Nov 15-21: Morocco

November 15, 2017

Mick fell in love with Morocco from the moment we landed. Wait, make that about ½ hour before we landed when Mick joined the AirPortugal captain and copilot in the cockpit and stayed there until we got to our gate. Wait, what???? Apparently Mick’s smile charmed one of the flight attendants when we boarded, so she came to our seats and visited us several times throughout the flight, asking all kinds of questions about our trip. One of these times, she asked Mick if he’d like to visit the cockpit. First, she took him up mid-flight to meet the captain and co-pilot and then he went back up later for our landing. When we met up with him when disembarking, that charming smile of his stretched from ear to ear.

The Fez airport is small, like Oakland used to be, so it was easy to find our guide, Ilyass (eel-yuss), a handsome, 27-year-old, recently engaged, native of Fez or Fezee, with a smile that rivals Mick’s. His warm, easy-going style, frequent laughter (finally, a new audience for Jeff), and incredible knowledge of Morocco endeared us to him immediately. When Mick introduced himself as Mick, with an M, like Mickey, Ilyass said that Mekki (MEH-kee) is a common name in Morocco, meaning “from Mecca” in Arabic. So, for a week, our son was Mekki and he and Ilyass became the best of buddies. Ilyass also jokingly called Jeff Alibaba and me, Fatima. It was nearing dark when we got to our riad, Dar al Medina al Kadima in the medina (walled-in old city within an imperial city – Fes, Marrakesh, Meknes, and Rabat). The word riad means garden, but today the word refers to an old home, typically in a medina, with an enclosed garden, accessed by a single door on the street. (More on riads and dars here .)  Ilyas introduced us to Mohamed and Said (below), who indulged us with their warmth, kindness, and generosity during our short stay. After getting our bags up to our room, we had some mint tea and cookies while Ilyass went over our itinerary before leaving us for the night. Dinner was also served downstairs in the courtyard – olives, various small salads/side dishes, a kind of flat bread resembling large English muffins, and the first of many tagines.

November 16, 2017
We woke up to beautiful a beautiful blue sky and a lovely breakfast served by Said on the rooftop terrace.

After breakfast, we met Abdul Malik, who would be our guide for the day in the medina (which you need because there’s something like 9,000 narrow winding alleyways). Like Ilyass, Malik’s bright-eyed, warm personality, sense of humor, and big smile (not to mention the breadth of his knowledge) made him a joy to be around. Ilyass introduced Mick as Mekki and Malik found that hilarious – telling us about (and then finding YouTube videos of) a famous Moroccan “healer” named Torbi el Mekki, whose “healing” involves some weird body frisking that would be called sexual harassment if it didn’t really work!!!!! Check it out for a few  laughs.

The medina is a wow, a huge wow. As Jeff said, “Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” We felt like we’d fallen down the rabbit’s hole. The colors! The sounds! The smells! Everywhere you look people making, selling and buying stuff. Food, spices, produce, meat, clothing, jewelry, furnishings, literally everything (a cow head, live chickens, even hedgehogs- apparently great for those with diabetes).

One moment you’re in an alley jam-packed with vendors and their stalls and then you’re in another alley with children playing. It’s down these, quieter alleys, that you can find the unassuming entrances (no windows to the street) to multi-story dars, beautifully decorated and stocked with handcrafted products.

We saw demonstrations by a metal worker, a rug-maker, and a scarf maker in three such buildings – everything done painstakingly by hand (but, for you, at a “very good price”).

The most interesting (but, pee-YEW!!) experience was our visit to Chouara Tannery to see the leather making process. At the start of our tour, we were each given a sprig of mint, which came in handy when we climbed up to the viewing porch to see the work in progress below.

Mick was advised to put a rolled up leaf into each nostril, but the tickling proved worse than the smell!The smell comes from vats of pigeon poop that the hides (which are first soaked in cow urine, yuk) soak in for softening (who figured this stuff out, I wonder?) before being moved to vats with natural dyes made from poppy flower (red), mint (green), saffron (yellow), indigo (blue), henna (orange), and cedar wood (brown).

We met up with Ilyass later in the afternoon so we could see the sunset on the medina from the ruins of the Merenid Tombs on the hilltop above.

Before heading back to our riad, we had a quick tour of a local zellige (pottery/mosiac)-maker and learned the intricacies of this art.

We had lots to discuss over dinner and, thankfully, the Dar Batha served wine (not so easy to find in Morocco).

November 17, 2017
After another big breakfast, Ilyass picked us up and we headed out for a full day of driving to and through the Middle Atlas Mountains on the way to the Southern Sahara.

We drove through cedar-topped mountains and saw many nomads’ tents and Berber villages, some in places that seemed too rugged or remote for subsistence.

Our favorite pit stop involved hanging out with some local macaque monkeys and laughing at their antics.

We stopped for lunch in Midelt and everyone except me ordered Ilyass’ favorite meal there – pan-fried trout. My bad. The few bites I did finagle were delicious.

More driving, more wide open, and beautiful scenery. So beautiful in fact, that in trying to capture it out the window, my phone went flying (at about 40mph)!!!! My hero, Ilyass, quickly stopped, pulled to the side of the road and backed up to the spot he thought was right and miraculously found the phone. It looked bad, but maybe fixable, and it seemed to still be working. Ilyass said, “No problem. I can fix it. If you leave it with me tonight, I’ll fix it.”  Jeff said flatly, “It’s toast,” and Mick tried to make me feel better by saying, “I think it’s going to be OK.”

Upon arrival in Erfoud, we switched from Ilyass and his car to another guide with a 4×4 who then took us to Merzouga. At the motel in Merzouga, we left everything but what we needed for our Saharan overnight and then climbed aboard our turbo-charged dromedaries (one-hump camel) for a two-hour trek to the oasis.

Having arrived in Merzouga a bit behind schedule and with no moon to speak of, I was a bit apprehensive about camel-ing in the the rapidly approaching darkness. My worries subsided after talking to our guide a bit. We asked him where he grew up and he quietly, but with pride said, “Right here.” We were like, here here? Yep. He is Berber and literally grew up on the edge of the Southern Sahara.

About an hour into our journey into the powdery red sand dunes with stunning, Mars-esque views, our guide asked if he might pause a moment to pray. He loosely tied the lead camel up to a thicket of desert grass (which he or she proceeded to eat), walked a few paces, got down on his knees facing Mecca, and prayed. Afterwards he humbly thanked us and Jeff said, “I like your church.” We all brought this up to one another afterwards. Maybe it was the setting, the “church,” as Jeff said, or the witnessing of our guide’s solemnity, but we all experienced something spiritual, a connectedness in a seemingly disconnected place.

We arrived shortly after dark and after getting our things put away in our tent, had some warm mint tea and peanuts before dinner – the best tagine yet. After dinner, we enjoyed the warmth of a bonfire (it was cold out there) and the singing and drumming of our Berber hosts, before heading to our tent. On a trip to the communal bathroom before going to sleep, I lucked out and saw a shooting star and I had a moment. I thought of a quote from The Little Prince about the stars that Mom loved and a conversation I had with my brother-in-law, Jim, about always being able to see him in the stars. Again, the connectedness.

November 18, 2017
The alarm we set for 6:00 a.m. to see the sunset from the dunes was not a welcome sound. Mick’s first words were, “I think I’m going to sit this one out,” but he rallied and we all headed out in the cold to climb the tallest dune around.

The superfine sand and the steep dune made the climb hard, but the reward at the top was well worth it. Sunrise in the Sahara (with Sting’s Tea in the Sahara in my mind since waking up). We were the only ones who made it to the top!

Meanwhile, back at the oasis….

Two hours after our camel-backed departure, we arrived at Merzouga where we were able to take a shower and grab some breakfast. After one last look at the Sahara, we hopped into the 4×4 for a really fun drive across the flat, barren and roadless desert back to Erfoud. I’ve forgotten this guide’s name, but as with all the guides affiliated with our tour company, he was quick to laugh and smile. In the car, he played some pretty good, foot-tapping music that we dubbed “Morrock ‘n’ roll.”

We hooked back up with Ilyass in Erfoud and yes… HE FIXED MY PHONE, even put on a  new screen protector!!!!

Erfoud is known for its fossils, as it was once under the sea, so we stopped at a place to see a demo of how they extract large pieces of stone and make beautiful, unique things.

We stopped at Majha Fezna to learn about the khattara – an underground irrigation system delivering water from the mountains to the lowland – from a man who lives on site. We also met his pregnant, and, he apologized, uncharacteristically ornery, camel, Aisha.

More driving, more beautiful scenery, and two gorgeous gorges – Todras and Dades.

We had lunch at a riad with amazing views and incredible rooms overlooking a river. And we made new friends, which is easy in Morocco.

We finished our day winding our way up into Dades Gorge for a spectacular view just before the sun set. The road has been featured in car commercials and movies and it’s easy to see why.

Our dar in Boulemane, Dar Jnan Tiouria, near Dades Gorge, was the best on the trip. The owner and his family designed it, built it, run it, cook for it, everything. It took them 12 years and they’re still working on it! They served all organic food, and were very conscientious about energy savings. They also provide a home for lots of FAT birds.

November 19, 2017

After a superb breakfast, Ilyass gave us the now familiar “Yalla!” (Let’s go!) and we headed out for another long day of driving with lots of interesting stops along the way.

Ouarzazate – the movie-making capital of Morocco

In Skoura, we rocked the kasbah, and learned what a kasbah actually is, with the help of a local guide.

Kasbah = fortified home, like castle, for one wealthy family.

We learned that the Amridil Kasbah was somewhat unusual because it has five towers rather than four. The fifth signified (showed off, really) an indoor toilet. Jeff & Mick are insisting here that I include a foot-in-mouth moment relating to said bathroom. When showing it to us and explaining how progressive it was for the time (looked like a hole in the ground to me), our guide asked if we noticed how it was situated in a particular way. My response: “Facing Mecca.” This was met with much laughter, and embarrassment on my part, as he was referring to the angle of the floor, making it ideal for squatting. What, you can’t pray when you- …? OK, OK.

The bottom two floors of a kasbah are dark and cool – for storage of grain and for keeping animals. The next floor is for cooking – with a large oven for baking, a smaller oven for making naan-like break, and another for steaming cous cous. Cous cous was, and is, eaten together by family on special nights – Friday and Sunday. Higher levels had more light and the living area was open to the sky, so women could feel they were outside, yet protected.

Ksar Ait Benhaddou, our next stop, is a fortified village or “ksar”  in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains, once a significant stop for traders carrying gold, salt and slaves along the caravan route between Sahara and Marrakesh, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today it’s known more for providing the set for many famous films – Lawrence of Arabia, Indiana Jones, Gladiator, Game of Thrones, The Mummy, to name just a few.

We visited a home where the cave/prison scene from Gladiator was filmed and met the charming woman who lives (and works hard) there. (I’m guessing her husband was somewhere having mint tea with some of his Berber buddies.) We were awed by the primitive existence.

Back to the car as we head toward the High Atlas Mountains.

On our way down from the mountains, we made a pit stop to learn abut the arduous process of extracting oil from argan trees to make Moroccan argan oil (no wonder it’s so $$$).

When we finally arrived in Marrakesh, it was dark, but our riad was warm, cozy, and strewn with roses! Tired from another long day of driving and learning, and feeling not-quite-right intestinally speaking, we were early to bed.

November 20, 2017

Today we spent the day in the medina of Marrakesh, but compared to the medina in Fez, this is like NYC vs. Who-ville –  donkeys, old Mercedes taxis, new Dacia taxis, pedestrians, tuk tuks, bicycles – seemingly everywhere and all at once. We spent the day with Mohamed, who gave us a great tour of the medina and taught us a lot. Mohamed and his family are Tuareg Berbers, who came to Morocco from Mali.

First Mohamed gave us a “brief” history of the Koutoubia Mosque, including that of its sister-mosque in Seville (where we will be in one day!), which was transformed into what is now Seville Cathedral’s bell tower, Giralda, after the Spanish conquistadors ousted the Moors from Andalucia in 1248.

Next stop was the lovely Bahia Palace, an almost 20-acre estate which was oiginally built by Si Moussa in 1866-67, a former slave who climbed the ranks to be the Grand Vizier of the Sultan. Si Moussa’s son, Bou Ahmed, extended the palace during his reign from 1894 to 1900. The palace had many places for Bou Ahmed to entertain guests and it was home for him and his four wives and many concubines. The wives’ rooms were lavishly decorated as they weren’t allowed outside the palace.

Each room has a different kind of star, indicative of the guests to be received there.

Next we visited the opulent Saadi Tomb complex. Sultan al-Ghalib Abdullah constructed the first tomb, near the Kasbah Mosque, to contain the body of his father and the founder of the Saadian empire, Mohammed ash-Sheikh, who died in 1557. Sultan Ahmed el Mansour, the 5th and final Saadian ruler, constructed a complex around the original tomb and spared no expense. People who the sultan held in greater esteem were buried closer to the heart of the complex, with others buried throughout the extensive gardens.

 

Needing a break from education, we strolled through the myriad souks.

We visited a natural “pharmacy” where we were shown everything from tea to makeup.

Jardin Majorelle, originally opened by French artist Jacques Majorelle in 1923, was purchased by two of its favorite patrons, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé in 1980 to save it from development (the two are both now buried there). It was a nice break from the busyness of the medina.

After a brief rest at our riad, we headed to see Jemaa el-Fnaa after dark. Just when we thought we’d seen it all, this was like nothing else. Crazy!! Countless food booths, carnival-like games, snake charmers, music, dancers, acrobats, magic shows – you name it and it’s going on here. Maybe we’re old, but we lasted about 1/2 hour. You even take out your camera and someone comes over with their donation receptacle, insisting on payment. Glance at some food and “You look starving, let me help you.”

From here we drove out of town for what Ilyass had described as a horse show. In the middle of nowhere, we enter what is sort of like a Moroccan theme park, complete with Moroccan singing and dancing, and restaurants encircling an outdoor horse arena.

We had some of Ilyass’ favorite kababs and were full when an enormous silver tagine arrived, revealing a XXL mound of cous cous, chicken and vegetables. While delicious, given our stomach situation, we barely ate any.

The horse show, Fantasia (not at all like the Disney version), was not anything we expected. There was some stunt riding on Arabian horses done by individual riders, then a belly dancing performance, and finally a group ride that basically entailed a group of riders on Berber horses coming straight at us and firing guns in the air before stopping abruptly. While Ilyass had warned us, we still jumped out of our seats each time! The best part, for me, was having some horse-petting time after the show, a great ending for a great day and trip.

Saying goodbye to Ilyass was not easy. After a week on the road with him, asking him endless questions – from Moroccan history to the details of his 2018 wedding – and really getting to know him, and him us, we weren’t just saying goodbye to a guide, but a friend, too. So, as I like to do, we said, “See you soon,” and at the same time, we all said, “Inshallah,” literally meaning God-willing, but seemingly used more like, “I hope so.” If you’re reading this Ilyass, you know we’ll be ready and waiting for you and Sarah to visit whenever you’re ready and able.

A word on Islam. I’ve had a long-time fascination with all religions –  their origins, the roles they’ve played in history; their traditions, beliefs, values, rituals; how we adopt one or the other; how and why they motivate people and the politics they all try to stay out of, but cannot. Islam is no exception. Like all religions, there are by-the-book Muslims and “cafeteria style” Muslims, the kind of Catholic I was until finally opting to just cook for myself! Perhaps because it’s the thing I asked the most questions about, I learned more about Islam on this trip than anything else. Its history and the intricacies of its practice are fascinating. There is an incredible amount of dedication involved in the rituals of Islam, but as Abdul Malik said, being a good Muslim only really requires two things – protecting others from verbal harm and protecting them from physical harm. I thought that description was lovely and it made me feel sad about the misconceptions so many have about this particular faith. When I brought this up with Ilyass, he explained it this way: There are Muslims and there are Islamists. Moroccans are Muslims, the kind Abdul Malik described. My hope is that the world makes a distinction between the two and treats each accordingly.

Pictures I Love

Cats and kittens everywhere…

Colors that look good on everyone…