High Atlas mountain pass and into Marrakesh

Today Abdul the driver really earned his dirham.  He drove us over an incredible pass through the high Atlas Mountains that pretty much gave everyone the willies... Sheer cliffs on both sides hairpin turns for at least two hours.  Wow.  Then, if that wasn't enough, he drove us into the madness that is the big central square in Marrakech.  Love it or hate it, it is a circus.  Snake charmers, story tellers, monkeys, pickpockets, glue sniffers, grandmas, children, thousands of tourists from all over the world.  Beautiful hand crafted goods and Chinese made crap.  It is all there waiting.  I (Greg) tend to love this kind of thing and I found it overwhelming.  It is maddening for photographers.  Really incredible things to see and photograph but... You will get shaken down if they catch you.  So, please excuse my lack of a long lens and a steady hand.  Enjoy some faces of Marrakech after a few shots documenting the journey.

Ruth is complaining about being asked to strike a "vanna white" pose, but this is the beautiful Riad we stayed in last night.

Yep, that is the road down there!

Faces of morocco:

 

And a bit of other stuff!

You thought I made up e part about the snakes didn't you!

Until next time!

Ruth and Greg

The marakesh "local" (as opposed to the express...)

Another leisurely day headed roughly west between the high atlas and the mid Atlas Mountains on the way back to marakesh .  This is the route of 1000 casbahs.  We learned today that a casbah is merely a particular type of dwelling, often a wealthy merchant, tribal leader or local dignitary.  They were/are composed of a fairly fragile mud brick construction so without constant refurbishing they erode to ruins.  So... Lots of ruined casbahs, some reconstructed ones.  This area is also the Hollywood of morocco where many films have been made. So... Hard to tell what is real and what is constructed for your viewing pleasure.  I guess in the end it doesn't matter.  Given the fragility of the materials used for construction.  Nothing was meant to be very permanent anyway.

We are now relaxing by the pool in a really beautiful riad somewhere near Ouarzazate.  There is a ruined casbah visible just beyond the pool.  Tomorrow we head to marakesh.

Just a few pictures today. And yes... We did climb that bad boy. Beautiful view from the top.

Sahara! 52 days walk to Timbuktu

We are now out of the Sahara, rumbling towards our next destination so I thought a brief description of the last 18 hours or so is in order.

We were picked up in 4x4 toyotas and driven about 50 km east towards Algeria to erg chebi which is a series of sand dunes that runs about 25km further towards Algeria.  After the ubiquitous welcome tea we mounted dramaderies and headed up the dunes to watch the sun set.

We then returned on our dramaderies  to a group of tents where we had dinner, sat around a campfire and then slept.

This was a very touristy experience to be sure.  There were hundreds of other guests doing the same thing, the tents contained modern plumbing (sort of) and a bed shrouded with mosquito netting.  Despite the cheese factor, it was still very fun, and the sunset was stunning.

We are all doing well and having a good time.

Unfortunately, more of our group are getting sick.  I think just about everyone today was contemplating the distance from the dunes to the nearest WC, and how long a dose of Imodium lasts!.  

Enjoy some pics!

And a few scenes from the rest of the day... 

Pre camel hair cut...

Weird timing today.  We are basically goofing off before we get picked up in some 4x4 vehicles to be driven into the dunes at sunset.  From their we will be "glamping" in the Sahara.  

We went to a fossil emporium this morning... Not really my thing, but pretty interesting to see how they take these rocks and turn them into touristic gold.  Apparently this corner of the Sahara was under water at one point in prehistory so there are a lot of fossilized sea creatures.  They then get crafted into.... Well, anything you might buy!

From there we visited the small town center and market.  It is the date season, and this is the region where many originate, so the market was mostly dates, meat that you don't want to eat, and the usual bric a brac.  Good people watching of course!

I got my hair cut at a local barbershop.  I am not sure if my fellow travelers were bored or fascinated, but everyone watched.  I was relaxed about it.  The barber's name translated to "trust the one who is unafraid."  So I did.  

Interesting method of sterilizing the straight razor though: douse it in alcohol (good), light it on fire (showy), run it under questionable tap water (not so good), and dry it on a nasty rag (bad).  Fortunately this was all to the body of he straight razor and made no difference as he slid in a disposable blade before he went at it. (The only part that actually mattered.). For my wet shaving friends: a British blade I have never heard of in a Turkish razor I have never seen nor heard of!

We then headed back to the hotel where we are chilling out before our ride comes.  I am sure I will have another post containing sunset in the dunes, camels, flies etc.  we took some pictures throughout the day.  Zoom for flies!

This is how you look cool while chipping fossils out of rocks all day.

Abdul, our guide recommended I get my hair cut here... Of course he wears a hat!

Want a date?  I am sure all dates come from similarly fly swarmed regions.  Actually seeing the flys on the dates made them less appealing for me.

Or it could be that there are still remnants of the feast of eid laying about.  That may be what put me off my feed.

This is what dates look like right off of the tree.

Happy guy... Bad teeth.

Happy camel, bad teeth.

Until next time!

Greg & Ruth

Fes to the desert

Today is a travel day.  We are covering a tremendous amount of ground as we travel across both the middle atlas and the high atlas ranges towards the desert.  7 hours is the anticipated trip length.  The view out the window is interesting. The Berber people who live in these mountains live a life that is little changed from thousands of years ago.  Basically nomads with their livestock.  Though I did spot one of these picturesque shepherds talking on a cell phone.

No great photo ops... Lots of arid landscape with the ubiquitous plastic bag garbage near the roadside.  Serious poverty. Rugged mountains.  Arid badlands.  You get the picture.

We did make a stop in the middle Atlas Mountains to look at the "Berber monkeys" on the side of the road.  We are pretty sure they are macaques.  They are there because people feed them.  Have a look:

Several of our party are suffering from "la tourista" today.  (Of course! Seven hour drive day...) but otherwise all is well.

More pics as we decend from the mountains into the valley that is studded with oases, Palm trees etc.

He are a few more from the afternoon.  We are in erfoud now, safe and sound. (Are you ever really safe and sound in the desert?)

Ruth is feeling wel enough to eat a date.  This is where they come from!

These are some rugged looking mountains!

Until next time!

Greg & ruth

Fez carpets, fabric, synagogues and a red light district

Today we had an unstructured day in fez.  We went back to the carpet shop to finish up some business from yesterday.  (Great theater, watching these guys sell...) from there we headed to a fabric co-op with a dizzying array of beautiful shawls, bed covers, table covers etc.  whew, enough shopping!

We then visited the two synagogues in fez before heading off to Sefrou, a suburb of fez that once contained a very large Jewish community.  (They are all gone now.). We visited the cemetery, still in good repair, and the site of the old synagogue that is now a pile of rubble in the middle of the red light district.  I think even our unflappable guide was a little on edge.  Dodgy neighborhood is an understatement!

We also visited a pretty well preserved synagogue in the middle of a school. 

It seems that many, if not most of the Jews left morocco for Israel, Europe and the U.S. around the time of independence.  Not so much because life was horrible, but due to uncertainty.  Abdul leads many tours for Israelis who come back looking for their roots and claims that they regret having left.  

Much more commentary on this if you want to chat.  It is a complicated thing to be sure!  Suffice it to say that it is probably worse to be a Jew today in morocco than "the party line" and better than most people imagine.  At least the Moroccans have accepted the Jews as an important part of their history and are preserving some of the historic buildings associated with that past instead of obliterating all signs.   Enough teaching!  Here are some pics:

Any color,  I mean any color... They have it.

Dr. Appelbaum I presume?  Or is it Fred of Arabia?

They have taken the "man chair" to a new level.

Traditional Sephardic architecture in this old synagogue.  Preserved with the help of Unesco and Jews in the diaspora who were from Fes.

The ladies are checking out the mikvah.

This dodgy square / pile of rubble is the site of the synagogue in the suburb we visited.  Open hash dealing and prostitution.  Nice hood.  When the Jews left the vacuum was filled with a pretty bad element.

This last shot was taken in the medina of Fes.  It is mostly to serve as a warning to Ruth.  This is one of the possible paths for her.  The cat lady of the medina in Fes.  

Meow for now.

Tomorrow we head into the Atlas Mountains and on to the Sahara.  I can only guess that Internet will be less available so... Do not presume foul play if I don't post.

Now: a cup of coffee at this good looking cafe.  What could possibly go wrong?

Until next time!

Greg & Ruth