Savannah in Morocco

Thursday (Dec 29) was our first day in Morocco. We are staying in a hotel in Marrakech. In the morning we had a really good breakfast, before doing a little wandering around and then entering the Medina, which is an ancient city. The walk to the medina is really pretty because there is a big clay wall and in front of the wall there is a pathway with roses and orange trees on the side.  In the ancient city we saw La Koutoubia. La Koutoubia is a minaret above a mosque. The devout Muslims go to a mosque five times a day to pray and today at lunch we heard them called to prayer over a loud speaker.

Outside the walls of Marrakech Medina

In front of La Koutoubia

There is also a huge market called a Souk. In the souk there were all sorts of Moroccan things sold, and small narrow streets crowded with people, motor bikes, donkeys, push carts and bicycles. Most of the things sold were rugs, clothes, lamps, plates, scarves, jewelry, slippers, and all sorts of unusual foods and spices. In the square there were restaurants selling local Moroccan food like tajine and couscous, juice stalls with freshly squeezed lemon, orange and grape fruit juice, people selling spices such as saffron, sweet curry, cumin, paprika, and pretty much any spice that you could possibly want, people selling food, (like dates, dried apricots, figs, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, peanuts) monkey tamers, and snake charmers. Some of the snakes were cobras and the snake charmers were moving their heads around and the snake copied. I was so scared! The monkey owners had the monkeys on leashes and if you paid them they would put the monkey on their shoulder and you could take a picture. The spice stalls smelled so good!

Marrakech Souk



 Spice Stall

In Spice Square (which is a world heritage site) there were many woman wearing kaftans and head scarves and giving henna tattoos so I decided to get one. It felt really good! It is a beautiful design and is suppose to last two weeks. For lunch we went to a good restaurant that had a lot of cats running around under the tables. We had couscous, chicken on a stick, and an omelet. Later when we left the square and were heading home, we saw a man selling macaroons, so we tried one, and it was really good!

Henna Hand

Our second day in Morocco was just as good as the first! The temperature was colder in the morning then it warmed up to 50-60 degrees. First we went back to the souks but this time we had a tour guide named Najib. Najib told us that the souks we went to yesterday were the ones mostly for tourists, and he took us to the souks that the local Moroccans shop at. He told us there were 18,000 stalls in the souk. Something really cool about those souks is that on any one street there are only stores that sell the same thing. For example, one street sells slippers, one street sells lamps, one street sells scarves, one street sells bags, and so on. We went to the slipper street and went into a store were Mom and I bought some really nice Moroccan slippers. We did a lot of looking around before going into a huge store that sold Moroccan antiques. There was a really nice guy named Achmed who showed us around and helped us pick stuff out. We ended up with some really nice things for our house. He also gave us Moroccan tea which is green tea with fresh mint leaves and sugar. It is really good! Najib then took us around a little bit more before taking us to a dinner place that he recommended so we could make a reservation for that night which was New Year’s Eve.  Najib dropped us at a restaurant for lunch and we said goodbye.

That night we went out and had a traditional Moroccan dinner. The table was set with popcorn, green and black olives, pickled green peppers, and peanuts. We ordered one of the few set meals especially for New Years. First we had a selection of Moroccan salads. There were six bowls with different things in them and you take what you want and mix it together. In the bowls there were cold boiled potatoes, pickled cooked carrots, chick peas with creamy tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes and green pepper, fresh beets, and aborigine. We also had puff pastry with rice and mince meat in deep fried phyllo dough, (like a mini samosa) and deep fried phyllo dough stuffed with sticky rice dipped in sugar and orange flower. (It tasted like a dessert!) For a main meal we had chicken tajine with olives. For dessert we had green tea with fresh mint like before, macaroons, biscotti, pastry crescent, and a HUGE “make-your-own-fruit salad” which consisted of four apples, about seven tangerines, and four huge oranges. During the dinner there was a belly dancer, and guys on instruments; one on a drum and one on what we think is a loot.  

Later, we went out to the square for a few hours to wait until midnight. We saw people in the middle of the square selling food so we went to go check it out. The main stalls were selling things like calamari, fish, vegetables, and meat on skewers, but other stalls sold more unusual foods. One stall sold whole lamb heads, lamb brains, (which went quickly, so they must be pretty popular) lamb feet, and mostly every part of a lamb that you can imagine. That same stall also sold eels. A few stalls sold snails. When we left the food area, we went to look around the rest of the square. They still had the same things as during the day, but this time they also had guys selling false teeth.  There were people dancing out stories and street magicians. One magician kept spitting up table tennis balls and putting them in his bag and but after he spat up like ten of them, he shook the bag and they were gone! There was also a guy with a hawk. When we were leaving, they did the countdown to midnight with a bugle. When we got home we all fell asleep instantly.

On our third day in Morocco we slept in late because we were so tired. When we got up we had breakfast and in the late morning we went swimming. Jackson and I only jumped in a few times because it was too cold! The pool was really cool because it had stepping stones across it.

When we finally left, we went to the Bahia Palace. It was really pretty! There were ornate ceilings, incredible mosaics, beautiful fire places, and many courtyards, each prettier than the last.  The courtyards had trees, plants, and flowers with a crossroad pathway that had a fountain in the middle, and little open rooms outlining it. The “main courtyard” was huge! We were only allowed on about a fifth of it, but there was a really old fountain, and wheat growing on the roof. The whole palace was beautiful!

Our next day in Morocco was spent driving all day, but with a lot of interesting stops along the way. We had a driver named Josuf who was taking us to the desert where we were going to spend the night. First, we went through Marrakech really quickly before entering the mountains. In the mountains the terrain changed a lot! It went from red rock to grey rock, and no plants at all to completely covered in green. We went up and down the mountains and wound around the sides of them. When we stopped in the mountains there were people by the sides of the rode selling fossils and crystals. We saw mountain goats and sheep, and a lot of herders with them. In the mountains Josuf told us a little about the Berber people. He told us that they live up in the mountains and farm goats and sheep. He said that all of the kids in the Atlas Mountains go to school from age seven to fourteen, and some of them have to walk up to an hour to get to school. 

When we got down from the mountains we were driving through a rocky desert, which was really different from what I expected. When we got to a town, we bought some turbans for the camel ride the next day. Then we had lunch at a hotel which was really good – meatball tajine.

We also made a few stops. A lot of them were at the side of the road in the mountains because it is so amazing, but we did go to one famous site, Ouzerate, which is the place where a lot of desert movies were filmed, like Lawrence of Arabia and Gladiators. There are a few poor families still living there. There was also a 200 year old town there that we went in a little bit. The other place we stopped was really cool because all there was were palm trees as far as the eye can see! It was nice because it reminded me of Bermuda.

Making pottery

Kiln for pottery

After lunch (really good meatball tagine which we have never had before) we drove a little before going to a village named Tamgrote. There we had someone show us around. There were many kids of all ages running around and following us. First he took us to a graveyard. We could only see in, not go in. he told us that tall and thin stones were for the males, and the short and round ones were for the females. Then he took us to a school where they only study Koran, which is their bible. In the school there was a library that held over 4000 books, the oldest was a 1000 year old Koran! Some of the other books were: more Koran and Koran explanations, math, astronomy, medicine, animal dictionaries, and more. The coolest thing though, was that they were all collected by one guy! We also learned that if you make a circle with your thumb and forefinger and let your other three stick up, (sort of like an ok sign) that is the Islamic sign of their god, Allah. The school also had dorms and a cafeteria. After that we went to where they make pottery. They dig up clay from three feet down and they mix it with water and leave it to dry a little bit, then they form it into the shape that they want, then they bake it in the oven, take it out and decorate it, then they bake it one more time before it is complete. When they are forming the wet clay into shapes, they sit in a hole in the ground that they dug where there is a foot pedal that spines the stick that the clay is wrapped around, and when they are spinning the clay they use their hands to smooth it out and shape the clay. Then they showed us their store. We couldn’t get anything since we couldn’t carry it.

After that we kept driving until we got to a town where we could get water bottles for the night, before driving to our campsite in the desert. When we got there, it was already dark and really cold! They showed us the food tent, the bathroom tent, and then our tent. The food tent had two tables with couches for seats, and two tables with the floor for seats. In our tent there was a candle and two beds. They gave us extra blankets. The bathroom tent was a few tents away from ours. The stars were beautiful! Since there were really no lights, we could see thousands more than usual. We still had two hours until dinner, so dad and I decided to go for a little walk in the dunes. The sand was really fine. We basically just walked up and down a few dunes. For dinner we had tajine and fruit salad. We met a couple who were visiting someone in Morocco. They were really nice and they told us that they had come in on camels and left on camels. After dinner we went to our tent to sleep. Our candle had burned out so it was completely pitch black other than our two little flashlights. Someone came and gave us extra blankets, but it was still really cold. When we about to fall asleep, some people started playing drums and it echoed of the surrounding mountains.

Savannah at Sunrise in the Sahara

Savannah in dinner tent

The next day we got up really early, went outside, climbed some dunes, and watched the sunrise. Jack and I climbed to the top of the highest one, which was really hard. The sunrise was beautiful, but the pictures didn’t turn out that good. On our way down, Jack and I slid, our shoes got full of sand. We saw some little critter tracks, that we weren’t sure what they were, and we also saw some tracks that we thought were snakes, but later a guy told us that they were beetle tracks.

After breakfast we put on our turbans and got on some camels. Dad, Jack, and our luggage were on a dark brown camel named Lasan, and Mom and I were on a tan camel name Silly Billy. They were both boys. It was really uncomfortable! Once, the camel I was on shook like a wet dog and we had to hold on really tight! Silly Billy was in front and Lasan was in the back. Lasan kept going forward a little bit so that Mom could pet him. The ride was pretty cool because we got to see what the desert was like. There were lots of dunes and little oasis’s almost, where there was all of a sudden a little bunch of bushes or trees in the middle of all sand. There were some bushes and trees dotted here and there as well. After about two and a half hours, we got off the camels, said goodbye, and got back in the car with Josuf. Then we had a big long drive home only stopping for lunch and a few times for pictures. At the first picture stop we emptied our shoes which were full of sand. When we got back to Marrakech, we said goodbye to Josuf and went to our ryad (like a Moroccan bed and breakfast). At the ryad the manager, Said, took us to the square and helped us find a good place for dinner. Then we walked around the square before going home for bed.

The next day we took got up early again and took the seven hour train to Fez. On the train we met a just engaged couple, and we were talking to them. When they got off on the third to last stop, another guy named Achmed whose family owns a tannery. He organized a guide for us for the next day.

When we got off the train, we went to our ryad. The name was Ryad Hala, and it was amazing! The walls were mostly completely ornate. It was built in 1394 and it was only made into a ryad three years ago. Our room had a big bed, two small beds, a huge wardrobe, and a bathroom. It was really pretty as well. We also went up to the terrace, which had an incredible view.

The ryad is inside some souks, so we decided to walk around them a little bit. In the souks there were lots of cats, a lot of fruit and veg sellers, a lot of the same things sold as in Marrakech, a wild rooster, a few shops were you can buy a live chicken, sheep feet, and even a store that had a whole camel head in it! The streets were a lot narrower than in Marrakech, so it was harder to weave around.

Then we went to the restaurant part of the souks. We had dinner at a Moroccan place, but they didn’t have tajine and fruit salad. We had harira soup and chicken skewers, french fries, and rice. There was a little back cat that was under Jacksons chair but eventually came out and slept on Dad’s shoe, even sticking his head up Dad’s pant leg. After dinner Mom and Jack went back to the ryad, and Dad and I walked around a little bit more. We found a carpet shop that had really nice carpets, so we went inside. The owner showed us a lot of carpets which were all really nice, so we decided to come back with mom the next day.

The next day we met our guide named Mo mo that brought his wife along. He took us around Fez, and some of the places we went were:

·         A place where they make wedding chairs that the bride sits on and men carry her in.

·         The tannery that Achmed’s family owns. They sold jackets, poufs to sit on, bags, slippers, (they had a giant one to hang on the wall.) and little pots. They took us up to the roof where you can look over and see the process and gave us mint to sniff on because it smelled so bad. They told us that the colors they used were all natural, saffron – yellow, cobalt – blue, poppy – red, coal – black, and magnesium – green. We could see all the leather drying. I ended up getting a little purple and black pot.

Leather Tannery

·         A fabric shop. At the fabric shop, they had some really nice fabric and scarves. They also had three looms run by foot pedals, and Jackson got to try it a little.

·         The university. The university is the oldest university in the world. We didn’t get to see very much, we only saw through an archway. We learned that to get accepted into the university is memorize the whole Koran which takes eight or nine years, then you get into the university and study it for thirteen years, and then when you come out you come out you are considered an iman, which is a spiritual and holy leader.

·         Spice shop. At the spice shop there were tons of spices and a man who showed us some. He had frankincense, mer, saffron, sweet cury, a special mix of spices that goes in a tajine, rose hand cream, and a black colored spice that you sniff and it clears your sinuses. Mom got some rose hand cream.

 

·         Brass works. At a brass works place there was a guy with a flat gold plate which he was putting designs in. he used a needle, a tool, and a hammer. It was amazing! When he hit the plate lightly, it made a bell sound that went on for about forty seconds. There were some earrings of Fatima’s hand that mom bought. Fatima’s hand looks like a hand covered in henna with an eye in the middle, and the guy in the store told us that Fatima’s hand is supposed to warn off the evil eye.

After that, Mo mo dropped us off with a driver named Abrahim. Abrahim took us to a few places as well like:

·         A pottery and mosaic factory and store. There were many beautiful things there. The mosaics were fountains and table tops, which were very nice. They way they were made is called reverse method mosaics, which mom said is very hard. You put the pieces for the mosaic upside down on a flat surface, and when you are done, you pour the grout on the bottom and when it dries and you flip it over you have a flat mosaic. The pottery was just as nice, and they showed us where they make it. They use the same method as the people in Tamgrote. When they paint the pottery, the light purple comes out dark blue.

·         On top of a hill there were some tomes that kings were buried under. The view was amazing! The grass around the tomes had drying leather from the tannery we went to.

After we went to those places, Abrahim dropped us of a few minutes from our ryad, so we walked back. Closer to our ryad, we saw a man selling candy. He was selling nougat. We got some chocolate and some vanilla with nuts in. It is really good. Later when we went out to dinner we saw some school girls and they were trying to talk to me, but I didn’t understand them. For dinner we went to the same place as the night before, but the little black cat wasn’t there.

The next morning Dad and I went out for a last walk and we found a doughnut stand so we bought some doughnuts for breakfast. After that we took the same train back to Marrakech. When we got there, it was already really late so we went to the same ryad as before, had dinner, and went to bed.

The next day was our last day in Marrakech. We had breakfast and a little later, and then dad and Jackson went out and Mom and I stayed in because we were tired. At lunch time, Dad and Jack came back for us and we all went out for lunch. We went back to a place in the square that we had gone to before. After lunch Dad and I went out and Mom and Jack went home. Dad and I walked around a little bit before Dad decided to go back to Achmed’s store so he could tell us about the pieces we had bought again. When we left, we found a scarf store and I bought a very beautiful scarf.

All of the things that I saw and did in Morocco were amazing, and I really hope that one day I will go back.

The next two days were spent going to from Marrakech to London to Dubai to Cape Town.