the Laughing Boomer

Morocco is a country of amazing contrasts, friendly people and fabulous design. We´ve done G.A.P. tours when we´ve felt the countries might be too “difficult” to navigate independently and our fourth one this year was in Morocco.
We arrived in Casablanca, the major commercial city of Morocco, a couple of days before the tour.We explored the Corniche or waterfront with its nightclubs,  a few higher-end restaurants and hotels, and their Medina, which is small and unmemorable. With the group we saw the huge newer-built Hassan II Mosque, exquisite in its design and workmanship. It holds 25,000 people inside and 80,000 people on the grounds. Unlike other countries, this is the only Moroccan mosque open to non-Muslims. We found Casa, as the locals call it, a great town, busy and noisy with friendly people, although it lacks major tourist attractions. We didn’t find Rick’s Cafe Amercain.
 
Our G.A.P. tour group included a variety of people from Australia, the U.S, Ireland and Canada. Six of us were educators, and the rest were the usual GAP profile – primarily highly educated professionals who loved traveling. One difference is that many in our group had been or were going to various parts of Africa, and we enjoyed learning more about that.
 
After Casablanca we drove north along the Atlantic Ocean to Rabat. Rabat is the administrative capital of Morocco and about 60% of the people are government employees. We toured the Royal Palace grounds and a Mohamed V mausoleum grounds where mosque foundations were laid several centuries ago, but not built. We walked with our guide through the blue and white walled Oudayas Kasbah or Casbah, which was built by the Andalusian Moors, expelled by Spain centuries before. After being in Spain and seeing where the Moors were expelled from, it was interesting to see where they went. The local beaches of both Reyat and Sale, pronounced Sal-lay, were full on people playing in the summer sun.
 
Our drive up the coast was through quite green countryside with wheat, barley, and grape crops and lots of sheep-grazing. Moroccan roads are generally good. We pushed on to Meknes for the night.
 
I´ll never forget the Meknes Medina, where sitting on the counter were decapitated cow heads with their tongues hanging out.There were mounds of orange and saffron spices, delicious looking sweets, unfortunately swarming with bees, Berber carpets, brightly coloured shoes, clothes and anything else you might imagine. The smells invaded our senses.
 
We moved on from Meknes to a tour of the Volubilis ruins, the southernmost Roman ruins in existence. Unfortunately, except for a few well-preserved mosaics, the site is not in good shape. However, our tour guide explained things well and injected some humour. We headed on to our five-star Fes hotel with two pools, which we appreciated, not knowing what lay ahead – the unforgiving Saharan sun.
 
Fes is another important Imperial city, this one the spiritual and cultural capital. Fes el-Jdid, the old Jewish quarters have balconies facing outwards and were built close to the palace grounds when these intellectuals were expelled from Spain after 1492. Apparently hundreds of thousands of Jewish people left when the Israel was created in 1949 with more leaving in 1956. We definitely needed our guide that day as the Medina is a massive UNESCO world heritage site. There may be tourists yet wandering forever in the maze of alleys. Through the maze of Fes el-Bali we stopped at beautiful mosques, elegant old palaces, and a medersa, a Muslim theological college.  Mostly though, we saw the hodgepodge that is Medina life: mostly humble homes, shops, donkeys, cats, all sorts of food, beads, bangles, clothes, leather goods and, of course, the people who live there.   Our guide took us also to some production shops.
 
At the tannery we looked down upon dozens of outdoor dye-vats of red, brown, blue and yellow. The leather skins dried in the sun as they would have in centuries past. We were handed mint sprigs for the smell. At the ceramic pottery and tile shop we observed how truckloads of grey earth were mixed with water and broken down into clay. We saw ancient, mind-numbing tile-making processes and other workers creating and painting complex designs on handmade plates and vases or breaking the pottery into tiles for mosaic tables.
 
Morocco also makes a type of “silk”, and at this shop several of us played “dress-up” with elegant caftans, which Moroccans wear regularly.   We visited a metal-making shop, selling brass, bronze and silver made into huge lamps, mirrors, as well as urns, frames etc. Much of their goods are drop-dead gorgeous.
 
 
Our eight hours at the medina as well as the heat left us slowly gliding through the rest of the evening. The usual G.A.P. tourist dinner and show was in a beautiful space, but noisy as we were no more than five feet from the band. The vegetarian main course was prunes! We saw some belly-dancing, other folkloric dances, swayed and clapped to the music and had a few laughs.
 
After Fes we started our all-day drive to the Middle Atlas mountains through the dry countryside to arrive finally at Merzouga in the Sahara Desert. Many of the small towns are a bit of a blur for me because they are so alike – clay square buildings along dusty roads, with few people walking around in the unbearable heat.
 
Our two-day stay at the Sahara Auberge seemed to be mainly in the swimming pool, which was crowded morning, noon and night. The small-windowed rooms were unbearable as the straw and mud walls exuded heat like an oven. It was probably over 50 degrees and our guide said it rose to 56 in August.   El Husiane recommended we sleep outdoors on thin mattresses on the roof. So, we did, and the other guests slept all over the place as well: by the pool, in the courtyard area – anywhere but inside. It was strange to see probably fifty people sleeping outside. We awoke at dawn for a magical experience of the sun slowly rising through the palm trees in the desert.
 
On the first evening we had a great time playing rhythm with metal “castanets” and drums. For the second night, most of us, except Ken, who said one camel ride in life is enough, headed into the Sahara desert for an overnight stay at a Berber nomad tent. We experienced a rain-storm on our camel ride there – cold and strong, but short-lived and it transformed the desert into bolder colours. However three of us, well, if truth be told, the oldest of the group, headed back at the halfway point. After two hours I was more-than-ready to stop; the next day others much younger said it was their first and final camel ride. We have ridden camels three times in the past six months, and this time was most difficult, primarily because the sand was soft and deep and each step flexed my mid-section.
 
After Merzouga we drove for most of the day. We visited Tineghir for a walk through a palm grove and some agricultural fields. Our guide explained that many of Tineghir's locals work overseas and send money home. In fact, I asked several of the local guides and all confirmed that Morocco's main income comes from tourism,  foreign remittances from workers abroad, and agriculture.
 
We stopped at the beautiful Todgha Gorges for the night. These fantastic sheer red cliffs and mountain streams make this a popular local rock-climbing and day-trip area. The next day we traveled for several hours through spectacular scenery through the Dades Gorges along the romantic-sounding Route of a 1000 Kasbahs to Ouarzazate. The UNESCO heritage Kasbah, a former Foreign Legion site, is pretty interesting and offers a panaramic view of the area. The word Kasbah mean fortification and most town had four or five kasbahs where people could go if needed. Some of us took a tajine cooking class and again we had tajine for dinner. I found the interior design of this little auberge quite lovely; ceilings painted red, rounded doors, and charmingly designed rooms.
 
We set off again this time to the High Atlas Mountains to a small and busy town, Imlil, and then on up to Arend where we stayed for the night – this time four in a room with about three to four inches between each bed, and shared washroom facilities. We walked the mountain area, enjoyed the very rustic surroundings, and had a fun night, with some of us playing scrabble and others smoking the sheesha. The people here are extremely hard-working and appeared to be very poor; we saw one women carrying a huge bundle of sticks on her back.  In contrast to the desert towns, these high mountain towns are busy with lots of people about.
 
Essaouira, a beach town, was a welcome change from the High Atlas Mountains and the desert. The sea winds cooled us down a bit and we our first seafood meal was probably the best meal of the trip. We saw the Portuguese Fortifications and Barcelona-made cannons. The medina was small enough that shopping was easy and getting lost not a problem. We didn’t swim although the beaches were full of vacationers. We enjoyed our group meals there and a chance to get laundry done and stay in one place for two nights. After our usual stop at the MarJane grocery store for lunch, liquor and other supplies we arrived at our final destination, Marakkesh.
 
I loved the morning tour of Marakkesh, the Jardin Marjorelle is beautifully designed and peaceful and the Bahia Palace is very interesting. What I noticed about Moroccean design, is that, for example, in this palace all the interior decorations are painted in splendid colours, while in many of the other Arab countries the design is beautiful but the singular colour doesn´t make it as outstanding.
 
The Marakkesh market was overblown in my opinion. It was unbearably hot and the men kept calling to us as we walked by and if we stopped they often touched my arms. Men in Canada or other countries wouldn´t even consider doing that to an unknown woman. There were snake charmers, monkeys on chains and other shows on display, but we didn´t enjoy it much. The Essoairra medina was best for me because of its size and cooler temperatures.
We stayed at a lovely hotel with a wonderful pool and had a fun last night out on the town, and then rather suddenly, as it always seems, it was time to go. A few of us left a day before the actual tour ended, and we said our goodbyes and headed off to Marseille.
 
Our G.A.P. tour took us over 2,100 kilometres, up mountains and down to the sea. We visited the four imperial cities and passed by dozens of small towns. Some of the Morocco's scenery is spectacular especially the panoramic views from the High Atlas mountains with the lush valleys below dotted with date palms. Besides the imperial palaces however, and amazingly beautiful interior design sense, the exteriors of most buildings are non-descript and unmemorable.
 
The food was not great. Almost every lunch and dinner was the same - tajine – a vegetable and meat stew, but for the vegetarians, basically potatoes and carrots with a bit of onions. Couscous was only available on Friday. Our Moroccan family couscous meal was delicious, complete with Moroccan “whisky” Tea Minte, and we had a couple of good meals,but basically by the end almost all of us didn´t want to hear the word ¨tajine¨ again.
 
Morocco is a liberal Muslim country. Women are part of the parliament, are educated and choose their dress coverage, although it is quite selective freedom, e.g. women aren´t allowed at funerals because they scream too much and  a woman couldn´t be the ruling monarch. From what we saw Moroccans are poor, but not starving. We saw few beggars, but instead people actively engaged in making their livings. Liquor is available in supermarkets, although one glass of wine had me decide not to drink for the two weeks. Moroccans are very friendly people – eager to communicate with us and lots of fun. Moroccans speak Berber in three dialects, Arabic, French and Spanish. Ken was thrilled to buy a phrase book and refresh his high-school French. We’ve travelled so much that in every country it takes us a few days to switch from the last language – in this case Spanish, to French.
 
The blazing sun reminded us why it’s best to explore desert countries in the spring or fall. Unfortunately it was a challenge for many in the group; I think many of us had heat dehydration. We needed a thermometer that went over 120 F or 50 C.
 
We left Morocco with lots of wonderful memories, new friends and an great appreciation of this amazing North African country.