-nomadic shepherds with focus of sheep and goats. Stopped for a snack of roast lamb in a small town--yum.  Then rocky desert (originally lava, then scraped out by a glacier--fossils tomorrow). The photo is off the Ziz Valley. The palms are all date palms and every tree is owned by a specific person. New hotel tonight, rather than a riad--very nice, but some quirks. The mattress is on a platform that extends being the mattress itself, so hope we don't kill ourselves if we have to get up during the night! The buffet dinner was spectacular. I don't even know what all we ate... Tomorrow starts with fossils and the beginning of our Sahara exploration.

We opted out of the optional group activities to do our own thing. First stop was the American Fondouk. This interesting veterinary hospital is for donkeys, mules and horses--the working animals of Fés. The service is free because the owners rely on these animals to survive themselves and are generally barely managing. The hospital was started in 1927 by an American woman. The current director is Moroccan, did his residency at Purdue, and is the only equine surgeon in Morocco! We watched him do an ultrasound on a colicky horse, then "met" the other animals. The donkey is almost recovered from an injury and will be going home (and back to work) in another day or so. Interesting and inspiring. Then back to the medina to walk through at our own pace. It was less crowded, apparently because it's a holiday. Much more enjoyable! Nice lunch at a small cafe, where the water to wash your hands is poured from a pitcher by the staff. Then to the Nejjarine Museum of Wooden Arts &...