Morocco - Second visit for us and a nice surprise!

Way back in 2009 when the boys were just 5 and 6, we visited Morocco during Ramadan and spent our time in Casablanca and Marrakech.  The scorching weather and lack of food and water from sunrise to sunset due to Ramadan meant everyone in the country was a little cranky and inserted a slightly distorted lens to our view of Morocco.  It was removed from our itinerary in 2012 and, given the state of the world today, we weren't sure we would make it this time either.  

Our latest visit was completely different and we wish we had another month to explore this beautiful country.  The weather in April was perfect with temperatures ranging between 50-75 degrees.  We immediately fled the large, commercial town of Casablanca and hired a long distance cab to take us on the 3 hour drive to Riad Dar Oulhoum, inside the medina in Marrakech. 

Taxis and cars are only allowed to go to certain points in the medina and then everyone must walk or travel via bike (or motorbike!).  Our two French innkeepers, Bruno and Guy, met us at our taxi and lead us through a maze of streets and doorways (some that you needed to duck under) until we reached a dead-end with a small door.  Once we walked through the doorway, we were welcomed into a lovely home build around an open-air courtyard.  It is shocking these narrow, dull concrete alleys hide such beautiful homes, restaurants and shops behind the unfinished exteriors.

Bruno, Guy and their staff made us feel welcome and tried to get us comfortable navigating through the medina.  This was not an easy task considering the complexity of the maze.  They gave us a 20-page picture book to show us the way between their home and the main square, Djemaa el-Fna.  It consisted of photos of archways, shops and different landmarks to tell us where to turn - ingenious!  We just had to laugh and try to stay alive as we wove through the souks with all their shops, motorbikes and tourists.  We ate at La Jardin, the Cozy Bar, and Il limone – which all had a great atmospheres and food.  As we walked through the cramped, somewhat rough streets of the medina at night, it felt as if we were in some places we shouldn’t be and that there was the possibility of something unfortunate happening.  However, it is actually the opposite, we never had any negative experiences or encounters the entire time we were in Morocco.  We had been lectured ad naseum on the ship about how sexual harassment of women was a national sport in Morocco but we didn’t see or experience anything of it. 

After doing some last minute research of the snowpack conditions in the Atlas Mountains, Jay found the ideal place to stay in Imlil, called Douar Samra in the small village of Tamater.  Morocco’s landscape is extremely varied.  It transitions from lush farmland between Casablanca and Marrakech to dry desert to high mountains.  The highest peak on North Africa is Toubkal (13,700ft), and the town we drove to was a day’s hike below it.  The drive from Marrakech to Imlil was beautiful and climbed up a river valley, weaving up the mountain passes and through small villages.  Eighty percent of the Moroccan people descended from the Berbers and although the West still refers to the rural people as Berbers (adapted from the Romans calling them barbarians), they prefer to be called Amazighs. 

To get to our guesthouse, Doura Samra, our taxi dropped us off on the road above the small village and Mohamed and a donkey from our inn carried our luggage down a loose rock path through the local homes and to our guesthouse. 

The guesthouse was made of clay like all the homes in the village and the main gathering room and our bedrooms were powered by candle light.  The newer rooms in another building had electricity and the village had intermittent Wi-Fi (which seemed crazy in such a remote location).   We relaxed on the decks and in the hammocks overlooking an apple orchard in full bloom and the larger village below us.  Above us the mountains jutted into the clear impossibly blue sky.  The air was crisp, but the sun made it feel 20 degrees warmer.  Village life bustled around us and there was a constant chattering of birds, chickens, donkeys, and the villagers.   

During meals, we sat on the floor atop cushions around a communal, candle-lit table.  The food was delicious with lots of breads, fresh jams and locally grown vegetables.  Most of the guests were from Europe and they shared ideas with us on where to go on our upcoming travels through Eastern Europe.  After dinner, we walked through the village while giggling kids and baaing goats headed home for the night.

Another interesting experience high up in the Atlas Mountains was having a “hammam”, the Moroccan version of a Turkish bath.  It’s basically a combination steam room, bath and exfoliation treatment.  It was offered at our guesthouse and we had no idea what to expect.  They arranged it and when the time came, we went down to a little cave-like room in the basement of the guesthouse (Christy went first with the female attendant, all the boys went later with the male attendant).  Even the change room was stifling hot.  Inside the actual bath, there was a big bucket of water, a few little plastic platforms, and a single candle.  And a flaming hot floor!  Apparently the room is heated by a fire underneath the floor.  And to make our experience as awesome as possible, they decided to build the fire below at “nuclear”, with the result that parts of the floor were so hot you couldn’t touch them.  After we got in there, buck naked of course, we sat for a bit in embarrased silence, holding the glove they had given each of us.  After we got good and sweaty, the “scrubber” came and lathers us up in deep cleansing soap.  Then he (for men, she for women), took the scrubbing glove we received on our way in and proceeded to scrub every bit of us until any dead skin, and a good bit of the living skin, was gone.  We all walked out at the end feeling like we were glowing pink!  Christy thought it was awkward to be in the bath with her bare-chested scrubber and not being able to communicate.  The boys found it equally awkward to be wedged in together, all naked and trying to relax while a guy in shorts worked us over with our gloves!

In addition to the hammam, we hiked during the two days in the Atlas Mountains.  The first day we hiked up a valley path to a nearby pass.  The second day, we went with a guide on a 4 hour hike to a waterfall and through surrounding villages.  It was beautiful and we loved seeing the towns and how they farmed and built their waterways.  We were told that, Mount Toubkal is a non-technical climb in summer.  We would love to hike this and the surrounding areas when we return. 

This is the kind of place we love to go, where we want to stay for 1 month to get to know the people, their culture and the countryside.  It is quiet and peaceful.  It is the kind of place where people don’t seem to have too much, but they have enough and they are content with the life they have.  Where life is simple and enjoyed.  Somehow the natural beauty of the place enhances the beauty of the people and their home.  It will be interesting to see how the outside world (tourists, wifi, general connection to the world) encroaching into places like this affect them.

Morocco is 99% Sunni Muslim.  It is a largely peaceful country ruled by King Mohammed VI, who is highly regarded by his subjects and has managed to hold the country together while its North African neighbors, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, have overthrown their governments. Morocco seems more progressive and tolerant than some of the other Muslim countries we have travelled in, although there is plenty of evidence of the state religion.  A few women wear the full burqa or niqaab (veil covering entire face and veil leaving a slit for the eyes respectively), but the vast majority simply wears a headscarf or just dresses conservatively.  It is still a male dominated society and men run most of the shops and businesses while women take care of the home and children. 

We had a fascinating discussion with our guide during our hike about the rise of radical Islam and his viewpoint.  As he put it, “Islam is the religion of love, what they do is not Islam”.  It seemed that it was the predominant view among Moroccans that the more fundamental interpretations of Islam are offensive and do not resonate to the Moroccan people.  Morocco is on the forefront of combatting fundamentalist Islamic terrorism, which makes sense because it is a threat to their power structure. As we learned from the US State Department representative who briefed us our first morning in port, Morocco is very vigilant domestically and breaks up terrorist cells before they act.  In addition, they are one of the best sources of worldwide terrorism activity and have shared information about the French and Belgian attacks prior to them occurring. 

Morocco was a great country to end our voyage in – somewhat familiar yet very different from home.  By getting ourselves out of the big cities and into the mountains we saw a new side of Morocco we had never seen before – fascinating and beautiful!  Next stop is England to disembark and then we are on to spend a month wandering Europe.  Plans so far include getting to Croatia at some point, but other than that, it's pretty up in the air!

Fun times in Morocco - and a little craziness!

Morocco From Luke & Ryan’s Perspective (Jay’s & Christy’s commentary is in quotes):

What is different?

• Women cover their hair/head.  (Although it is not a law, most women wear traditional clothing and covered their hair with scarves.  They always covered their legs and shoulders.  Morocco is one of the most liberal of the Islamic countries and women can choose what they wear --- to a point.  We never saw a Muslim woman show her legs and usually their arms were also covered).

• The money is different.  (7.5 Dirhams / $US)

• Donkeys pull carts to the shops.  You can’t get trucks down the narrow streets.  This poor donkey was pulling a huge cart!

• We can walk in the street (there are no sidewalks in the old city and the streets are the size for one-way traffic, but they function as two-way streets.  Outside the old city there are “normal” sized streets with sidewalks.)

• The Moroccan people could not eat or drink during the day.  (It was Ramadan, an Islamic religion holiday that lasts one month.)

• They don’t speak English.  (The official language is Arabic and the second language is French.  Our knowledge of French helped a lot!)

• There are lots of little stores.  (We only found one big grocery store.  Most people buy things from different small shops.)

What is the same?

• They have orange juice

• They have cars (when we first pulled into the port in Spain.  Ryan told me that he was surprised they had cars too.  Before our trip we had stressed how poor some of the countries would be.  Seeing cars made him feel that the places were not so different.)

• They have McDonalds, Pizza Hut and KFC  (Because Ramadan was occurring during our visit, all the restaurants were closed during the day – except the US fast food favorites. )
• There are lots of friendly and well cared for cats around.

Overall, the boys had fun being in a country so different than their own.  They really adjusted well to traveling in Morocco and seem excited for Ghana.  Luke told me that he did not know we were going to get off the boat during our trip around the world.  I think this is an extra bonus for him.

Morocco from the adult perspective

Morocco.   A conflicting land that embraces you in its mystery while casting you aside as a lowly outsider.   We leave Morocco, not knowing if we want to go back.

It is a country where the people smiled and lovingly patted our boys’ heads while others cursed us and swore at us us for not buying their goods or agreeing to their unreasonably high taxi fares.  Where a modernly dressed woman may walk hand-in-hand with another woman completely cloaked in black from head to toe except a strip exposing half her eyes.  Where Islam is so important that everyone must pray five times per day, yet women are only allowed in the mezzanines of the mosques behind trellis’.  Where fancy beach clubs and elegant mosques sit next to sparse concrete homes and trash heaps.

There were many things we loved about Morocco.  We had interesting conversations with Moroccans who welcomed us into their homes for dinner or with taxi cab drivers who we communicated with in our broken French.  Marrakesh was our favorite location – especially the Medina (old city) which always seemed to be bustling with life.  If we go back, we will go to the Atlas Mountains and trek amongst the Berber (local) villages.  Or to the sparsely populated Western Sahara.

Journey to our Riad (Bed & Breakfast):

Our most memorable time on the trip so far was getting to our riad (B&B) in the Medina (old city) in Marrakesh.  After a 3 hour train ride from Casablanca to Marrakesh, we negotiated a fare for the taxi to take us to our riad.  We had made reservations that morning on-line and had the address and a rough idea of where it was, but little else.  The taxi driver started down the ever narrowing streets of the Medina.  It was pouring rain and we crossed our fingers that he knew where he was going.  We pulled over once as he started some lively discussions with people who gathered around us.  We were worried someone would take our bags so we got out in the rain, only to find out that we were not near our riad.  We piled back in the taxi and drove around for several more minutes.

Then our driver pulled over, got out and after a conversation pointed to a bicycle with a cart behind it.  He started unloading our bags and putting them in the cart.  He pointed down an alley and we had no choice to go with our new driver (the bicyclist).  He signaled for Luke and Ryan to get in the cart on top of our bags.  We were happy to have them in the cart so our bags could not easily be stolen and so the boys would not get stepped on.  Before we knew it, off went the bicycle and we ran to stay with it.  We did not run long since we came to a standstill as soon as we entered a souk, a narrow one-lane market with stalls selling meat, shoes, eggs, clothing, and everything else you can think of.   We had entered utter chaos.  We have traveled extensively, but agree that this was one of the strangest situations we have been in.

Several cars had driven into the one lane market from either side and were at a complete standstill.  The cars (and a donkey cart!) couldn't pass by each other and they certainly couldn't back out as the rushing crowds of motorbikes, bicycles and pedestrians swirled around the stationary cars on their way to break the Ramadan fast.  Everyone was yelling at everyone – especially the cars - as they tried to snake their way through the crowd.  We immediately got separated, but Christy desperately hung onto the back of the bicycle cart and kept telling Luke and Ryan everything was ok.  They were wide-eyed, but remained composed as they ducked under hanging slabs of beef and were lifted around cars and motorcycles.   The bike and cart kept rubbing against the cars and even smashed a head-light of one of the cars as we moved from one side to the other.  Our bicycle cab was intent on getting us through this mess. 

Milton tried to take a picture and was cursed at by a nearby woman and then by another man near him.  She later apologized that it was Ramadan and that this was not how Marrakesh usually was.  Thanks to the relentless effort by our bike cart driver, we made it out successfully.

Next we turned down a smaller alley with no traffic and soon down an even smaller alley that continued to narrow as we proceeded.  We had no idea where we were since there were no alley or “hotel” signs.  We stood in front of a little wooden door in amongst tall cement walls.  We knocked and the door was finally opened.  We stepped in and after a few moments realized we had found a beautiful safe haven.  It became our beloved riad.   Riad Djebel.

Marrakesh:

Our two wonderful in-keepers, Miguel and Sylvan, made our trip to Marrakesh for us.  They welcomed us with the customary mint tea and sweet treats.  After we got settled, they led us through the maze of narrow alleys in the Medina until we reached the famous square, Place Jermaa-el-Fna.  We took photos through the maze so we could hopefully retrace our steps back to the riad.

The square was filled with vendors selling orange juice, nuts, dates, wooden carvings, clothing and other crafts; performers doing acrobatics or making cobras dance; and people, bicycles, motor bikes, cars and donkeys.  It was a festive place and fun to explore.

We ate some wonderful meals made with diverse spices.  Our favorite was the 10 different Moroccan salads that usually kicked-off the traditional meal.

Casablanca

We spent the last 2 days in Casablanca where our ship ported.  It is the largest port in Africa and Moroccan’s financial center.  The 3rd largest mosque in the world is in Casablanca and it has a powerful green light that shines towards Mecca every night.  We found that, although it is the financial center of the country, there is not much to do for tourists in Casablanca.  Our most enjoyable time was having dinner at a Moroccan family’s house.  They had children who were 4 & 6 so Luke and Ryan had lots of fun.   They watched The Incredibles in French after chasing each other around with big Nurf guns.

Next Up
Next stop is Ghana, the first time that Semester at Sea has visited the country.  It was the site of Obama's African visit a few months ago and is one of the most stable countries in West Africa (and the continent).  We will also be posting "A Day in the Life on Board the MV Explorer" in the coming days.