Reflections of Morocco
We are just at the end of a tour of Morocco. It has been fantastic and escalates the country to one of our favorites.
We liked the way the government tries to help farmers and the poorer people by no taxes for them and affordable housing.
Compared to the Middle Eastern Arabic countries we have visited, Morocco is far more relaxed about tourist’s clothing when going into Mosques. As long as people are wearing short sleeved t shirts and longer length shorts, it is fine.
It was incredible how many unfinished homes and apartments there were, all over the country. Many people run out of money and just stop, who knows whether they will ever be completed.
This was a great month for us to visit, Spring, and because there had been rain in March, all the wild flowers are in bloom, red, orange, yellow, white, purple. The apple and almond trees were in bloom in the low areas and in the High Atlas Mountains there were blooming apple trees and white flowered cherry trees. Orange trees are full of fruit everywhere and tiny dates are forming on the date palms.
Marrakech is so different from the rest of the country. It was fascinating to see the differences between all the cities and the small villages in the Atlas Mountains including the Berber villages. We even stopped in a ski town that looked like a French ski resort…that one was certainly a surprise.
Our favorite seaside town was ESSAOUIRA, This had a long long promenade and a fishing port and ancient Medina and souk which was much more manageable in size.
We stopped off for lunch in Agadir, another seaside town geared mainly to German and other European tourists. Apparently lots of flights to there.
We love any Roman ruins, so VOLUBILIS was wonderful.
We stayed overnight in a charming boutique hotel in OUARZAZATE and visited the nearby village that has many movie sets from past American movies like this year’s Gladiator ll.
We hiked down into the Todra gorge, thankfully the bus was waiting at the bottom to take us back out.
We had a serious hike high in the Atlas Mountains and reached exactly 6000 feet before it got too rocky. We had great views of the snow capped mountain. Also nearby was a gorgeous Richard Branson owned hotel, it sure would be nice to overnight there. Our tour director has seen Richard hiking several times, I’m jealous!
Our favorite tagine were the beef and prune one and the chicken one which had a citrus sauce with preserved lemons. Ok, the lamb one was good too. We will be trying these out at home. The Moroccan noodles are short and have sprinkled cinnamon on them. The oranges are so sweet and the slices also sprinkled with cinnamon.
The medinas are just incredible and the souks a great place to get lost forever more.
What to buy? It’s best to shop at local cooperatives for quality. Rugs were lovely but not for us. We visited a pottery in Fez that used a really good white clay which is far more robust than the red terracotta clay used for the pots you see in the souks. I say this with some authority because I’ve taken pottery classes in the past and when we went to this one in Fez, I had a go on the wheel and made a pot. It was a bit tricky because the foot driven wheel was set up for a right handed person and I’m left handed…I’ll have to take pottery lessons again. I bought a quite big platter which hopefully will make it home in one piece.
Look out for Berber made silver jewelry. I found an antler horn cuff bracket with silver inlay. We went to another silver coop and most of the ladies bought things. We went to an Argan cooperative and bought things there. We drove through the Rose Valley and had coffee in of course a rose cooperative where you could buy rose water and cosmetic potions.
My husband and I experienced a hammam where we were in a stone steam room together, flimsy paper patties, a man and woman threw warm water over us, soaped and scrubbed us down with very very rough ‘gloves’ which felt like course sandpaper, enough to actually burst a vein in my hand and created a large hematoma. We then had to stand up while a bucket of cold water was tipped over our heads. All Moroccans go through this experience about once a week. It was a bit strange having a young man around to see my nakedness and then another when we got the post hammam massage.
Many ATM’s around. We felt very safe.
Will be glad to answer any questions.
