Here is something I wrote up about our Morocco trip a while back. A few of you may have seen this already, but for those of you who haven't, this is a good summary of a GREAT trip!
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Justin and I realized that it would be cheaper (and more exciting!) to go on an exotic vacation than go back to the US for Christmas last year. We decided on Morocco because of the warm weather and because it was a Middle Eastern country I had yet to visit. I also figured that this would be the cheapest and quickest that it would ever be for us to get there. When December came around, Justin's sister, Nisha, had been staying with us in Cheltenham for a few months, so she got to join in on the adventure.
We flew into Marrakech, where we stayed in a riad (a guesthouse with rooms surrounding an open courtyard) with a lovely rooftop where we had a delicious breakfast everyday. Over the next few days, we wove in and out of the maze of souqs (markets) and squares, looking for good deals on things that we had never known we wanted. I decided that I wanted a gigantic metal lantern to hang in our dining room and Nisha bought some trinkets for her friends back in Maryland. In addition, we feasted on amazing food from various restaurants (plug for Souq Cafe) as well as freshly grilled food from stands in the main square (Djemaa el-Fna). This was also the first chance I had to break out my Arabic skills. It was not so bad; people generally understood me fine, though I did not always understand them. Justin kept reassuring me that I was doing great; however, when he asked me to get him some milk for his coffee at our favorite rooftop cafe, the waiter instead brought a bowl of yogurt!
After three days in Marrkech, we picked up our rental car and drove 2.5 hours to the coastal town of Essaouira. The drive was fairly relaxed: wide highways and little traffic. As we got closer to Essaouira, however, construction made things a bit confusing and we faced numerous cars coming down the wrong side of the road! We stayed in another riad, where we spent mornings and afternoons drinking the never-ending complimentary mint tea and playing with the two resident iguanas. Strictly speaking, there are not a lot sights in Essaouira, but we took advantage of the slower pace and the fresh seafood. We were also surprised to find how much we valued the pollution-free air! We only stayed for two nights, but it was a much-needed point of relaxation before continuing with our journey.
Our next stop was Ait Benhaddou; it was an 8 hr drive, so we left at sunrise to make it before dark. Since we had to drive through Marrakech, we exchanged our rental car for another. The old Dacia Logan did not have a radio and we really could not see driving such long hours for so many days without having some music to keep us occupied. Eventually, we obtained our new mode of transport, a white Renault Kangoo (think delivery truck) and headed towards the Atlas mountains. Although Justin wished he had a faster car to carve up the mountain roads, he nonetheless thoroughly enjoyed the drive. I however, was a bit anxious about the mountain driving, since I had heard tales of crazy drivers passing on blind hairpin turns, etc. I told Justin to honk at every turn and not to pass anyone. However, when we immediately got stuck behind a fuel truck that was literally moving 10 mph up the side of the mountain, I said it was ok for us to overtake him. From then on, I loosened up a bit and we had an enjoyable ride viewing breathtaking and varied scenery…but still honking at every blind turn.
We arrived to Ait Benhaddou just before sunset, which gave us time to see the town's claim to fame, a well-maintained ksar (fortified village) used in movies such as Jesus of Nazareth, Lawrence of Arabia, and Gladiator. We paid a young man whose family used to live in the ksar to take us through the houses to the top. It was an amazing sight, but the trek back down was a bit treacherous due to it being pitch black in the ksar and having to cross a small river. That night we enjoyed a delicious meal prepared by the wife of the owner of our guesthouse (included in the very reasonable price!). The next morning we woke up to see the sunrise over the ksar and departed to the desert.
We planned reach the village of Merzouga, on the edge of the Sahara, by nightfall while stopping at two gorges (Dades and Todra) along the way. Due to some complications, we were only able to see the first gorge, Dades, before deciding to stay at a local hotel for the night. Dades gorge was impressive, especially in the afternoon sun. Driving up the gorge was exciting - think Lombard & Hyde streets in San Francisco - except much longer and up a mountain! The next day, we stopped at Todra gorge, which was just as impressive as the first.
In a rush the following day to arrive on time for our afternoon desert trek, Justin drove like a Moroccan and we began to see the sand dunes marking the western tip of the Sahara Desert to the left of the car. They were an amazing orange color and seemed to come out of nowhere. We arrived with just enough time to layer all of the clothes we had with us, since it gets very cold in the desert at night. However, since we hadn't eaten all day, we took a few minutes to have a snack, which caused us to miss our group’s ride; this turned out to be a good thing! Our guide, Omar, took just the three of us 2 hours through the desert. We stopped halfway through to take pictures of the amazing sunset and we could no longer see anything but sand dunes around us. At the camp, we met the rest of our group -- there were 10 other people of various backgrounds: Canadians living in Togo, Dutch, Belgians, and a French family living in Morocco. Everyone was quite friendly and we huddled around in the cold air, drinking mint tea, while our guides prepared us the best meal (chicken and vegetable tagine) we had in all of Morocco. Afterwards, we sang songs and told jokes; I think some were lost in translation though -- things about camels being in refrigerators, swimming, and wearing red socks. When it was time to sleep, we buried ourselves under 7 heavy blankets. The next morning we got up to see the sunrise and headed back to the guesthouse on our camels, this time with a full caravan.
We needed to drive to Fes that day, which was supposed to be a 6 to 8 hour drive, depending on who you asked. By the time we had gotten back from our trek, eaten breakfast, and changed our clothes (who needs to shower??), it was about 11 AM. Determined to make up for our late start, Justin continued to drive very quickly and pass everyone in our way, just like a Moroccan! But then the police got us… Not only were we stopped, but they wanted us to pay a hefty fine. What happened next is a very long story involving lots of Arabic speaking, a big detour, and an imaginary French couple, but in the end we paid our debt and were on our way.
Hours later, sunset was approaching and we were only halfway to Fes. I was tempted to make another unplanned stop, but Justin suggested that we power through and only pull over if the driving seemed too treacherous. I reluctantly agreed, concerned, as there was another mountain range ahead of us. We wound up and down the mountains slowly, but encountered little other traffic. Eventually we started to see huge cedar trees and snow on the ground. This was unlike anything we'd seen anywhere else on our journey -- it felt like we were in Vermont and not Morocco. After another set of mountains we came upon a very surreal city, Ifrane, a French-developed town and ski resort. Nicknamed "Little Switzerland," it had European and American style homes, wide boulevards and lights decorating the trees. We saw an immense hotel that looked like a convention center and we entertained the idea of staying there for the night, but we decided to move on. A couple of hours later we could see the lights of Fes in the distance and we felt relieved that we had almost made it.
After a bit of a debacle at the airport trying to return our rental car, we finally made it to the riad around 10:30 PM on New Year's Eve. We were greeted by Izzedine, the 24-hour door man, concierge, etc. Izzedine offered me a salad, but we attempted to go out and find some real food in town. Our riad was located in the old city, which was incredibly difficult to navigate. Everything was windy, hilly, and unmarked, with high walls. In the end, a man who was part of some sort of neighborhood watch group got us where we wanted to go. He wore a neon vest and carried a very large stick. Unfortunately, all the restaurants were closed. When we got back to the riad, Izzedine said his wife would make me an omelette, which was a great relief as I was ready to just eat bread. Although it was New Year's Eve, we hadn't seen any festivities, and in the end only knew it was midnight when we heard a female voice from the kitchen meekly say 'woohoo.'
The following days in Fes, we were all quite tired and I was feeling a bit under the weather (thanks to that omelette), so we were a little less ambitious than we had been in the other towns. We did, however, become fairly good at navigating the major routes. We saw a few more beautiful madrasas (religious schools) and visited shops, but we didn't find the great array of goods we had seen in Marrakech. Fes did have its upside though -- it was generally quite a bit less touristy. On our last day there, we went to the new city to buy our train tickets to Marrakech for the next morning. We ended up staying there for most of the day, as it was quite a bit more relaxing than the old city.
The next morning we took the 4:50am train back to Marrakech. The ride took about 7 and a half hours and took us along the coast through towns we hadn't had a chance to visit, like Casablanca and Rabat. We bought first class tickets ($35), which meant the 3 of us had a berth all to our selves, with 6 seats total. A young man with snacks, coffee, and tea would pass occasionally. We spent the time drifting in and out of sleep and watching the scenery go by. When we arrived back in Marrakech, we had a few hours to kill before we needed to get to the airport, so we decided to check out the new city and have lunch. Justin and Nisha ate kebabs, while I had french fries (sadly, this was frequently my lunch on this trip) at a modern, wifi-enabled cafe. Afterwards, we caught a taxi to the airport and headed back to the cold, damp reality of Cheltenham.
Throughout the 13 days, numerous cities, and 32 hours of driving, the three of us got a wonderful introduction to many aspects of Morocco: friendly people, amazing food, and beautiful sights; we can't wait to go back. For example, we didn't get to see the town of Chefchaouen, a few hours to the north of Fes, with its uniformly blue architecture…and I never got my lantern! Amazed at how quickly and cheaply we can reach Morocco from the UK, we are already planning a weekend getaway to Marrakech.
