We had a lovely, interesting trip to Morocco. The last evening we celebrated with dinner at Rick's Cafe in Casablanca. Of course this is not the cafe from the movie as that was a movie set, but one that was created after the movie to bring folks back through that nostalgic time. We sat in the upper floor overlooking the grand piano a story below. A man dressed in a tuxedo played those tunes from the movie era. Ornate black lacy lanterns hung from the high ceilings with light twinkling through to set the mood.
We were treated to a salad of goat cheese and figs lightly drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Dinner followed with tender lamb chops.
During our stay in Morocco we learned you can live without a hair blower for a couple of weeks. If water is icy cold, it is OK to skip a shower for a few days too.
As temperatures dropped below 60 degrees FH and became uncomfortably chilly, blankets and all the clothes you can put on can keep you warm if you roll up cigar style.
Donkeys and mules can walk with a heavy load though a long narrow pathway without causing a panic to pedestrians.
Travel pants made of high tech material can dry by morning when washed out the night before. Jeans definitely not the case.
People of all walks of life can gather civilly on a bus to view other cultures.
If you are lost in the country side you can find your way back to the group.
Here are some photos of the group.
Happy traveling.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Fes - 10-29-08
Hi,
We have arrived in Fes to one of the most beautiful Hotels on our trip - Riad Dar Dmana.
We were delivered to the Medina - city in the residential area which looks a lot like the winding streets of the other cities. Narrow, no more than 5 feet across. No motorcycles but donkeys carrying large packs. Donkeys, by the way, have the right of way. We wound around several blocks turning right and left in hallway type streets to our hotel. You would never know from the outside doorway that such a lovely place was within.
About 20 of our group stayed here. The rest of our co-travelers stayed in an even more upscale place. The rooms in our hotel are not numbered, but have names. Ours is Radia. It is a long suite that has an L shaped sofa filled with pillows, king size bed and interesting furniture adorned with brass upholstery buttons trimming the edges. There is a walk-in closet next to the bath which is big enough to have a party. The colors are rich rust and cream. It is delightful.
The room on the third floor over looks the court yard. Breakfast and dinner are served with table cloths, embroidered napkins and stacks of pretty dishes in burgundy and navy that are filled with delightful soups and meats and fruits.
This is living.
We went to the mountain today to look down on Fes. It is a city built like a bowl filed with rings of commerce, homes and the like. There are miles and miles of these labyrinth type narrow streets more like walkways or alleys with no auto traffic. Our guide wound us around the food markets piled high with dates, oranges, avocados, camel heads, live chickens, sides of meat (goat or lamb) hanging off a hook. You name it is was there in tiny little shops and doorways. If you heard which I temporarily forgot something like Barlak you moved close to the wall as the Donkey was coming through packed with wears and goods to be delivered to the shops. Stan would say here, comes some ass.
We followed all the way to the tanneries and walked up a dark staircase through several crowded tiny rooms filled with leather goods to an overlook to see the men tanning leather. There were hundreds of vats about 6 foot across that men were stomping leather knee deep in some solution to tan and then dye the leather. It was a bit smelly, but they gave us a sprig of mint to keep the odor from being offensive. This is suppose to be the worst job in the world next to crab fishing in Alaska, according to our guide Ali.
We bought a few things and then shopped in earnest for a leather coat for Stan. Once we thought we reached a good price, it had to be verified by the supervisor. You would have thought I was bargaining for a used car in Colorado, the only place Americans get screwed by bargaining. Ali was waiting at the cashier. Keep in mind this is low tech and the cashier was an Arab women shouting at him at the top of her lungs and him in return back, as he helped one of our co-travelers with their purchase. Once he found out our great price more shouting back and forth and we paid $30 less. It’s all good fun.
Ali continued our walk through the Medina and we ducked our head through a couple of doors to an open courtyard. This was Ali’s home as a child. We meet his mother who is probably in her 80's. His wife served tea, cookies and dates to all 33 of us. His little boy Ryan age 14 months was walking around playing with the visitors. It was a delight.
We stopped off at the weavers den where men sitting at ancient looms were pulling ropes to drive the shuttle back and forth through the warp thread. Great scarves and other fabrics were stacked along the walls.
More walking, still no one lost in this maze of streets and path ways. We stopped for lunch in a typical Moroccan restaurant. There was a tea master who prepared the tea. We started off with 15 or so plates of salad type items; olives, tomato with cucumber and onions, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, hot pepper salsa (really hot), eggplant, spinach. We were pretty much stuffed from those things. Then they brought the main course. Stan had meat balls and egg with flavorful sauce. I had couscous and vegetables. There was also chicken with lemon or almonds. The meal was topped off with a large platter of fresh oranges and grapes.
We decided to rest this afternoon instead of more shopping and found this great internet shop down the street from the hotel with an English keyboard. For an hour and 10 dirhams ($1.25) I can type type, type, type.
I wanted to check my email as John, my son, and his wife Rachel are having their baby today 10-29-08. It’s their first child, gender unknown, and our first grandchild. No baby yet, but they are waiting at the hospital now for the doctor to speed things along.
Move later.
For my cousin Jack - Here is a list of cities and highlights
Casablanca
Hotel – Hotel Suisse
Hassan II Mosque
Marrakech
Hotel – Ryad Mogador Opera
Bahia Palace
Saadian Tombs
Menara Basin
Koutoubia Mosque
Djeman el-Fna – large square
Chez Ali – Dinner / Horse show
Essaouira
Fishing village with great wood carving
Berber Village
I Min Tanoute (Nearby village)
Day in a life with of a Berber
Ouarrazate – High Atlas Mountains
Hotel – Kasbab Ait Ben Haddon
Known a film center for major movies such as
Lawrence of Arabia, Jesus of Nazareth Gladiator
Through Tichka Pass
Tingher - Todra Gorges
Hotel Kasbah Tinzini Hotel
Road of 1,000 kasbabs
Kasbahs of Taourit and Tifoulout
Erfoud - Sahara Desert
Middle Atlas Mountains
Azrou - home stay
Mcknes short city tour
Arabian / Barbari Horse breeding center
Fes
Hotel – Riad Dar Dmana
Tour of Medina – shopping area
Restaurant Asman – in heart of medina, best food in Morocco
Fes El-Jdid – Royal Palace
Volubilis short walking tour
Ancient Roman ruins – 2000 years old
Rabat short city tour
Capital city – King’s residence
Casablanca
Hotel Suisse
Rick’s Cafe
NY to Boston
Azrou - Home Stay 10-26-08
We crossed the high Atlas mountains and middle Atlas to the town of Azrou close to a snow skiing area.
Hadefa is 28 and lives with her extended family of unmarried brothers, a sister that is traveling and her parents.
Her brother, Mustapha, age 40 met us as we exited the bus. The tour didn't really tell us to unpack a few things in a small bag, so we had lots of luggage for a primitive place. They hired a man and a cart to hall our luggage up a the hill 4 or 5 blocks to her apartment. Americans we are amazing with all our stuff and always seem to be adding more to the collection. Mustopha is an artist and decortive house painter.
After the first flight of steps there is a great room used for festivals. The furniture and large cusions are stacked in the corner as are the carpets that are rolled up standing upright against the wall. There is a western style bathroom on that floor. Yea.
Then up to the main floor where the reception room or living room has table on rollers and a Moroccan style sofa set the covers all walls of the room. A TV is in one corner. A couple of 15 foot square bedrooms and a squatter (eastern stype toilet) are next door. One flight up is where Mustapha has his room, next to his 2 brothers room off the roof. That night we could see the sunset over the Atlas mountains.
He is an artist and here is his email is mustlotoi@hotmail.com.
Mustopha is more then a decortive painter. He did not finish school but continued to study on his own. Both Hafida and Mustopha speaks several languages, French, Arabic Berber, and English. Mustopha showed us his art work and explained the meaining of each piece. His philisophical insights about life, love and relationships reval what you would expect while chatting with Socrates.
He decorated the walls in his room with different textures; such as exposing the brick, crating textured scenes like doorways and one wall smooth like silk and colored like marble. He offered us an antique key. He has one too to remember our visit. Key to haret, mind, live and life. He played us a Franch folk song on his guitar.
We joined his mother in the reception room (living room). Their mother Fatima, age about 65, has the typical Berber tatoo on her face. A wider mark on her forehead between the eyes and a line drawn from her lips to chin, with dots on either side. Her mother lived to be 108 with no speical diet. Just good simple living.
Fatima had prepared mint green tea rich with sugar, bread similar to the round flat yeast bread we have seen around Morocco. She also had small platters of olives, a crumbly substance with a nutty peanut type flavor which I spooned on a corner of bread. There was also a small plate of jam made from an apple type fruit. We didn't try this until the next morning when the same type food was served except olives. We saw the apple type fruit in the open markets. It is bigger than an apple yellow and lumpy.
Mustopha explained his mother spoke Arabic, Berber, French, no English and could not read anything. She enjoyed looking at the photos we had taken of her children, Hadifa and Mustopha, on our camera at the evening welcoming dinned at a local hotel.
We had all piled into our bus with our hosts, Hadifa and Mostapha until the bus was too full. Others came by other means. We were greeted by the hotel by a friensy of music from young men whereing cream colored tunic pounding drums, bongos, 18 inch tamborins, tooting five foot long horns and chanting to a variety of beats all at the same time. Our hosts joined in loudly clapping their own beat. This went on outside the hotel along with some dancing and arm swinging from quite a while. Then the parade moved inside. The trumpets blew toot, toot, toot on the same note. The tamborine player spun his instrument on one figure in time with the music.
We were treated to vegatable soup. Then they brought out several baked chickens which several shared by tearing off peices that we wanted. Of course several servings of flat yeast bread. Dessert was small cookies stuffed with nuts and dates. Before the bones of the chicken was removed our co-travelers slipped out the chicken's wishbone. I shared a wish with Mustopha. He won and wished for happiness. It was a delight.
The next morning we all piled into an older bus for a tour of the mountain. We stopped in a French style ski village so different in contrast to the city of Azrou nearby.
Hadefa is 28 and lives with her extended family of unmarried brothers, a sister that is traveling and her parents.
Her brother, Mustapha, age 40 met us as we exited the bus. The tour didn't really tell us to unpack a few things in a small bag, so we had lots of luggage for a primitive place. They hired a man and a cart to hall our luggage up a the hill 4 or 5 blocks to her apartment. Americans we are amazing with all our stuff and always seem to be adding more to the collection. Mustopha is an artist and decortive house painter.
After the first flight of steps there is a great room used for festivals. The furniture and large cusions are stacked in the corner as are the carpets that are rolled up standing upright against the wall. There is a western style bathroom on that floor. Yea.
Then up to the main floor where the reception room or living room has table on rollers and a Moroccan style sofa set the covers all walls of the room. A TV is in one corner. A couple of 15 foot square bedrooms and a squatter (eastern stype toilet) are next door. One flight up is where Mustapha has his room, next to his 2 brothers room off the roof. That night we could see the sunset over the Atlas mountains.
He is an artist and here is his email is mustlotoi@hotmail.com.
Mustopha is more then a decortive painter. He did not finish school but continued to study on his own. Both Hafida and Mustopha speaks several languages, French, Arabic Berber, and English. Mustopha showed us his art work and explained the meaining of each piece. His philisophical insights about life, love and relationships reval what you would expect while chatting with Socrates.
He decorated the walls in his room with different textures; such as exposing the brick, crating textured scenes like doorways and one wall smooth like silk and colored like marble. He offered us an antique key. He has one too to remember our visit. Key to haret, mind, live and life. He played us a Franch folk song on his guitar.
We joined his mother in the reception room (living room). Their mother Fatima, age about 65, has the typical Berber tatoo on her face. A wider mark on her forehead between the eyes and a line drawn from her lips to chin, with dots on either side. Her mother lived to be 108 with no speical diet. Just good simple living.
Fatima had prepared mint green tea rich with sugar, bread similar to the round flat yeast bread we have seen around Morocco. She also had small platters of olives, a crumbly substance with a nutty peanut type flavor which I spooned on a corner of bread. There was also a small plate of jam made from an apple type fruit. We didn't try this until the next morning when the same type food was served except olives. We saw the apple type fruit in the open markets. It is bigger than an apple yellow and lumpy.
Mustopha explained his mother spoke Arabic, Berber, French, no English and could not read anything. She enjoyed looking at the photos we had taken of her children, Hadifa and Mustopha, on our camera at the evening welcoming dinned at a local hotel.
We had all piled into our bus with our hosts, Hadifa and Mostapha until the bus was too full. Others came by other means. We were greeted by the hotel by a friensy of music from young men whereing cream colored tunic pounding drums, bongos, 18 inch tamborins, tooting five foot long horns and chanting to a variety of beats all at the same time. Our hosts joined in loudly clapping their own beat. This went on outside the hotel along with some dancing and arm swinging from quite a while. Then the parade moved inside. The trumpets blew toot, toot, toot on the same note. The tamborine player spun his instrument on one figure in time with the music.
We were treated to vegatable soup. Then they brought out several baked chickens which several shared by tearing off peices that we wanted. Of course several servings of flat yeast bread. Dessert was small cookies stuffed with nuts and dates. Before the bones of the chicken was removed our co-travelers slipped out the chicken's wishbone. I shared a wish with Mustopha. He won and wished for happiness. It was a delight.
The next morning we all piled into an older bus for a tour of the mountain. We stopped in a French style ski village so different in contrast to the city of Azrou nearby.
Erfond Morocco 10-25-08
Erfond is close to the Sahara Desert. The terrain is flat with small hllls on both sides. High mountains can be scene in the distance. Little scruby brush is the only vegatation.
Our overnight stay at Kasbah Tizimi Hotel and late evening camel ride to the Sahara Desert started at a restaurant famous for their pizza. One of our traveling couples, Bea and Herbert own a pizza chain in Colorado and had a great visit with the owner who took them around the town to his other businesses including a large resort with airstrip on the edge of town.
We ordered the regular tpye pizza with standard toppings which was crispy and good. Others had the bread type stuffed with cheese and fillings. The shop next door had interesting arts/crafts from Morocco and silver jewelry you buy by weight.
After lunch we went to a factory that slices up large cubes of quarried rock that are embedded with fossels of shells or trilabites. Interesting table or counter tops are made from these blocks of stone.
Buildings are made of mud and straw. You can see the texture of the straw in the outside walls.
Stan and I skipped the camel ride to the desert as old bodies are stiff and sittin gon a camel for an hour would probably not be advisable. Our co-travelers showed us wonderful photos of camels trodding along with long shadows against the dunes.
Back in the bus. Date palms orchards dotted the valleys and meadows for miles. Small villages along the way had terraces of flat spaces used to lay of the dates to dry. Dates are so dense in clories and nutition that the Moroccan's say one will sustain a person for a day.
We found cookies in a local grocery like fig newtons except they were filled with dates. Pretty different.
The ride through the high Atlas mountains was mostly barren with the exception of the open meadows of date palms.
There were several dams along the way. The red rocky cliffs showed different strata in layers on the mountain side.
It rained off and on during our ride. Where the gullys filled up, the water rushed over the depression in the highway as there were no culverts. We saw a man with his bicycle parked on the side of the road shoveling out the dirt and sand that had built up on the road.
Ouarzazate - Tondra Gorges 10-24-08
Stan and I have arrived in a city of Ouarzarate by the Tundra Gorges.
We sent a quick email from the hotel manager's office. Then walked down the streets at dust to the internet cafe. This keyboard is not English at all and has the q mixed where a should be as well as misplaced m and w. No period, so please help by guessing. We walked about 300 meters down the road to find an internet cafe. The glances as we walked in were amazing from the other people in the crowded internet stations. It was 10 dirhams for $1.25 to type for an hour. Same type of French keyboard so I was catching to the changes a little bit by then. When I paid to leave I told the owner that it was the Best Buy in the City. He didn't understand, but smiled happily.
I will start by backtracking. We spent a long day yesterday crossing the high Atlas Mountains. Up one side, through steep switchbacks, to 7000 feet, then down the other side.
The driver was very careful on the steep turns. One time we passed a smaller bus and all waved madly. It was our bus driver’s father; son in big bus, father, in smaller bus.
Mountains are quite barren of vegetation. They have many stops for rest rooms and some guys selling jewelry and the like on the mountain top. As I look back that was some of the best selections in the country.
The mountains toward the Tundra Gorges are more interesting. The high Atlas Mountains were on the left and the start of the Sahara Desert on the right. We drove by large herds of black goats who scattered in a great gallop across open fields of scrub brush as the bus passed their territory. Some groups of camels grassed along the way.
Yesterday while traveling through the mountains, we stopped in the morning at a Taourrirt Kasbah (mountain retreat). We walked down a steep cobblestone path with inviting shops on each side of the pathway. We crossed a shallow river by stepping on sand bags. A good balancing act indeed. Then up many steeps and rocky narrow pathways and stone steps through a kasbah. A kasbah is like a for or castle in the mountains. Walking up the stairs through many chambers was interesting. The steps were of different heights which made the climb interesting on wore out knees.
The hotel Riad Salam was delightful. Soft cozy beds and puffy pillows with charming navy / gold bedspreads and drapes overlooking a foliage filled courtyard.
We stopped off an overlook in a city with building along the meadows and hillside.
At the Tundra Gorges we had lunch and a walk. The recent rains had washed out the road. I paid a young man with a steady arm to hold my hand as we crossed over the river on slippery rocks. He had his pant legs rolled up and was walking over the rocks barefoot. We ate in a charming restaurant built into the side of the cliffs. We took a walked up part of the gorge. The views were amazing. There were little shops, I use that word loosely, along the way. Tables were filled with trinkets, jewelery, scarves while rugs were hung on ropes on the rocks. Such a deal and what relentless salesmen. They all were filled with stories to boot. Help me. Help my family.
Date palms are prolific in this region. It was raining hard, but our guide ventured out on the top of a mountain ridge to buy a box of dates fresh from the October harvest. He passed the box around for a taste of fresh royal dates. The best I've ever had.
Showers are a real challenge sometimes. One I picked up the shower hose and the head cam off. This was an exploding surprise. Another, the shower hose was placed in the overhead hook. I checked the water, pulled the switch to move the water to the shower head. The water pressure increased ten fold. The shower hose took off like a wild snake exploding water all over the bathroom. I found out later many people also had wet towels and bathroom floors from that same experience.
Finally, after a long days drive through the flat lands, we arrived at our overnight stay. Our hotel this evening was Hotel Kasbah Lamrant. The room was huge that included a seating area. Come on over. The bedspread and curtains were cream colored heavy texture with soft caramel colored horizontal strips. The lamps all had crystals mixed with the cut our metal, reminiscent of the many fossils and rocks available in the nearby mountains.
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