Its November 9, 2004 and Pat and I fly American Airlines from Los Angeles to New York and then Royal Air Moroc to Casablanca. We clear customs and immigration and meet Aziz, the Overseas Adventure Travel guide for our exploration of Morocco and the other 13 members of our travel group.

Before we left for Morocco, our friends expressed concern for our safety and I had occasional, fleeting second thoughts. We need not have been concerned. Seldom have we felt as welcome in a foreign land. People in large cities and small villages recognize us as Americans and go out of their way to greet us and make us feel welcome. There is never an uncomfortable moment or incident. If you are looking for an interesting and comfortable place for your next vacation, we strongly recommend you consider Morocco.

Aziz gives us a quick tour of Casablanca, the commercial capital of Morocco and the second largest city in Africa after Cairo. The highlight is the new Hassan II Mosque with room for 20,000 in the prayer hall and 80,000 more in the courtyard. It is the second largest Mosque after the one in Mecca.

Our route for the entire trip will take us from Casablanca clockwise northeast along the coast to Rabat, the governmental capital, then east to Fes, the intellectual capital, then south to the Sahara then west to Marrakesh.

We drive to Rabat, about an hour and a half away. Before dinner on our first evening we begin the process of weaving a complex tapestry of discovery and learning about Morocco. Aziz has invited a woman who is active in women's affairs to talk with us about the status of women in Morocco. This is the beginning of an ongoing discussion of the extended family, its strengths and challenges.

Day 2 begins with an Arabic lesson. We learn a few pleasantries and common expressions including ensha Allah -- God willing. By the end of the trip, with Aziz's coaching, we are using a number of Arabic words with shop keepers and perfect strangers.

We tour the city of Rabat including the Royal Palace and the King Mohamed the V Mausoleum. Both are guarded by Royal Guards in bright red uniforms. Aziz takes us to the Kasbah of the Oudaya. Kasbah has a different meaning in Morocco than most places. Here it is a royal home used for domestic, administrative and military purposes, usually in the form of a small fort. We will see and visit kasbahs all along our tour.

Aziz then takes us through the medina, the ancient walled part of the city. He explains that each quarter of the ancient city consisted of large homes that housed extended families. Each quarter would have a mosque, a hamman or Turkish bath, a public fountain, an oven to bake bread, shops and homes. The homes here and many other places have a small door within a larger door. There are several explanations, one is that the small knocker on the small door would be used by a woman and, knowing that a woman was at the door, a woman would answer it. The large knocker on the large door would be used by a man and a man would answer. We begin to see the integrity between Islam, Arabic architecture and their way of life.

This evening we return to the medina. We walk down a long, dark, narrow street, turn right, walk a ways, turn right again, walk a ways and stop before a non-descript door with a small sign that simply say "Dinarjat." The restaurant is in a converted home, furnished with lush carpets, traditional couches and low tables. The staff looks as if they have just stepped out of A Thousand and One Nights.

This evening we have an excellent meal that includes bastila, a slightly sweet, richly spiced squab pie with 100 individual layers of flaky dough. I have never before eaten pigeon and we have it twice on this trip; both quite different and excellent. For me, the squab pie is a special treat, one of the culinary highlights of the trip.

Day 3 we take the bus to Volubilis where we visit the Roman ruins and begin to fit the Roman Empire into the historic tapestry of Morocco. We continue to Meknes and visit one of a number of royal palaces. At this one we see some of the Kings beautiful Berber and Arabian horses. We continue on to Fes.

Aziz tells us he was born and raised in the medina of Fes, but he now lives in a condominium in the modern part of the city. After dinner we walk from our hotel to Aziz's home where we meet his wife Sabas, daughter Wiami, son Hicham and some of their extended family. Their wedding photo album provides a visual introduction to the traditional five day wedding that includes ceremonial visits to the homes of both families, a day when the bride and the women of the wedding party have henna designs on their hands and feet, and finally the wedding ceremony.

Day 4 we spend in and around the Fes medina. We start with a panoramic view from a local hilltop just to get a sense of its immense size. We visit a pottery and tile cooperative that was in the medina but has been moved because of the air pollution from its kilns. The pottery is hand painted with traditional Arabic designs. Tile is used everywhere as part of Islamic architecture that uses geometric patterns extensively. All of the craft places we visit offer mint tea and have a sales room were we can buy their products.

We enter the medina through one of its gates. It is crowded and the streets are narrow so Aziz is joined by another guide named Muhammad to minimize the chances that we will get lost - no one does. The UNESCO Website says: "Founded in the 9th century and home to the oldest university in the world, Fez reached its height in the 13th-14th centuries under the Marinids, when it replaced Marrakesh as the capital of the kingdom. … Although the political capital of Morocco was transferred to Rabat in 1912, Fez has retained its status as the country's cultural and spiritual centre."

The "streets," like those in all of the medinas we visit, are too narrow for anything other than small handcarts and mules. The cry of balack is fair warning that you had better get out of their way or get run over.

There are shops everywhere. There is even a rather large tannery with associated odors - we are handed sprigs of mint as we mount the stairs to a rooftop viewing area. On the way down, there is a wide selection of leather coats, bags, slippers, etc., all for sale. Our lunch today is in a restaurant in a converted home.

At sunset this evening, Ramadan ends. For the last month essentially all Muslims have been fasting from dawn to dusk. Tomorrow will be a special day and shoppers are buying the food they need for tomorrow's celebration. By five o'clock the shops are closing and the medina is becoming deserted.

This evening our tour group is divided into three groups of five. We have been invited to private homes for dinner and conversation. Our host drives us to his condominium to meet his wife, daughter who is 10 and two sons who are 9 and 11. Our host is a real estate agent and his wife takes care of the children and home. The children are extremely well behaved and participate occasionally in the conversations about school and family life. At one point the conversation drifts to a medical problem shared by one of our group and our hostess and a comparison of medical practices. Like Aziz, this family no longer lives physically as part of an extended family but still maintain close ties.

Day 5 we are back on the bus heading south for the Sahara. The drive takes us through the Middle Atlas Range of mountains. Greek myth says that Atlas sat on the highest mountain in the High Atlas Range and held up the heavens on his shoulders. We pass through pine and cedar forests as we cross a 6,000 foot pass. There is snow on the mountains and in the shaded areas along the road. We stop for coffee and a stroll through Ifrane. This picturesque Alpine town looks as if it should be Switzerland rather than Morocco; it was built by the French as a ski resort. There is a statue marking the killing of the last Barbary lion - one of the preferred types used by the Romans to eat Christians in the Coliseum.

Lunch is in a modern version of a kasbah in Midelt. After lunch we visit a place that cuts and polishes local stone with imbedded fossils. They make stone tables and chairs and small items, all on sale in their store.

In Erfond we transfer from our bus to four Toyota Land Cruisers and then head south for an hour into the Sahara. This evening we stay in tents, two people to a tent. Each tent has cots with thick mattresses, nice sleeping bags with liners, thick blankets and a rug on the floor. There are toilet tents, a shower tent with hot water and a large dining tent.

Tonight we learn more about the Berbers, the indigenous people of the Maghreb - the area that is now Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. In Morocco there are also Arabians and mixtures of both groups. Aziz says that 55 per cent of the people are still nomads. The government is encouraging nomads to move to towns where there are schools and medical services. In almost every town we see new homes and shops being built.

One of the groups within the Berbers is the Tuaregs. They were the caravan drivers and the pirates of the desert. The used indigo, a blue dye, to keep away mosquitoes, prevent sunburn and, we are told, to darken their faces for night raids; therefore they were know as the "blue men." We are told that some of them - without the indigo dye - will be visiting us in the morning.

This evening the new moon sets early and the darkness is complete except for the millions of stars in the clear dark sky. It is cold. Aziz tells us, "Morocco is a very cold country with a very hot sun."

Day 6 and our wake-up call is at 5:30 and includes coffee or tea and bowls of hot water for washing. With the assistance of the Tuaregs we climb the steep slopes of Erg Chebbi, the highest sand dune in Morocco to see the sun rise across the Sahara. Then we sit at the edge of the steepest slope - a black diamond slope. The Tuaregs grab our ankles and pull us down the slope as fast as they can: "Berber skiing."

When we return to camp, breakfast is waiting. While we are eating a group of camels arrive with their drivers. Aziz encouraged us to buy scarves in Fes. Now he assists us in tying them on heads so we look as if we belong on our camels. One-by-one we get on a camel and the drivers assist us in staying on while the camel stands on its back legs and pitches forward and then stands on its front legs and pitches back. The saddles are fairly comfortable. We are off for an hour's ride across the desert.

Our vehicles meet us at the end of the camel ride and we go back across the desert and then onto paved road. We stop at a ksar which is a large, semi-fortified compound where just one extended family lives. We have tea with a family while Aziz describes life in a ksar including marriage only within the extended family. A compound where multiple families live is called a douar.

We also visit a kasbah that is being rebuilt and have an opportunity to explore the underground heating system for the hamman and to follow the secret passageway to and from the harem.

Back in the Land Cruisers we are off across the desert on single lane dirt roads and then across what appears to be unmarked desert. We arrive at a truly remote campsite with facilities very similar to the last one - tents for two nights.

Tonight the chef who accompanied us from the first camp site shows us how to prepare chicken with vegetables in a tajin, a clay cooking dish with a pointed cover. The tajin can be used as a serving dish - the cover keeps the food warm - or as a way to steam meat and vegetables with spices into a delicious meal.

Day 7 we begin with a hike to a nomad's tent where a widow and her children live. Before we left Fes, we went to a local supermarket and bought green tea, soap and other basics and we deliver them to her this morning. Aziz uses this opportunity to show us a typical nomad tent and to describe the nomadic life style. She is assisted by her four children with some additional assistance from her extended family. The widow wears a scarf across her face until the men leave. When only the women are left in the tent, she takes off her veil and allows the ladies to take photographs. We buy some toys made by the children.

The Land Cruisers pick us up and take us to an abandoned French Foreign Legion fort just 15 miles from the Algerian border. A nearby adventure travel hotel has a sign in front with its GPS coordinates as its only address.

In the late afternoon Aziz leads a trek from camp across the low lying sand dunes. The low sun provides a perfect blend of light and shadow for photographs. At his suggestion, we spread out along a ridgeline and sit alone, listening to the silence of the desert.

This evening Aziz talks about Islam and weaves together new information with the bits and pieces we have learned along the way.

Day 8 begins with a hike across the desert. Our trip often includes walks and hikes to add to the experience and provide much appreciated exercise. The vehicles meet us and we head back toward paved roads.

We stop at a Berber cemetery. Burial is quick and simple. There is a stone marker with no inscription at the head of the grave and another at the foot. There is nothing permanent. At some future time, the cemetery, like the people in it, will return to dust.

We stop at a ksar and see a newly born lamb, other livestock, various crops and irrigation systems. Well water and water from several large dams allows Morocco to feed its own people and ship off-season produce and other products to Europe and the rest of the world.

We drive on to Tinerhir. After dinner, Aziz takes us to the home of a lady who applies henna. She describes the process of preparing the henna and the solution used to hold the color. Each of the ladies in our group selects a design from her book. She uses a plastic syringe to "paint" the henna onto hands. The ladies use the heat from a small charcoal brazier to speed the drying. She then applies the fixative. The dried henna takes a day or two to flake off and continues to darken for a day or two more. It lasts a week or two and gradually fades by the end of the trip.

Most of the henna we see is applied with a syringe which draws a medium-wide line. However, we see several women who have beautiful henna patterns on their hands and feet that has been applied using a technique that allows shading, probably by using very thin lines.

Day 9 we visit a Berber/Tuareg rug merchant. They give as a full demonstration of how to prepare mint tea. They show us one of the largest selections of types, colors and sizes of carpets we have seen in all of our travels.

We drive into the Todra Gorge with near vertical walls a thousand feet high. Lunch is in a hotel in the gorge that we are told started many years ago as place for tea for French tourists. This evening dinner is under a massive Berber tent outdoors next to our hotel.

Day 10 we begin our trip westward toward Marrakesh. We drive into the Dadàs Gorge. This is the "route of a thousand kasbahs" that were used by Grand Vizier Muhammad al-Mugri during much of the period of the French Protectorate.

We stop to have Berber breakfast with a local family. The adult daughter is preparing a thin pancake with a thin layer of cheese, tomato and spices in the middle. We dip it in local honey and then in olive oil, an unlikely but tasty combination.

With the family's permission, Aziz uses the opportunity to illustrate some of the hardships that arise when life doesn't go as expected. The daughter who now lives at home was married for several years but her husband divorced her because she did not bear a child. She now lives at home with no prospects for remarriage or any other life outside her parent's home. Her former husband has since married two more times and still has not fathered a child.

The eldest son who was expected to live at home or at least close by has gone to Spain. He, like almost all eldest son's, had a special relationship within the family as the one designated to be the leader of the family in the next generation. He has left and now there is a void in the family structure that cannot be filled at this late date. The family has lost both a member and part of its structure.

We have lunch with the local imam, the prayer leader of a mosque. After lunch the two of our members who have been married the longest are dressed in marriage attire and a contract of marriage is drawn up by the imam and witnessed by two members of our group. Aziz says that when he travels with his wife he has to carry their marriage contract so they can rent a hotel room. Tonight we stay in a hotel in Ouarzazate.

Day 11 we continue toward Marakesh. We stop briefly in front of the Atlas Movie Studio, the second largest in Africa after the facilities in Cairo. We continue to the village of Aït Ben Haddou which is on UNESCO's World Heritage List. Because of UNESCO's efforts and those of motion picture companies that have used parts of the village in films, the ksar and kasbah are being restored, slowly.

Day 12 we explore Marrakesh. We start in three traditional horse-drawn calèche. We visit a silver jeweler and later a gold jeweler, the Bahia Palace that includes a harem with rooms for four wives and 20 concubines and other major sites. We visit a Berber pharmacy where we are given a demonstration of herbal and other "natural" cures, perfumes and spices. There is of course an opportunity to buy. After lunch we explore the shops of the medina. Late in the afternoon the tooth pullers, snake charmers, monkey trainers other street entertainers begin to appear around the edges of the Jamaa El F'na Square. About four o'clock the center of the square begins to fill with push carts laden with tables, chairs, stoves, rugs and other restaurant paraphernalia. We walk back to our hotel.

We return to the square after dark to find dozens of food stalls complete with tables and chairs set up and cooking dinner. Arrangements have been made for us at one of the food stalls. The food looks delicious and tastes as good as it looks.

Day 13 set off in calèches to the hamman or Turkish bath. Only two of the guys go, but there are nine women. We are steamed and scrubbed like we have never been scrubbed before. I found the process invigorating and the result very relaxing. The ladies reported steam, scrubbing, the washing away of some inhibitions and a great bonding experience.

The afternoon is free for exploration. We go back to Jamaa El F'na Square for tea and Moroccan pastries. We do a bit more shopping and then take taxies to the Majorelle Gardens that have been restored by Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent.

This is the end of the basic tour and tonight we have our farewell dinner. The next day five of our group fly home. Ten of us stay for a four day "post trip" extension that includes a visit to the ancient walled port of Essaouira. We see the tree climbing goats on our way back to Marrakesh. We ride mules to visit two ancient towns. On the return, we see Mt. Toubkal, the highest peak in Morocco and the second highest in Africa. On our third day we visit one of the larges "farmers markets" in the area to discover how the locals shop for everything from produce to nails to livestock. We then continue to the Casaces d'Ouzoud, the "waterfalls of the olives." We have a lovely outdoor lunch and feed the Barbery apes. Our final day provides more exploration of Marrakesh and lunch at the home of Aziz's supervisor for yet another view of life in Morocco. After lunch, Pat and I walk to La Mamounia Hotel for tea in their beautiful gardens.

This was a wonderful trip. There were three key ingredients. First, Aziz who provided all of the exploration and learning opportunities that time would allow without overwhelming us. He participated in our exploration and humor; he took care of us and all of the details. At the beginning of the trip Aziz asked us to become an extended family to fully enjoy the trip. Along the way he explained that a family name can be preceded by Ben as in Ben Loudon for son of Loudon; Beni for children of …, or Aït (pronounced "8" or "ate") for family of ... During the trip we become Aït Aziz, the extended family of Aziz.

The second key ingredient was the people and places of Morocco who always made us feel welcome and were always ready to share their country and portions of their lives. And the third was the outstanding group of people in our tour group who participated and shared the adventure and good times of a great trip.

Overseas Adventure Travel did a terrific job of putting together the team of people in Morocco who have developed and refined the trip to the extraordinary experience it is. We have traveled with Vermont Bicycle Tours, a sister company. We will continue to travel with both of them as opportunities arise.

Additional information on our trip: Coordinates
Adventure Travel for a list of our trips and links
Lyon, Popanz & Forester's home page
For comments or questions: email: Pat or Hal

Page created December 8, 2004