Morocco Part 4: Imlil and an impromptu hike

We took a day trip to Imlil - the base camp of the 2nd highest mountain in Africa - Jebel Toubkal.  Our trip was organized through an excursion company - Sahara Rouge.  They were pretty sketchy.  They wanted all our money up front, in cash, and were a little put out when we asked of what the trip consisted.  The employee said that it included a certified guide, the trip, and lunch.  We found out that it was not necessarily true - but it was an amazing time anyway!

Jebel Toubkal

The mountain we climbed!

Imlil is about 2.5 hours away from Marrakech so we took a minibus there.  The drive was very pretty and a lot like our bus ride through Ecuador to the rainforest - steep ledges, rock slides, and all.  It was cool to see the dessert fall away into the forest.  On the way there we saw a camel!  The views were beautiful.  We get to Imlil and a bunch of men mob the bus.  Our driver looks out and basically says...um, that guy.  We, again, are confused and ask the driver if the guide is included.  He seemed offended but said that he would pay the guide.  

We start the hike through Imlil dodging donkeys, horses, puddles, etc.  We saw beautiful waterfalls and many shoppers enticed us to buy their goods.  Luckily, we did not take them up because we were walking a long way up the mountain.  In the little villages, we saw a goat stampede and had tea in a Berber Village high above the valley.  After a brief respite, we decided to hike to the top of a mountain (not Jebel Toubkal).  

The hike was hard - espescially in sneakers.   The altitude got to all of us a bit.  Our guide was probably about 50 years old and did the hike in dress pants and dress shoes.  He hopped from rock to rock singing while we were all huffing and puffing.  He may have been part goat.  I hope I never forget him singing in Berber and clapping along while skipping along the crazy mountain trail. 

The view from the top was beautiful and well worth it!  We shared our path with brown and white grazing horses.  The hike down was a bit scary, lots of loose rocks, steep slides etc.  When we finally got to a road we were so happy!  

At the end, we gave our guide a tip of 200 dirham (about 20 euros) he seemed very upset but when I told him the driver was going to pay him he was very happy.  Again, a bit sketchy since the driver did not tell the guide he would be paying him.  After a crazy expensive super touristy lunch, we drove back to Marrakech. 

That night was our last night all together in Marrakech.  We went to D'jemma for a bit to play the coke bottle fishing game.  There are a bunch of bottles set up and they give you a fishing pole with a ring attached to the end of the line.  You have to get the ring around the top of the bottle.  The boys probably played this game for an hour.  Both nights.  We took Eric to the souks to do some shopping and had a huge Moroccan meal at our Riad.  It was a wonderful night with great people!  Marrakech was amazing and I would love to go back!  The food, the ambiance, the people - it was awesome!  

The fishing game. 

Take 1 - our awesome dinner. 

Take 2 - the other side of our awesome dinner. 

Morocco Part 3: Can you tell me where I am?

One of my favorite things to do is people watch.  While we were waiting for our friend (little) Dave to mail a tagine back to the States, Emily, Dave, and I sat on the steps of the big post office on the Djemma and people watched.  In Morocco, all of the classes mix:  middle class with upper class with the very poor.  We saw a lot of different people - girls in Western clothing, women wearing burkas, and, my favorite, guys on bikes with trees.  

We spent the day exploring the souks following a walking tour from Lonely Planet.  We had tea at a "15th century Saadian showplace" called Dar Cherifa.  Again, the stonework and mosaics were amazing.  We also walked through the Dyer's Souk - where they make and dye yarn.  

Yarn drying in the sun 

 Eric finally showed up that night after a long delay.  He flew into Casablanca and was supposed to take the train to Marrakech.  Unfortunately, he stayed on the train too long and ended up somewhere else.  So, he had to backtrack and take another train to Marrakech.  We had no idea this was all happening until Eric (finally) turned on his cell phone.  Dave finally got hold of Eric and here's how the conversations went.

D: Eric where are you?
E:  I think I'm on the train to Marrakech.
D:  You think?!
E:  I'm not sure, and no one speaks English
(I get on the phone)
K:  OK find someone who will talk to you and our friend will speak to them in Darija (Moroccan Arabic).
E:  I'll try to find someone who speaks English first.
E:  (to someone sitting near him) Hi do you speak English?
Guy:  Yes
E:  Can you tell me where I am?

Stop for Tobaggans

Luckily, the guy Eric asks happens to be a Saudi Arabian dentist from London who is on holiday in Morocco.  They also fed him and told him where to get off, so Eric is quite lucky.  Unfortunately Eric's arrival time was at 12:30 a.m.  So, our awesome friend Mounir says he can drive us to the train station, gives us a tour of the new medina, takes us to his favorite cafe, hangs out with us for 3 hours until Eric's train arrives, and drives us back to the old medina to our riad.  Like I said, Mounir basically saved our friend Eric as there is no way that Eric could have found his way through the winding streets to our riad.  

The new medina is completely different than the old.  The new medina looks very new and basically could be in Las Vegas.  Mounir showed us the best hotel in Marrakech where the movie stars stay.  It costs about $2,000 a night!  The buildings and casinos were all huge with beautiful fountains in the front.  The old medina hasn't changed in hundreds of years so the contrast was very different.  

The Marrakech train station in the new medina

Eric finally arrived and we took him to the Djemma to drink fresh OJ and eat snails - two things his mom told him definitely not to do, so I really hope she doesn't read this! 

Morocco Part 2

Our friend Emily is very into sustainability so I took a cue from her and my sister in law Kathleen and one of my New Year's resolutions is to try to live more sustainably.  We recycle, compost, and one of the reasons we decided on our apartment was because they renovated our apartment/barn in an ecologically friendly style:  solar panels, hay insulation, etc.  At least 90% of our Christmas presents were sustainable. 

Emily wanted found out about the Al Kawtar organization through a Lonely Planet guidebook.  This non-profit association was founded to assist women and children in Marrakech by providing day care, meals, technical, medical, and personal assistance.  They also have an embroidery workshop to help fund the center.  Many women learn traditional Moroccan embroidery through their families and disabled women and children who did not learn the craft can receive an apprenticeship in order to learn.   Al Kawtar sells these embroidered items in their store - which has set prices (wonderful after all the haggling at the souk).  They do gorgeous work! 

We stumbled upon the Al Kawtar workshop on our walk to the Medersa and Ben Yousef Mosque.  The workshop was modern, beautiful, and light with women and children sewing.  A woman saw us come in and showed us around.  It was very cool to see the detail up close and the women working on their pieces.  It is a great organization and if you are in Marrakech, you should definitely visit their store.

The Ben Youssef Medersa was an Islamic college founded and built in the 14th century.  There were about 180 rooms with 900 students: close quarters!  The main room has beautiful stonework and mosaic surrounding a reflecting pool.  The stonework was amazing to see. 

We also visited the Moroccan Museum  where we saw traditional Moroccan tapestries, pottery, swords, and art in what used to be a royal residence.  Everywhere, the stonework and mosaic is beautiful. It is also reputed to be haunted!

We then when to the Qdobba - a cupola built as a public bathroom, clothes cleaning area, and water fountain.  Water fountains were the center of the social scene back in the day.  Many of them are gone but the fountains that survived are beautiful. 

The outside of the Qdobba

More gorgeous stonework

Emily and I then visited a hammam where we sat in a hot steamy room and scrubbed clean.  It was...interesting to see the amount of dead skin that came off.

Our friends Dave and Melanie arrived, without Eric, which sort of surprised Dave and I because we thought he was supposed to be coming with them.  Turns out, he was coming into Fes (4 hours away) the next day. So, we decided to go on a culinary tour of Morocco.  We met up with our friend Mounir and visited the Djemma and ate these delicious snails.  Quite different then the escargot we get here.  It is served in a dark garlicy broth and very good!

We decided to visit one of the restaurant stalls.  There are many workers who try and convince you to visit a stall, but we picked a pretty delicious one.   (We visited another one a few days later that was not that great.  I would advise not to go to 117 - straight to heaven because it didn't bring us there.)

After dinner we discovered these amazing cookies - Ghoribas!  They were SO GOOD.  They taste like meringues with coconut and citrus.  We also visited the same juice bar and got delicious juices. From the pink one clockwise:  strawberry, mango, almond, kiwi, and jus royal (strawberry + kiwi + papaya). 

While writing these posts I look back on my journal.  In Marrakech, there many people begging.  Its very hard to turn away from them in any country, but I find it especially difficult in developing countries. 

It is hard when you see small children being goaded on by their parents to beg, or sell tissues, etc.  Mounir said he hates it but that they make a bit of money since lots of people feel bad for them.  We bought cookies from a lady who had a little boy and I gave him a piece of candy, he was so happy.  Then he ran over to his dad to show him, which was very sweet, but someone pointed out that he probably does it out of habit to show his what he got from begging.  That obviously may not be true, but I still makes me sad.  It is hard for me to see someone beg, especially when they look so sad and hold out their hands. 

It was difficult to see - but I know that giving them money would not help or make it better. Purchasing from Al Kawtar helps a bit, but I wish there was more I could do.  We are going to Egypt in a few weeks, and Kathleen showed me this great organization:  Stuff Your Rucksack.  This website shows different organizations that need certain supplies that are low cost and can fit in your bag.  You don't have to bring a lot, but you will bring will be very useful.  From now on, I'm definitely checking out this website before I go anywhere.  I'll be packing for the Sunshine Project! 

Gosh, sorry to end on a sad note.  Hopefully my next one will be better! 

Morocco Part 1

We went to Morocco for a week in December and visited Marrakech, Imlil, and El Kebab (where my friend Yorda is working for the Peace Corps.)  This is going to be a series because it was awesome, and I wrote in my journal a lot. 

Welcome to Marrakech!

Em, Dave, and I flew into Marrakesh after a stressful ride to the airport. Our ride had been sick for weeks and did not wake up to her alarm, phone calls from us, or Emily throwing soft yet dense objects at her window - which all occurred at 5 AM.  In a panic, Em called me and my 'brilliant' plan was to take our car and leave a key in the secret compartment and bribe a friend to pick the car up from the airport.  Luckily, Emily's host mom was awake (since she was leaving for Nicaragua on the same morning) and she awesomely drove us to the airport.  After running through the airport trying not to knock little old ladies and families down - I believe Dave hurdled over a chair, we saw that the terminal was quite far.  So, we had to run down a hallway, down a set of a stairs, over a moving sidewalk, through customs, and up another set of stairs, and we finally make it to the gate, with maybe 2 minutes left.  Somehow, I was one of the first people on the plane* and managed to snag us 3 exit row seats and we were finally off to Morocco.  

We booked a beautiful Riad (Moroccan guest house) through Homeaway that fit 8 people for the same price as a hostel. It was a traditional Moroccan house with 3 floors, beautiful stonework, a rooftop terrace, and a courtyard with 2 orange trees and a fountain where we ate our breakfast.  When we arrived Fatiha, our host, served us traditional Moroccan mint tea.  Yum!

D outside our room on the balcony overlooking the courtyard.

Our beautiful courtyard.

Our Riad was a quick 10 minute walk to the main square of Djeam el Fna. We left and went to meet Mounir, someone I contacted though CS in order to get a real, un-touristy view of Marrakech.  We quickly became friends because he is awesome.  We could not have gotten through our time in Marrakech without him, and our friend Eric would have been stuck in Fes but more on that later. He took us to an AMAZING restaurant and juice place called Agnaoue which we went to every day we were in Marrakech for their juices.  We then walked around the famous Marrakech souk (market) and ooggled at the beautiful fabrics, crafts, shoes, etc. 

The twisted derbs of the souk - getting lost is half the fun!

Beautiful Cookies

That night we visited Djema el Fna - a UNESCO world heritage site.  It is crazy walking there - you have to walk through narrow streets dodging people, motorbikes, cars, bikes, donkeys pulling carts, horses pulling carts, people pulling carts, beggars, merchants with their wares spread on the ground and more!  The Djema at night is amazing:  storytellers, gnawa musicians, impromptu banjo and drum concerts, women applying henna, and people selling these amazing delicious cookies.  During the day the huge square is full of snake charmers, monkeys, water sellers, and merchants.  By night is totally different:  more people, more things to see, and my favorite - where bare concrete was a few hours before almost a hundred restaurant stalls are set up!  It was amazing.  

Storytellers speaking in Darija so we didn't understand it - but very cool!

Dried fruits/nuts stalls

We went back to our Riad where Fathia had spent hours cooking a traditional Moroccan dinner- a fresh salad with argan oil, Beef Tagine with prunes rolled in sesame seeds, preserved lemons, and soaked almonds.  For dessert:  an amazing chocolate, banana, and orange blossom pie.  Wow!  We spent the night drinking a Cote du Rhone style (Moroccan!) wine in our awesome candlelit courtyard.  We tried not to eat the whole pie, buton unsuccessful. 

Fatiha decorated our courtyard with candles and put our amazing dinner in the dining room. 

LOOK AT THIS PIE!!!!

"The smells are amazing:  Fathia's cooking, spice stalls, people, diesel.  The last two don't smell bad, just different - it actually reminds me a bit of the Philippines.  As I write this the call to prayer is sounding and I'm sitting on our rooftop terrace watching the sunset.  What an amazing city!" 

*  Differences between Europe and the States:  EasyJet doesn't assign seats, so its basically first come, first served, much like Southwest used to be.  However, people don't really line up, its more of a giant mob.