Category: Morocco

Tomorrow we are reentering the Euro zone so our goal for today was to spend most of our Dhirams on gifts for ourselves and friends. After a lazy morning we headed down the path to the center of Chefchaouen.

In addition to being a beautiful city, Chefchaouen is full of cute cats. Today Ton focused on some of the cats as well as the scenes in the town.

Our tactic was to make one pass thru the market to scope out what we were going to buy, head for lunch to discuss what we should buy, and then after being well fortified by food head out to get the goods.

In the end we successfully spent our Dhirams at a couple of merchants. At this point Ton was beginning to get the hang of bartering so we felt better about the prices we paid here than what we paid in Fez or Marrakech.

We headed over to the Taxi stand with a couple of big bags of clothes. I even got into the hang of things when the Taxi driver quoted us 30 Dhiram’s for the ride up the hill, I countered with 20, and he insisted on 30 so I walked away, when I was a few feet from the cab I heard him say ok 20, a small victory.

We returned to the campground just as about 15 Land Rovers with Netherlands plates had arrived. The campground has gotten a little more crowded each night we have been here. It was a little chaoctic they managed to fit them all in.

We are going to return to Spain on Monday so Chefcaouen is going to be our last stop in Morocco, but it is a good place. We spent most of the morning talking with our Irish neighbors about traveling and life. I’m afraid we may have contributed to their very late departure for Fez.

I raved about the beauty of Chefchaouen yesterday. And today it was just as beautiful. On top of that we have had some of our favorite meals in all of Morocco here. Alas, if they had good wine or beer, it would be a perfect city for us.

We spent the afternoon re-exploring the town. Once again we just enjoyed walking thru the town and seeing what was around the next corner.

Ton had picked a restaurant for lunch and when we got there it looked familiar. We had taken a coffee break there yesterday. Once again the food was outstanding and we were able to try some different dishes that we had not experienced before.

After lunch another turn around town was in order to burn off some of our lunch. For the first time we wandered into the new town to the central market. Unfortunately we were a little late and things were winding down.

Once again the climb back to the camp is a chore so we are opting for a taxi. The ride is only 20 Dhiram, and if I was a better bargainer it might be cheaper. But given the climb it is worth every Dhiram. The problem is we didn’t have any change or small bills.

So we headed back to Bilmos for a desert called a ZigZog, which is mixed fruit with cream and avocado blended together. They were happy to see us back for a third time, and when we left one of the boys shouted see you tomorrow.

With change in hand we headed over to the very busy taxi stand near the old fort. The place is a zoo with vans and taxis swooping in to deposit and retrieve tourists, and the occasional Moroccan. The place is well supervised by 3 Moroccan cops who start blowing their whistles at anyone who lingers beyond the time they think it should take it to exit or enter the van.

We returned to the campground just in time to watch a parade of 9 huge expeditionary vehicles arrive. We stood with our German neighbors and watched as these behemoths settled themselves into place in the campground before calling it a night.

Chefchaouen is known as the blue city in Morocco and is a must see stop on any tour of Morocco. It is not a large city, but based on Tons reaction it is the most beautiful city in Morocco.

Each day when we return to François, Ton spends a great deal of time reviewing the pictures she took for the day. She is very thorough in her reviews and picky about the pictures she sends me to include in the blog. Most days she spends more time picking the pictures than I do writing the blog.

I can tell how much she liked a place by how many pictures she sends me. Today I received over 40 pictures, which means she enjoyed herself. Chefchaouen is a special place.

There are several stories about why the city became blue, one is that the Jews who arrived after they were expelled from Spain in the 1600’s painted their quarter of the town blue to distinguish it from the moslem sections, and eventually the entire town adopted it. The most common story is that the residents painted the walls blue because they believed it kept flys and mosquitos away.

The least romantic story is that the city administration ordered that all of the walls in the city be painted blue in the 1970’s to attract tourism. Whichever story you believe the effect is fantastic. A nice but not historically important or architecturally interesting city has been transformed into a magical place.

The residents of the city have taken the concept and enhanced it by tastefully decorating the walls with art, and displaying their wares for sale to enhance the color. It is not just that the walls are painted blue, but that around every corner is another delight for the eyes based on what is being sold.

The town was busy, but not overwhelming which is always a plus for us. It is fun to people watch when there are not too many people to watch.

The atmosphere was decidedly more laid back than Fez or Marrakech. While we had a few people approach us to try to sell us something, they backed off immediately when you told them no thanks. So there was no pressure.

The other interesting thing was that Spanish was the European language used by the locals instead of French. From 1920 to 1956 Morocco was split between the French and the Spanish. This part of Morocco was Spanish so the non-Arabic names for places were generally Spanish and the roads were Calle instead of Rue.

Chefchaouen is a relatively new city as it was established in 1471 by a mix of Berbers and the first wave of Moors who had been expelled by Spain. It was set up as a fortress to protect the interior of Morocco during a war with Portugal.

After spending a couple of hours walking around town we decided it was time to eat. Ton made me pick a place to eat from a list of 11 restaurants. The place that looked most interesting to me specialized in Tangines, so I was a little reluctant to suggest it. Our experience with Tangines has been underwhelming. None of them have been bad, but all but one of them has been mediocre.

But Sofia restaurant turned the tide. Tons Lemon Chicken Tangine was delicious, and since it was Friday I ordered the Lamb CousCous which was also delicious. Soria has won us over to what a good Tangine can be like.

After the meal we decided to take a taxi back to the campground. The campground is close to the center horizontally, but it about 500 feet above the town vertically. There is a staircase down the hill which we walked down in the morning, but we decided we would spend the 20 dirham for a taxi to go back. It was $2 well spent.

Today was all about driving. We have relocated to a beautiful mountain town in the Rif Mountains called Chefchaouen. The total drive was about 200 kilometers but it took over 4 hours to accomplish.

Ton really enjoyed the day as the views were ever-changing and often spectacular. I had a little different view of the drive as I was focused on the road about 50 yards in front of François, or the rear of the vehicle in front of us.

The majority of the drive was on the N-13. Our experience with N roads has been good. They are often up to the standards we are used to in the US or Europe. But the N-13 going north from Fez hasn’t been brought up to that standard.

Except for a 20 kilometer stretch where the road was extremely deteriorated, the road was ok, but there were enough pot holes or places where the road bed was failing causing the asphalt to appear to be sliding with a groove in it to grab your tire, to keep you on full alert for the drive.

I was mostly driving at about 60 kph so I had time to react to the road. Which means I also had to watch for traffic coming up behind as Moroccans pass very aggressively (sometimes suicidally). Plus there is a wide variety of vehicles on the roads including bicycles, scooters, a three wheeled motorcycle called Docker, old trucks grinding along at 20 kph, donkey drawn carriages, and just donkeys with someone riding on it. It is an entertaining assortment of characters using the road.

The Park4Night report for this campground had a very explicit warning to avoid the center of the city as it was a very difficult place to drive. So of course we ended up in the center of the city, and they are right it is a very difficult place to drive, especially on market days like today. To prove the difficulty I missed the turn to the campground the first time and the only recovery was to repeat the drive thru the center of the town. It was just as much fun the second time.

In the end we made it here fine, once we were settled in, I pulled out a chair and sat looking down on the town and enjoyed a coffee. Part of the fun of these “adventures” are days like today. Tomorrow we will look at the city.

Our friends Fred and Denise Cook told us not to miss Volubilis. Volubilis was originally a Berber city founder around 300 bc. It was subsequently ruled by the Phoenicians and Carthaginians. In the first century AD it was conquered by the Romans and developed to Roman standards.

It fell to the local Berber tribes around 285 BC and was not reconquered by the Romans. About 850 AD it was pretty much abandoned. The city stood largely intact until the 17th century when a major earthquake destroyed a large part of the city.

After the earthquake a lot of the stones were used for the construction of the nearby city of Meknes. During the French occupation of Morocco archaeological digs began in the area and some reconstruction was done.

It is famous for several well preserved mosaic floors throughout the city. These are extensive and while the colors are fading as they are exposed to the sun they are still beautiful.

It is nice to be able to approach these mosaics up close, but Ton and I were wondering if more effort should be made towards protecting them from the elements so the colors don’t continue to fade. Also several of the mosaics were covered in dirt that had blown in from the surrounding fields.

Visible from Volubilis is the white city of Moulay Idriss Zerhouan. It is an important pilgrimage site for moslems as it is the first city that adopted Islam. The mausoleum of the first Islamic ruler of Morocco Idris I is located there. He was assassinated in Volubilis by order of the Sultan of Baghdad.

As we have travelled around Europe, and North Africa we have visited a lot of Roman sites. Ton asked my favorite so far and it was easy for me. I liked Agrigento in Sicily. She also favored Agrigento. Partly because it is not just a Roman site, but also has Greek ruins in it. We may be biased because the day we went there we almost had it to ourselves. Pompei is another incredible Roman site, but it was so full of people it was difficult to enjoy.

Volubilis was never a major city in any of the empires it existed in. It was always a kind of provincial town under the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Berbers, Romans, and Moroccans and was abandoned as a settlement by 850 AD. But the ruins today gave us an appreciation of how people lived in the past.

We decided to move on from Fez. On the way over the mountains we had passed thru a town that caught our attention. It had another Royal Palace, but what struck us were the tree lined streets and Alpine buildings. While we were driving Ton discovered the town was Ifrane.

Since it was not that far we decided to double back and check it out. There were no campgrounds in the town but about 20 kilometers further there were a couple of campgrounds near a town called Azrou so after a stop at a grocery to restock our depleted pantries were off.

Ifrane was originally founded during the French occupation of Morocco as a place that the Europeans could flee to during the hot Moroccan summers. They brought in trees from France and built buildings that reminded them of home.

We arrived to a very pretty, but also very quiet Ifrane about noon. We parked François in an empty parking lot near the city center and headed in. The streets are wide and beautiful but also empty. Ifrane is now a resort for the rich and beautiful people in Morocco and even has a ski resort in the winter. But after taking picture of the famous sculpture near the center of town we were bored, as none of the rich and beautiful were around, just a few other foreign tourists.

So we headed towards our campground. As we were driving Ton read up about Azrou. What she read peaked our interest so before we set up we headed into Azrou.

The campground told us that there was a place we could park by the big Mosque, and that we could not miss it. We were also lucky because today was market day so there was a lot of stuff to see.

As we pulled up to the Mosque we were caught up in a traffic jam as a funeral procession was just leaving. The hearse was driving away at walking pace as the friends and family walked beside it touching the side of the hearse.

As we were waiting for the traffic to clear from the funeral Ton spotted a couple of restaurants she wanted to go back and check out. So after parking François and paying the guardian of the parking lot, (almost every parking lot has a guardian who you pay to watch your car) we headed into the market.

We headed to the restaurants across from the Mosque and selected one. Ton had grilled fish, and I had skewers of beef. They were both excellent, Ton was delighted and proclaimed it the best meal in Morocco, and one of the cheapest.

She was so happy that she ordered a rotissery chicken meal to go for a later meal. When we checked into the campground we were the only ones, but when we returned the French couple who parked next to us in Fez had turned up, and a German couple we have chatted with in Mohammedia and Marrakech were also there. As far as camping goes Morocco is a small world.

Today we tackled Fez on our own and had a much better day. There were two main sites we had not seen on Saturday so we had the taxi drop us off at the Kings Palace.

The kings palace is still a royal palace and not open to the public. The walls are massive and covers almost 200 acres in the center of Fez. It is surrounded by high walls and has 7 gates to enter the compound. Apparently which gate you are allowed to enter by tells you how important you are to the royal family.

Next to the main entrance to the palace is the Mellah which is the old Jewish quarter. Jews have been a significant minority in Morocco up to recent times. In 1950 there were 250,000 Moroccan Jews. The community had been a prominent part of Morocco back to the 3rd century AD. In general throughout history they were segregated in Mellahs in large cities, or in their own villages in the countryside.

The Mellah in Fez is from the 19th century as a large fire destroyed the old Mellah. The new Mellah was established adjacent to the royal palace to give protection to the community. Unfortunately the longstanding community has dwindled to about 1000 people today due to emigration to Israel, North America, and Europe.

After the Mellah we headed down the hill to the Medina for another walk thru. We had not entered thru the main gate of the Medina on Saturday so it was our first stop.

Our first experience in the Medina had not been great so we were looking forward to doing it on our own. We dived in and it was much less crowded on Saturday because while the tourists were out in force, most of the locals are at work today.

We enjoyed a nice stroll thru the souks of the Medina with only one purchase in mind, a tube of superglue to make a repair on François. Google maps works well in the Medina, though you have to trust that the dark 4 foot wide alley it is telling you to turn down is the road it means.

Otherwise it was people watching and lunch on the agenda. Ton tempted me to a Moroccan/western fusion restaurant. I always feel guilty eating hamburgers outside the US, but this time the burger was made from camel meat so it was guilt free. By the way camel meat tastes like beef.

We were half seriously looking for a water clock that is difficult to find. We can attest to the fact that it is difficult to find as we did not succeed in finding it.

We didn’t realize that the Medina was built on a pretty considerable hill until we turned around and started walking back to the gate. It turns out we had a pretty good climb going back.

The day had gone well but it ended on a sour note when we stopped to buy a coffee from a street vendor. We have been in Morocco long enough to know coffee is 15 to 20 Dirham. So I didn’t ask the price before drinking it. When I went to pay the guy wanted 40 per cup. I was unhappy, he could tell, but he stuck with the price when I asked again. I was in a bad position because I hadn’t confirmed the price before taking the coffee so I had no leverage except anger, and to be truthful I was just tired of the place so I paid up. The difference is about $2 per cup from what it should be and that doesn’t bother me, it is the disrespect to rip us off like that with a straight face that does. So once again Fez has left a bad taste in our mouth. The coffee was mediocre also.

Following up on yesterdays blog, before we went to bed and before she read the blog, Ton said-“I am done with guides”. She read the blog while I was asleep and agrees with what I said yesterday. Some people may enjoy the shopping experience here, but it definitely is not for us. The negotiations and the pressure of bargaining is a chore. We walk away from every transaction feeling like we lost somehow. Fortunately, at this point we are done purchasing anything so we can relax and enjoy Morocco.

We took today off to try to shake our colds. We both relaxed and worked on recovery.

First impressions are a funny thing. I was really looking forward to Fez. I was prepared to have it be the highlight of our Moroccan trip. But, I was underwhelmed.

The Medina of Fez is the largest non-motorized urban area in the world. There are over 9000 roads/alleys in the Medina. Unlike Marrakesh it does not allow any motorized vehicles inside it.

The Medina of Fez is a UNESCO world heritage site, and it is an impressive place. There are an astonishing number of alleys and narrow roads to follow. But for some reason I liked the energy of Marrakesh better.

We were told that we needed a guide to cope with the souks in the Medina, and that it was too overwhelming to tackle on our own. We told him we had been in the country for a couple of weeks and had already visited some souks and bought souvenirs for home. But despite our telling the guide we were interested in history and the story of the city, we kept getting guided into shops for things we had already bought or were not interested in.

In each shop we were put under a mild to moderate degree of pressure to buy something. We had the option to walk out, but it took effort to get out without purchasing something.

We did visit two interesting museums, one was a former Madras for the university in the medina. It was a beautiful and interesting building, the other was a former souk for the camel caravans that came into town, a place that the merchants from the caravans would stay and sell their goods.

In these buildings he gave us a cursory explanation of the building and its history and then told us he would meet us in the lobby after 20 minutes. This is where we wanted him to spend his time with us.

Fez has the oldest continuous operating university in the world in the Medina dating to the 1100’s, and interestingly in this male dominated culture it was founded by a woman. As non-moslems we are not permitted to enter it as it is also considered to be a mosque, but we were able to peak in at a couple of points.

We were also taken to see the tannery which was much more impressive than the one in Marrakesh. But on the whole I preferred the souk in Marrakesh as wild and crazy as it was to the one in Fez.

Ton and I are both fighting some kind of virus, so that may have also contributed to my bad day in Fez. We are going to spend a couple of more days here after taking tomorrow off for a day of rest, so hopefully Fez will redeem itself.

I am going to have Ton read this later, and I will ask her to comment on it tomorrow. But my feeling is that while we probably would have got lost-and may even had to pay someone to get us to our pickup point at the end of the day. I think we would have enjoyed our visit to Fez today more on our own with google maps than with our guide as we would have been focused on the things we wanted to see.

The 280 kilometer drive today took over 5 hours. The roads were generally good, but we drove through the middle Atlas Mountains and they are a wide and tall mountain range. Unlike the road thru the high Atlas there were no passing lanes for slow traffic so we would come upon a truck struggling up a 6% grade in second gear. There is a lot of road construction work going on which also slowed us down a bit.

Ton and I are both battling colds so while I drove Ton slept, and as soon as we arrived I took a nap. We have arrived in a very posh and full campground in Fez. We are hopping an early nights sleep will get us ready for a big day in Fez tomorrow.

We were in the Sahara for dawn again this morning. It was another beautiful sunrise, and Ton was very happy running along the dunes with her phone. I enjoy watching her when she is focused on taking pictures.

The photography session lasted for about 45 minutes and then we headed into the dining tent for a hearty breakfast. The highlight was a Berber omelet consisting of eggs and tomatoes prepared in a tangine. We enjoyed this tangine.

After about an hour Youssef our Land Cruiser driver loaded us up and delivered us back to the campground in town. We packed up and headed for a camp site in the mid-Atlas Mountains I estimated was about 3 hours away.

After an uneventful drive we arrived at our spectacular campground in a canyon carved by the Ziz river It is a really beautiful site but the photographer needs to rest so pictures will have to come later.

We headed out into the Sahara for sunrise. That statement feels like it should be followed with something more dramatic, than Ton took pictures and I walked along with her while she did it. So no drama.

We spent about an hour walking around on the edge of the desert. Even here the dunes are really impressive. Merzouga is the place that most of the tourists go to experience Morocco so it was pretty busy in the morning- caravans of tourists on camels, Land Cruisers, and quads went buzzing or sauntering out into the desert.

After a very enjoyable morning walk we headed back to François for the day. Tonight we are going to join the other tourists for the Sahara camping experience so we had the day to kill until our pick up at 5 pm.

Ton and I have been fighting a stomach thing, that wasn’t bad, but wasn’t good. We both seem to have gotten over it, but now Ton is coming down with a cold so we spent the afternoon lying in a cabana by the pool of the campground/hotel streaming movies.

We had the option of a two hour camel ride to our tents, or a Land Cruiser ride with a couple of stops en route. Everyone we have met says camel rides are fun for 15 minutes and then become an endurance test, so we went with the Land Cruiser.

Since it only takes a Land Cruiser about 15 minutes to cover the distance to the camp site we made a couple of cultural stops on the way. The first was for a dance and musical group made up of Sudanese who have migrated here over time.

The Sudanese have their own village near Merzouga and have set up a small concert hall in their community building. The songs were interesting and the fellow who played the one string guitar was quite good.

We then stopped at a Bedouin encampment. The Bedouin are a nomadic people and a significant number are trying to maintain their traditional lifestyle. The encampment was much more spartan than I imagined it would be. While we were there we only saw two women who were looking after the camp. Our guide invited us to enter one of the tents but it felt a bit weird as it was someones home and they weren’t there.

We arrived at our camp site which consisted of 10 semi-permanent tents with showers, toilets and electricity so it was very much glamping. We shared the camp with two Spanish couples from Catalonia who were very nice and fun to be with.

Sunset was nice, and we had a Tangine dinner. Ton and I were saying to each other that Tangines are nice, but after a while they get a little boring. The Spanish heard us and laughed and said they were saying the same thing in Catalan. Then one of the ladies said she really missed wine with dinner.

There was supposed to be music and dancing after dinner, but by the time dinner and our after dinner coffee was done it was 10:30 pm and I could feel Tons cold coming on, so we made our excuses and turned in for the evening.

We were up at the crack of dawn, which isn’t that much of a chore as it is at 7:10 am, but nevertheless. We wanted to visit Ait Ben-Hadou about 40 kilometers from the campground.

Ait Ben-Hadou is a famous Ksar which were fortified towns along the camel caravan routes between central Africa and Marrakech. The construction is of adobe and the interconnected buildings wind up a hill.

We wanted to arrive early as Ait Ben-Hadou is the most famous of these towns and thus one of the most visited. It has been featured in many movies and TV shows including Gladiator and Game of Thrones and is a UNESCO site. Which also accounts for its popularity.

We were there before the crowds, one coach load of German and one van load of Chinese tourists where the only ones in the town besides us, so Ton could get some nice shots.

It is not a large place so we were able to walk it from top to bottom in around 90 minutes. It would have been a good place for a tea or even a meal but we are being cautious with our stomachs for another day.

It was about 10 am when we arrived back at François only to see several hundred people arriving in vans and busses so we were happy we had arrived around 8am. After some discussion about whether to go back to Ouarzazate and tour a movie studio, or move on, we decided to move on.

Google told us it was 368 kilometers to Merzouga so I told Ton it would be a longish drive but doable. The roads in Morocco have been as good as Europe and each time I thought we would hit a roughish road we instead found a well paved multi-lane highway.

Today we found the roads we had been expecting all along so it took us about 6 hours to cover the 368 kilometers. It’s not that the roads were bad, they were generally good, just narrower and a little rougher pavement than the other roads. So instead of averaging 80 kilometers per hour we averaged around 60 kilometers per hour.

A long section of the road followed the old camel caravan route so there was a fairly substantial town every 20 to 40 kilometers with a lot of desert in between. We saw a lot of adobe homes deteriorating as more modern buildings using block and stucco are being built in their place.

While the drive was fun I did have to pay a lot of attention to the road surface. After about 4 hours I was wishing we had picked a half way point, and we did see several places where it looked like we could have parked up. But the Sahara was calling us so we pushed on.

We arrived at Merzouga about 4 pm. As you drive into the town you see huge dunes of the Sahara just behind the town, and at that point I didn’t regret our decision to push on.

We crossed over the High Atlas mountains today. We have become friends with two British couples over the last week. They did a night in the desert with Bedouins trip that is on every agenda for Morocco. Ton and I have been debating whether to do one the entire time, after their debrief of the camel ride and the desert tent experience the debate is over- we will not be doing a night in the desert.

They also described the drive over the Atlas to get to the safari site as hair raising. They said their guide was reckless and the road was very twisty and steep. So we were a little concerned when we set off in François this morning.

The Atlas are a large mountain chain that separates coastal Morocco from the Sahara. But it turns out the road is very well built, and while the climb is steep and there are a great many switchbacks to get up the steep mountains it was not nearly as stressful as I expected. In a couple of spots major repair work was being done where landslides from the earthquake two years ago had wiped out the road.

We did see a lot of motorcycles coming down from the peak as the R-9 is on the bucket list for a lot of motorcyclists. In the end we enjoyed the drive and the views, and François handled the climb like a champ, though we did spend a lot of time in 3rd and 4th gear.

We ended the day in Ouarzazate which bills itself as the Hollywood of Africa. There are two film studios here that specialize in supporting movies filmed in the desert.

We settled in and after a very short discussion decided to take the afternoon off. We both have been battling a stomach bug that is causing us mild but not debilitating discomfort, so a break seemed in order and besides the movie studios Ouarzazate doesn’t appear to have much to offer.

Our visit to Essaouira began with a stop at a grocery store, and most importantly our first visit to a Moroccan liquor store. Alcohol consumption is not illegal, but it cannot be sold within 150 meters of a Mosque, and purchases for home consumption are through government run liquor stores. Alcohol of all kinds is much more expensive than anywhere in Europe we have visited.

Essaouira has a great deal, all taxis in the city have a fixed price of 8 dirham (a little less than a dollar) within the city limits. So we left François in the parking lot and flagged down a cab to the Medina.

Essaouira has been a haven for European free spirits since the 1970’s. There are a great deal of French retirees in the area so the food is a mixture of French and Moroccan cuisine. It also has a vibrant art scene with a number of galleries.

The souk areas are nice and much more laid back than Marrakech. Ton did a bunch of window shopping, but in the end we didn’t buy anything. Maybe the high pressure technique used in Marrakech is more effective in closing sales.

We walked down to the fortress walls which were originally built by the Portuguese who founded the city. They were impressive and had a great collection of antique cannons in place.

Essaouira is a great seaside town, and we can see the attraction for wandering souls. As it is both exotic and solid. It was for us the most “European” feeling of the towns we have visited here, but it is still African at its core. It is a nice combination and if we had a beach bum gene we probably would have staid a couple of more days.

While we enjoyed the town we decided to head back to Marrakech as we are going to tackle the Atlas Mountains tomorrow and the road over the mountains has a bit of a reputation. When we got to the campground in Marrakech two English couples we have been chatting with confirmed that the road over the mountains was “interesting but doable”.

We wimped out today. The weather has been very hot the last few days with highs in the low and mid 90’s. When we go to bed the temperatures in François with all of the windows open has been in the high 80’s which is not a good sleeping temperature. We were planning our next move when our friend Denis from Poitiers wandered over to say hi and mentioned that Essaouria was a nice place to visit that reminded him of St. Malo. As I was looking at it I also noticed that the high today was supposed to be 75 degrees so we were off on a three hour drive back to the coast.

The roads in Morocco continue to surprise, half of the drive was on cruise control on the Autoroute, and the other half was on a 4 lane National Road that was in good to fair shape. It wasn’t a cruise control road, but it was still very good.

We arrived at our campground about 1 pm and settled in. We were thinking of heading into Essaouria today, but the internet was good, the place was quiet, and we were a little tired so we settled in for a day of rest and streamed movies.

We wanted another day in Marrakech so we booked a taxi into the city in the morning. There were two historical sites on our agenda and then we had a pretty open schedule for the rest of the day.

Not everything over here is old, the Bahia Palace was built in the 1860’s and served as the local rulers home, until the French Protectorate, during the French Protectorate it served as the governors home and offices.

When it was being built the Sultan employed the most gifted workers and artist in Morocco to work on it, and the detail on the walls and floors is impressive.

Unfortunately, the tourist season is starting to ramp up and the palace was mobbed with people. Ton had a hard time getting pictures that weren’t full of heads.

Morocco had a serious earthquake two years ago and both the palace and the Saadian tombs suffered damage. The damage at the tombs was pretty severe.

The Saadian were under going significant repair work due to the earthquake. The tombs are used for the burial of family members of the local Sultans family. After we entered there were a couple of side chambers open, but there was a long line at a door that we presumed was the entry to the main chamber.

It was not until we got nearly to the front of the line to what we presumed was the entrance that we realized that you did not actually enter the tomb, but were only allowed to observe it from this doorway. The doorway was only wide enough for two people at a time. Your time to view the room was limited as you had the pressure of knowing there were hundreds of people waiting behind you.

After our run of the historical sites we decided to head to a restaurant near the souk that was famous for its lamb, and Tagines. Today Ton taught me that there are Tagines, and Tangines. Tangines are the normal meals cooked in the conical clay pots you see all over Morocco. Tagines are similar, but the food is cooked in a slightly different pot over a longer period of time, sometimes in the hot water rooms of the Hammams or bath houses.

We ordered a lamb and a Tagine, the lamb came first and we realized it was plenty for two people. Once again we walked away from a restaurant over full from the giant portions in Morocco.

The souk in Marrakech is immense, but we have learned that there are souks within the souks where artisans who ply the same trade are grouped together. There are leather souks, pottery souks, spice souks, and many others.

Ton had read about a different type of coffee in Morocco called Sahara hot sand coffee. The stall was buried deep in the souk and we would never have found it without google maps. The first thing that struck us was that this shop was run by women. Nearly every stall and restaurant in the souk and the surrounding streets are wholly staffed by men.

The coffee arrived a very dark brown color and the consistency looked almost like hot chocolate. The young lady explained that they used a mixture of Turkish coffee and special spices to make it. It was delicious and I think the best coffee I have had in a while.

We still had some time to spare and someone mentioned that the tannery area was near by. As we were headed the wrong way in the souk for most tourists several Moroccans would point the other way and say the square is that way. When we said we were looking for the tannery they would point us in the general direction of the tanners. Finally a young man told us he was headed that way and led us to one of the tannery yards.

The tannery yard consisted of a series of pits filled with different kinds of liquids including acids to remove the hair, pits full of pigeon dung to turn the hides white, and then several more steps to cure the hide. It was an interesting process to watch and a bit malodorous. The “guide” (that word again) even handed us sprigs of mint to hold over our noses to cover the smell. In the end we ended up in a leather goods and rug shop. Ton was impressed how we had been passed seamlessly along after expressing mild interest in the tannery to a stranger and three (or possibly four) people later we were in a nice shop where we could easily drop a couple thousand dollars on leather goods and carpets. This time we escaped with only a small tip to our “guide” who was waiting for us when we emerged from the shop.

At this point we were pretty tired as we had covered over 6 miles on foot and the temperature was in the 90’s. So we spent the last 45 minutes in a KFC nursing Pepsi’s and enjoying their air conditioning before heading back to the campground.

We took a day trip today into the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. The Ourika Valley is easily accessible from Marrakech and has been transformed into a heavy tourist area.

The valley is mostly settled by Berbers or as they call themselves Amazigh’s which means free people in their language. They are the indigenous people to the area. In Morocco it is estimated that 40-60% of the population is Berber. It is difficult to get a precise estimate as Berbers and Arabs have coexisted in Morocco for so long most Arabs have some Berber in them, and most Berbers have some Arab.

A few miles outside of Marrakech we began climbing into the mountains and the road narrowed as we followed the course of the Ourika river. As we drove our driver asked if we wanted to climb to the water falls above Ourika. Ton and I discussed it and decided to give it a shot. He then strongly recommended we take a guide, so we had to have another discussion, but decided to go with the guide.

Before taking on the climb we had lunch at a riverside restaurant where you sat next to the river to eat. It was a bit of a tourist trap, but still fun.

After lunch we set out on our climb to the waterfall. The Ourika falls are a series of 7 waterfalls from a tributary of the Ourika river. We met our guide Idder who looked like a mountain guide he was wiry, and a little shorter than Ton, but looked like he could climb forever.

The trail was only about a mile long but we climbed up about 500feet in altitude to reach the main waterfall. The beginning of the walk is thru a small village with both sides of the trail featuring stores.

After the village you followed the stream bed. The trail was pretty clear and at tough places rocks had been placed and anchored to make sure it was fairly easy to climb. Near the top there were a couple of places where you had to climb up fairly steep rocks.

Idder took charge of Ton and did a great job of getting her thru tight spots. She had a lot of confidence in his direction and his firm grip on her arm so she easily made it to the top.

When we reached the main waterfall we stopped and took pictures. There was a nice pool at the base of the waterfall but it wasn’t large. Ton had to be patient to get an unobstructed view of the fall as many people would go into the pool to get their picture taken.

At this point Idder told us a secret. He said there is a much easier trail just a little higher up the mountain. It is the trail they use to carry in the supplies for the restaurant at the falls. So following his direction we climbed up for another 100 yards and came to a easier trail that did not involve scrambling over rocks. The drops from this trail were steeper so he kept a close eye on us to make sure we stayed on track.

Everywhere you go in Morocco you are confronted by “guides” who want to show you around. We are skeptical of this as we like to explore on our own. But today the investment in our guide Idder was a good one.

Great cities have an energy that sets them apart, New York, Bangkok, and Paris come to mind, Marrakech is part of those elite cities that have their own special energy.

The traffic is chaotic, the souk is a loud and frenetic zoo, and the main square despite being under construction overloads the senses. It is a truly cool city that you will either love or hate immediately.

I’ve been driving in Europe, North America and South America, and the traffic going into the city center was world class chaos. I thought it was my opinion, but our English neighbors who have been in the country for 60 days told us they were so glad they didn’t drive into the city.

We started out by visiting the main Mosque in Marrakech. Koutoubia Mosque was built around 1100 AD. It is the tallest Mosque in town. Like most buildings that are 900 years old it is undergoing maintenance. Ton had to walk a long way to capture a picture that did not have scaffolding or construction equipment in it.

We next entered the souk, without a plan, Ton wanted to look for some soap that is famous here. It is hard to describe how immense this marketplace is. We spent about 4 hours walking, and I guess we may have covered 10% of it. It is full of hidden alleyways and side rows with different merchants. It is a fantastic place to visit. The alleys are throbbing with energy, it is a mix of tourists and locals shopping together, but for very different products usually.

The roads in the souk or only 8 to 10 feet wide with shoppers, shop keepers ,and motorcycles and bicycles all vying for space to move, or talk. It has a throbbing energy, and you have to be aware of what is going on at all times.

We eventually found the cooperative that we were looking for that sells soap, perfume, and spices for food. It is a way for women in villages surrounding Marrakech to market their products and to get a fair wage.

After an extensive shopping expedition in the cooperative we asked for recommendations for lunch. The salesman we were working with took us about 300 yards thru the souk to an old restaurant that used their spices.

What was amazing about this place was one minute we were walking down this crazy narrow alley way full of people and motorcycles and our guide suddenly turned into a nondescript door and we entered a peaceful beautiful, and immense space.

After entering the enclosed courtyard we were led thru a series of hallways until we entered the open air garden of the female riad which had been maintained in its original state. This was the restaurant we would have lunch in. It was a beautiful setting and we were a bit overwhelmed.

We settled in for a three course lunch. Our waiter had a sense of humor when we ordered a bottle of sparkling water with lunch he declared it to be Marrakech Champagne and mimicked the wine tasting process with the water. He explained that alcohol cannot be served within 150 meters of a Mosque in Morocco which means in the Medina of Marrakech it cannot be served anywhere as there are so many mosques that no place is more than 150 meters from a Mosque.

We spent another couple of hours happily exploring the souk, before heading back to the campground for the evening. We think there are a few more days to be spent in Marrakech.