Part II of our Moroccan Adventures: Atlas Mountains

For one full day of our stay in Marrakech, Colin and I took an excursion to the Atlas Mountains.  Again, this was a total highlight for us.  We shared a tour with another British couple (we love the Brits!) and had an awesome time with our tour guide, Phillippe. 

Off-roading through the Atlas Mountains

4 out of 5 of our group, with our guide on the left

Phillippe took us to tea in a Berber village, off-roading in the mountains, to a beautiful lake oasis and into the desert.  We had interesting encounters with the locals, including the cute little camel owner in the first pic above.  To my surprise/horror, as we were posing for this pic the camel owner placed his straw hat on my head!  Things in Morocco, and especially the Atlas Mountains, were not what we'd call "clean".  Of course, that was part of the glory of it all, but we did lose our appetite for the entire day when we we made a stop in a local village for lunch, and sat down next to an open air butcher with a raw stripped goat's head on the counter.   Flies did not appear to offend the locals at all.  The monkey on the roof of the butcher's shop only added to the craziness!

Our tour guide Phillippe really impressed us.  Because the Berber are Muslim and untrusting of the tourists, he has worked for the past 10 years to build relationships with the people so that tourists can get a better insight into their lives.  Though originally French, he has learned the Berber language and become a welcome face in many of the tiny towns.  We saw the success of his strategy when we entered the tiny hut of a Berber woman and her adorable daughter, and she served us delicious sage tea with freshly made bread. 

Camels on the way into the Atlas Mountains

Heading into the Ourika Valley

I loved these mountain goats.  A huge herd blocked the narrow road, so we got out and watched them play for a bit.

The Berber people are a North African tribe that live in these terraced, terracotta colored villages.  Although extremely rustic, we were suprised to see that some of them had satellite TV and electricity.

This is a view of the Berber village where we stopped for tea.

Colin and I enjoying our sage tea and fresh bread.  We were sitting on a sort of "deck" of the tiny two-room hut, under which was the family's farm - they were lucky enough to have one lamb and grew their herbs right next to this table.

This was the daughter of the woman who served us the tea.  She was adorable - when she saw our hand sanitizer she thought it was amazing and kept asking for more. 

These cute little guys ran up to our car as we drove up.  Apparently they are used to posing for pictures in exchange for candy.  You could see this from their teeth...

This is one of the schools for the Berber children.  They have a very hard time getting quality teachers to stay in the villages.  We were told that the kids are not exactly motivated to learn - they don't need to read or write to succeed in their villages, as farming and herding are their trades.  To prevent the kids from ditching school, the locals have cemented shards of glass to the top of the walls surrounding the school - a sort of barbed wire strategy.

Moroccans and Berber people use mules frequently for labor.  I thought this little guy was so cute grazing in the fields.



Enter the wildlife of the Atlas Mountains.  These lizards lay out in the sun on the rock walls made by the people.



This was HANDS DOWN the LARGEST beetle I have EVER seen.  It was almost the size of my palm.  I was sitting in the car when Phillippe brought this toward my open window. I don't know why, but I thought he was handing it to me, so I started screaming before I could contain myself. I must have shrieked louder than anyone he has ever heard - screaming "no no no!"  He later jokingly recommended that I should avoid the snakes in Jemaa el Fna if that was my reaction to the bugs!

The start of our camel adventure... Colin courageously took a ride on these big daddios.  They were not friendly.  When we approached, they tried to bite us.  We had agreed we probably wouldn't ride camels that day, so I had decided to wear a dress.  When we did end up having the opportunity to ride, I just couldn't imagine getting on the (dirty looking) saddles and blankets (especially in light of beetle incident above) in a dress, so I had to decline.  But I am so glad I didn't ride because watching Colin wobbling around on the camel's back was one of the funniest things EVER!  He was not what you'd call a "natural" at camel riding.

Looking confident at first

Off he goes, wobbling along into the desert!!

Toward the end of the ride, he looked a bit more comfortable... hamming it up as usual.

Note the we stand no where near his head.  Actually, I think the camel owner is holding its neck so it wouldn't turn and bite us.  They are such ornery animals - nothing like sweet Santos in Heinsberg.  :)

This gorgeous reservoir sits like an oasis at the edge of the mountains, and is only minutes from the vast desert in the last pic below.

We stopped here for some water and to enjoy the beautiful view.

We finished the tour in this desert area - sand and brown as far as the eye could see.  It was so cool to see the contrasts of the land in Morocco- from mountains to lake to desert.  Now we are determined to return to Africa again!

All Aboard the Marrakech Express! Part I of our Adventures in Morocco...

Colin and I have been travelling pretty non-stop this summer, but I think we'd both say that our trip to Marrakech, Morocco was a total highlight.  Like Istanbul, Marrakech was one of our "must-do-ASAP's" for our stay in Europe.  And, after seeing being surrounded by the quiet civil German towns and countryside and the rainy weather all spring, we were really craving something different.  

Different it was, to say the least.  They call Marrakesh the "Red City", and it is easy to see why.  Most all the buildings are made of bright terracotta-colored stucco, and form chaotic and skinny streets that seem to somehow lead, one way or another, to the bustling souks selling rugs, leather, jewelry, slippers, spices and more.  I read somewhere that there are nearly 2 miles of secret passageways in the Medina (the old town), and could see right away how this is true.  Its ridiculously easy to get lost!  The main square of the Medina, Jemaa el Fna, is a hub of craziness - with snake charmers, monkeys, story-tellers, water-sellers, women trying to paint your skin with henna tatoos and young boys trying to lead you through the souks.

Old City Walls and Gate surrounding the Medina

Walking the narrow passage to our Riad

While the Dutch have their clogs, the Morrocans have their slippers... TONS of them in beautiful colors!

One of the crazy things we saw in Marrakech - a horse carrying a ton of furniture walking a roundabout with other traffic.

ah yes... the leather was beautiful!

These triangle shaped cooking dishes are what you use to make a Moroccan tajine.

My international bracelet collection had some growth after a visit to the souks.

I could have wandered the souks for hours... but this guy had had enough after being a good sport for a while!

more slippers...

Standing in front of the Katoubia Mosque, built in the 12th Century

On our first night, I wanted to just snap photos at the craziness of the Jemaa el Fna, but the second we showed any interest in something and stopped walking, we were surrounded by so many people trying to get our attention we had to just walk away.  Colin felt a tap on his shoulder as we were turning to get away from the crowd, and he looked back to see he was face to face with a monkey!  The monkey was reaching out to Colin from the arms of his owner and tapping him to get our attention.  Colin doesn't love Moroccan monkeys that much, so he was not exactly as keen on the Jemaa el Fna as I was... until I saw the snakes, that is...

 

I had to catch a photo of the monkey as they were walking away so we didn't have any too-close encounters...

 I used as much zoom on our camera lens as possible to get this pic!

We were so relieved that our accommodations provided a sanctuary from the chaos of the Medina.  We stayed in a gorgeous riad run by a French woman - it was perfect because she knew all the preferences of a European/American tourist, while still being able to have a Moroccan experience.  We ate all our meals by the pool since the food there was absolutely delicious and we wanted to avoid the craziness of the touristy areas outside our riad. 

The rooftop terrace had a great view of the other riads and homes compacted together in the Medina.

We loved this trip because we made it less of a sightseeing adventure, and more of just an experience.  While we did see the old city walls and tour the Majorelle Gardens, we also just enjoyed the experiences of staying in a riad and learning to cook Moroccan cuisine in a cooking class.  We had a fantastic time in the cooking class, hanging out with a hilarious British family while learning how to make a Chicken Lemon Tajine.

Majorelle Gardens

My family will be pleased to see we played a favorite Cassidy family game at the Majorelle Gardens - "Name that Plant!" All you have to do is pick a plant, imitate it, and the other people have to guess what plant you are mimicking. This is something we came up with after years of touring various gardens together on family road trips....  Colin at first resisted (understandably), but then found that he was actually quite good at it!  ; ) We had a good laugh.

The next set of pics are from our awesome cooking class.  We made two salads (one hot, one cold), freshly made bread, and a chicken dish made in a Moroccan tajine.  It all tasted so good!  We also had a pop quiz on the spices in which we had to close our eyes, smell, and guess which spices we were working with.  This was so that in the future our sense of smell would know one spice from another.  It was actually incredibly informative for this novice chef!

As you can imagine, Colin always had a front row view...

He also pleased our cooking teacher Michel by not wasting any of the bread dough by creating mini pancakes...

Our fellow students - we had so much fun together that we all exchanged contact info with the Brits!

 Part II up next!