Morocco

Journey to Marrakech

Royal Palace, Fes

After a bit of deliberation re: where to venture to next, Michael and I decided on Morocco–land of camels, dates, lamb tangine, souqs, spices, desert sand dunes & more. (Note: It is common to see multiple spellings of many of the Moroccan cities, but I made the unilateral decision to adopt the French spellings.) We were taught about Berber culture and history (Berbers are the native North African inhabitants who lived in the region prior to Arabs invading the region in the 6th century, resulting in the spread of Islam), became well-versed in haggling in the souqs (rule of thumb = never pay more than 50% of the first offer price), and even picked up a little bit of Arabic.

The most helpful phrases were:
Hello = as-salām ‘alaykum (or just salām)
Thank you = shukran
God willing (or if God wills) = Inshallah (This is used quite frequently)

A lot of the Moroccans we met spoke 5+ languages (Arabic, Berber, French, English, often German and sometimes Italian as well). Most signs were written in Arabic, Berber and French. In the center of town in Marrakech, there was a host of Syrian refugees with signs in Arabic and French spelling out “I am Syrian, I need your help.” The call to prayer could be heard five times per day. I dressed conservatively and wore long pants + always covered my shoulders. Similar to the experience in Turkey, the majority of the time, only men could be seen congregating at cafes–the woman’s place is supposed to be in the home–with the family–with the house work. Women are also not seen smoking (because only prostitutes smoke). We were told that there are very few mosques that you can enter in the country as a non-Muslim (the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca being one of the exceptions).

Here’s how the trip played out:

Pottery studio in Fes

Thursday, October 6 / Friday, October 7

We flew Royal Air Maroc (not a terrible airline) from JFK to Casablanca (CMN) Mohammed V Airport–leaving in the evening and arriving the following morning. Major plus of our flight: it was half empty and we had a row entirely to ourselves (literally my dream). Dissuaded from spending any time in Casablanca, we immediately got on a train (and then transferred to another train) and made our way to Fes from the Casablanca airport. The trip took roughly six hours, but it was pretty straightforward and the trains were pretty decent. We passed a lot of small mud houses with tin roofs held down by rocks along the way–reminiscent of Brazilian favelas. They even came around periodically with a snack cart. We took a cab (overpriced) from the train station in Fes to our riad–Riad Anata. We were greeted with mint tea (note: this is a must in Morocco–it usually comes loaded with sugar and it’s delicious) and butter cookies on the rooftop of the Riad–complete with a sweeping view of the town. We had a home-cooked meal at the Riad for dinner (lentils and lamp tangine with couscous and white wine) and ended the night chatting with a couple from Munich (the wife was Brazilian and the husband, German) also staying at our Riad. Too tired and jet-lagged to brave the medina, we saved our energy for the following day.

Tanner in Fes

Saturday, October 8

I am not usually one for guides or tours or guided tours. I like exploring and getting lost on my own. I like structure, but I don’t like someone holding my hand and diluting my experience of a city. Despite this fact, at the urging of several people who have visited Fes and navigated and got lost in the medina, we hired a guide for the day. While I was not completely happy with our guide (he worked in tandem with a driver, who did not speak English) for a host of reasons (mainly, all of the ‘artisan shops’ he took us to were shams/schemes to jack up prices for tourists), we covered a lot more ground that we would have without him and it enabled us to make the most of the little time that we had in Fes. We visited the Jewish Quarter and went into a synagogue (but missed the Jewish cemetery because it was closed for Shabbat); saw various artisan shops (pottery, weaving, rugs and the tannery–the tanner being the highlight); had a ‘nus nus’ (or half-half–half espresso and half milk; note that Moroccans do enjoy their coffee as much as they enjoy their mint tea); and we ended with a local lunch with our guide in the souqs in a very small meat shop–where we had lamb sandwiches and mint tea. In the evening, we heard the sounds of drums and horns and followed it into the streets. There we found a Moroccan wedding passing in front of our Riad, which we proceeded to follow for a solid 30 minutes. The procession picked up some local children playing in the street–who played along on their own toy drums. The procession included three large conical receptacles holding gifts covered in glass that men in the wedding party held atop their heads as they processed through the streets.

Camel trek through the desert

Sunday, October 9

We had a breakfast on the rooftop of the Riad before heading off to our three day, two night tour through the Sahara desert and into Marrakech via 4×4 and local (Berber) guide. We drove through the Middle Atlas Mountains and through Ifane (known as the Switzerland of Morocco). We stopped in Azrou to feed Barbary Apres and through Erfoud. We stopped to buy apples and stopped in Erfoud to visit our guide’s family (his mother, step-father and siblings lived here) and had tea with them. We ended up in the Erg Chebbi Desert and started our camel trek to the bivouac camp in the middle of the sand dunes. We climbed the dunes to watch the sunset and had dinner with our camp. There was also a drum party, but the guides were definitely not feeling it. After dinner, we climbed the dunes again to look at the stars–which was hard to do because the moon was so bright, but they were still pretty visible. We met (another) German couple from Hamburg who were a part of our camel caravan. We chatted with them and their guide, Yussef, about language and politics over chicken tangine at dinner.

Rugs for sale at the Todra Gorges

Monday, October 10

We woke up at 6:30 a.m. to watch the sunrise just after 7:00. There was more to see, since the sunset was covered by clouds the night before. After tea, we got back on our camels and headed back to the kasbah hotel to shower and have breakfast before continuing on to Rissani. We stopped along the way to visit a nomadic Berber family (also had tea with them). The nomadic tribes are goat and sheep herders and can be seen throughout the desert land attending to their flocks. The family had goat meat hanging in the ‘courtyard’ of their home and we watched a woman making bread in a small adobe oven. We then drove through the Anti Atlas and the Kasbahs to Todra Gorges where we had lunch near the river Tinghir. We continued on to Dades valley where we stayed overnight in the Xaluca Dades hotel–complete with an amazing view of the town. They also had a tennis court and we played a few games before watching the sunset and having dinner at the hotel’s buffet.

View from the Xaluca Dades Hotel

Tuesday, October 11

After breakfast at the Xaluca Dades, we were back on the road and drove through a town called Ouarzazate (a noted movie town) and visited Taourirt Kasbah. Once we finally got to Marrakech, our guide dropped us off at the Jardin Majorelle (formerly owned by YSL) and we spent some time enjoying the house and garden. It was odd saying goodbye to our guide, who had essentially spend the previous 72 hours with us, sharing stories about his family (former nomads), Berber culture (it seems that Berbers and Arabs are still rivals in some regards), Morocco (how homosexuality is illegal, how police are corrupt, how the country is backwards), about politics (Moroccans like Hillary since she is a friend of Morocco–also Trump is anti-Muslim), about religion, about relationships, about humanity (key message–be nice to thy fellow man regardless of color, creed, orientation, etc., etc.) But after issuing us the advice to ‘not spend more than 50 dirhams on henna in the square,’ we parted ways.

It was quite a shock to the system being submerged into Marrakech after having been guided through so much of the countryside. Marrakech is a completely different beast. We stayed at Riad Pachavana, which was lovely–we were, again, greeted with mint tea and cookies. In the evening, we ventured to Jemaa-El-Fna–one of the top sights in Morocco. It happens to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has been in existence since the eleventh century. In the mornings, vendors sell food and juice, very, very aggressive women solicit their henna hand-painting services, snake charmers lure their serpents (and summon your money), men with monkeys in diapers on chains try to get you to place the animals on your shoulders for a picture, story-tellers gather to share their tales and tarot readers set up shop–among many other things. At night, there are more music and drum circles and food vendors. There are also more peddlers selling scarves, soaps, intense, argon oil and more. We settled on a pizza place to dinner, because we wanted a break from Moroccan food. The restaurant was in the square and had a terrace–where we shared a meal with other tourists and some kitties.

At night, a very cute cat came to knock (paw?) at our door and we let her inside our room (we named her Riad Kitty). We gave her some water and she took a nap by the door–then as quickly as she came in, she disappeared.

Jardin Majorelle

Wednesday, October 12

A very successful shopping day–we ventured into the souqs of Marrakech and didn’t get lost. We bought all sorts of treasures–not without dancing around the final dirham amount for the goods first. We also visited Musée Tiskiwin, which houses some Berber items (but was pretty disorganized and very difficult to match items with descriptions) and went to the Maison de la Photographie de Marrakech, which houses an incredible selection of photographs documenting life in Morocco from 1870 to 1960. The amazing realization after viewing the collection is that the souqs of today are virtually indistinguishable from those in the photos. For dinner we at an amazing restaurant, Nomad, probably our favorite the whole trip. They have an incredible terrace and offer “Modern Moroccan” food.

At night, Riad Kitty came back to our door to visit.

Thursday, October 13

It was raining in the morning, but we climbed to the top of the Riad rooftop for the view. We spotted Riad Kitty walking across the rooftops and as soon as we caught her eye, she started sprinting toward me. She then followed us down into the courtyard for breakfast and we said our goodbyes as we departed for Essaouira via SUPR@TOURS tour bus. The bus ride is about two and a half hours, but there’s a pit stop at the Atlas Cafe to use the restroom and grab a snack. Our room at the Riad Mimouna in Essaouira was a suite with an ocean view. We ventured to the port, where fishermen are selling their daily catches for you to buy and grill (at a spot nearby). We had lunch at a seafood stall and feasted on fresh shrimp, red snapper, sardines, and mantis shrimp. We had dinner at an Italian place called Baladin–pasta, pesto and penne diavolo.

Essaouira

Friday, October 14

We had a large lunch at Umia, an Italian restaurant in Essaouira with mid-century modern decor. We climbed to the top of the fort to check out the views and then walked along the beach for a bit and waded in the water. We also walked into the outskirts of town (read, local, not tourist-area) outside of the medina. At night, we ate at a pizza place with a funky/hippy aesthetic.

Essaouira

Saturday, October 15

Breakfast at our Riad at the restaurant on the roof before heading back to Marrakech for our final day of the trip. The 10:45 a.m. bus ended up being full, so we had to wait until 3:00 p.m. for the next bus, which, at first, was sort of a bummer, but ended up totally working out because we killed time at the Hammam and got a full scrub down, mud bath and massage. At night, we ventured back to Nomad for our last meal in Morocco.

Sunday, October 16

A final breakfast at our Riad before our flight back home to JFK from Marrakech with a transfer in Casablanca. We watched Casablanca on the flight home–even through we didn’t [really] visit there.