Amazigh – Growing With Leala

We start in Tinghir, one of the cities that is mostly populated by the Amazigh people (berber) and also along the route of 1000 kasbahs. The kasbahs are large structures that served as fortresses along this popular route but later turned into residential structures. The city is close to nearby gorges. These kasbahs held feudal lords that were in charge of surrounding lands. Tinghir is now expanding quickly due to nearby silver mines.

We drive through many oasis like towns that have mud built kasbahs during the route of 1000 kasbahs.

During our journey police frequently pull over tour buses to have a record of stops, seat belts, and sometimes look at the cargo. Mileage, speed, stops and more are stored on a disc that they view. This disc looks like a CD.

Ouarzazate Solar Power Station is a complex power facility that harnesses the power of sun and stores energy as heated molten salt for energy production at night. The power station provides energy for the region. It is quite impressive, I wish I could have seen a facility in person.

We get closer to the mountain range again as we can see the snow covered mountains in the distance.

Today is cold and rainy as we expected. We get a slight break in the rain when we stop to see a kasbah in Ouarzazate. We learn about the history of the building and what it is made of. The walls are a mix of straw, earth, and gypsum (or adobe).

The interior is an earth and sand plaster. The foundation is stone.

Then ceilings are made of reeds and interior rooms have tile floors and no windows for privacy.

We stop briefly at a Amazigh (Berber) pharmacy to learn some natural remedies. I buy some medicine and herbs for cooking here.

Ouarzazate used to be more of a tourist stop along the desert route but better roads have tourists choosing to stay in other towns. We are staying here tonight in a really nice hotel. Unfortunately the rain and cold have us not enjoying all the outdoor amenities the hotel has to offer. Also the constant rain has us getting soaked whenever we walk from our outdoor rooms to the main lobby. Netherless we find a lull in the rain and walk around town on our own. Commerce has come to a halt because of bad weather but we visit some souks and get in views before the rain starts up again. After some shopping we head back to our hotel and camp out in our room the rest of the evening.

Tomorrow we continue our exploration of the region and then head through the mountain pass to get to Marrakech. We are entering the last part of the tour. We must make the most of these last few days.

Today we are packed with activities, especially since we are trying to add some more activities today to avoid the rain the day after. Yes it does rain in the desert if you time it right.

We start our day with a visit to an oasis where a desert community has their gardens setup with a very good irrigation system. Each plot has a time spot for irrigation which is managed by digging up or placing barriers in the waterway. I see lots of crops that I can actuallly grow at home. We also see some date palms up close. I love viewing how others grow their gardens.

We next take a 4×4 jeep ride across the dunes of the desert. We have two jeeps between our group but we seem to be on the wild one. We zoom over steep dunes. I am glad I am wearing my seatbelt.

We then stop at a nomadic community of Amazigh (Berber) along the border of Algeria. Since the French occupation in the area there is a point of contention between the surrounding countries. There are also many in these communities that were forced to work in nearby mines during a prior occupation. We meet some locals and visit an abandoned mine. We are served tea and learn about daily life in the community from a young mother.

While still hugging the Algerian boarder we visit the community of Khamlia. People here come from other parts of Africa. Residents have specialized in a type of music that has origins from a few different countries; the music skills are passed down to others in the community. A large way Gnaoua musicians survive these days is sharing their music with tourists like us. We enjoy a performance and a few of us break out in dance.

We then visit another town and where we have lunch in a home. We learn how to make medfouna and play dress up in special occasion attire to feel like we are part of the community. Berber pizza or khobza medfouna is a traditional dish.

Originally we are supposed to travel to see Dades Gorge tomorrow but there is rain coming that is supposed to cause large floods in the area. Instead we schedule to see another gorge today so we don’t get trapped in the region (in fact another group after us does get trapped and we see footage of devastating flooding). For now we visit Todgha gorge instead.

We walk along the gorge and see a hotel that had to be abandoned due to flooding.

On the final part of our drive today we stop to see from a view the nearby communities in Tingher. There are many homes abandoned for various reasons. People forced to work in the mines by the French would live in the houses. When the mine work wasn’t as prevalent they became abandoned as residents moved on. While the population is growing in the area currently, people are choosing to build new houses instead of moving into the old style homes; the brown homes sit as ancient city compared to the backdrop of the colors of the new city homes.

We are staying at a kabash style hotel tonight. A large extended family used to live in a large building like this. After dinner we do a quick exploration of the top floors and get a look over the city.

Dinner is good as it seems to be more of a curry (chicken). The meals seem to be getting progressively better as days pass which is good since I’ve not loved the blandness of my earlier meals during my travels.