Tag: Berber

Morocco: Day in the Desert

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.

Also to note I picked up some Moroccan eye liner from a street side seller.

Tomorrow we follow Morocco’s Road of a Thousand Kasbahs. More to come.

Fes

Fes tannery

We will leave for the Fes city tour at 9:00 AM. The first part of the tour is by van where we stop at the royal gates, decorated only in the 20th century to make the royal palace more visually appealing and we learn about the history of the area. We learn how the architecture changes over time due to the Berbers (original name Amazigh), the arabs and the Jewish settlers. We drive uphill to get amazing view of the Medina below. It is vast. The Medina is a combination of shops and residential in narrow streets that bustle with energy daily. There are tourists but this is a place where locals do their shopping. 

We stop at an overlook the see the city from above. You can tell it is a densely populated city with centuries and centuries of growth built on the top of old development.

Before we visit the Medina we stop at an art collective called Art Naji to view potters and mosaic artisans at work. We watch a tagine pot being made on a pottery wheel. Another room has artisans that paint on designs by hand.

Next we visit the old Medina where a guide is recommended since there are over 9,000 streets and alleyways, many narrow and dead end. Luckily we have a local guide named Aziz.

We travel down increasingly narrow alleyways. It’s almost like we are going on a special adventure but this is the everyday life for people who live here and down some of these narrow alleys are their homes.

There are so many different food and spice booths. We learn about traditional weavers and other artisans like wood carvers. We walk through the section where they are dyeing yarn and fabric in jugs but you can see the dyed water that had been dumped on the alley. We walk through the puddles hoping we don’t dye our shoes in the process. I know my long hanging pants to get muddy at some point so it’s probably good to not wear your best clothes here.

We pass by Al Karaouine University – the oldest university in the world. Outside the university are metalworkers banging on items they are constructing.

We view and learn about the famous Fes tannery. We learn how all the leather is dyed to make the high quality products they sell.

During our tour we visit a Quranic school (Madrasa) and we also visit outside the Tomb of the founder of Fes.

We have lunch at an old riad converted to a restaurant. Raids are large family houses interior of the medina that would house very large families traditionally. Some riads are normal homes but some are elaborately decorated and you’d never know from the outside. Today many of them are converted to hotels or restaurants.

We want to stay on our own after the tour but our guide strongly advises against it due to the confusing nature of the medina. We probably would have tried to stay anyway but it is rainy and I uncomfortably wet – I decide it would be best to return with the group.

Later in the evening after resting at the hotel we go next door for dinner at what appears to be a restaurant with a lively band playing. Entire families, including toddlers, are enjoying the fun late into the evening. Others from our tour join us. It is a fun impromptu night out.

Tomorrow we head toward the mountains and then to the desert.