Morocco

In February our good friends, the Parkins, came to visit us. They are our friends we climbed to Everest Base Camp with in 2012 and Mont Blanc last Fall. We were going to plan another hike for this Fall, but decided to do a "fun" trip instead. Somehow we came up with Morocco.

I'm really going to try and not "overload" on the pictures, but it will be hard.

Arriving in Casablanca on Moroccan Air on a new Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

10 million tourist come to Morocco a year.

The population of Morocco is close to 34 million people.

 There's really not much to see in Casablanca but a HUGE city (4 million people). The only highlight there was the Hassan II Mosque, which is the third largest in the world. It is partly erected on water and has the highest minaret in the world. It is 200 meters high.

The first night we were there we had Tagine, one of their traditional dishes. Tagine is actually the clay pot it is cooked in. They usually cook chicken, fish or lamb in it with rice, olives or vegetables. They combine it with certain spices that didn't appeal much to my taste buds. Spices are sold EVERYWHERE in open bins and baskets.

 Soooo, I could have walked around and taken pictures of the people all day and been happy. The only problem is that most people DON'T want their picture taken.  If you do they want to be paid for it.  One nice thing about a telephoto lens is you can sneak a picture now and then without them knowing. These two boys are selling little bundles of hay to feed people's sheep that will be  slaughtered in a few days for "the Feast of Sacrifice."

 This is one of my favorite pictures I took. It totally encompasses many of the people's way of life in Morocco. If you look close these two men have a few items to sell, some peppers, squash, plants, tissues, etc. 

 After one night in Casablanca we drove to Marrakesh. This was a very unique and interesting city. It is filled with palaces, gardens, markets and mosques. We went to the medina, the old quarter of the city, and it was quite fascinating. It had a HUGE square with palm readers, snake charmers, acrobats and musicians.

 Fortune Tellers

 Russ loved this guy! Look at all these teeth and they were real!!

 Russ wasn't too keen on the snake around his neck. Of course as soon as its there and you take a picture they want your money. I had to pay for several of these pictures. You pay them about a dollar and they're happy.

I thought I'd seen it all. This was totally staged, but you have to admit its unique?? The poor goats couldn't move an inch or I think the branch would have broke.

Something I haven't seen before, sugarcane juice with lime.

 One of our stops was to visit an Argan Oil Cooperative. The oil comes from argan nuts that is used in cosmetics and western cuisine. They look very similar to an olive on the trees when they're green. These ladies were demonstrating how to crack them, although I'm sure they use machines to do them.

 One of my favorite places we went was Essouira, a charming seaside town on the Atlantic coast. It is known as the "Windy City of Africa" and has a true Moroccan charm. Its a busy fishing harbor with lots of artists selling handmade crafts, spices and jewelry.

 There were the coolest doors and narrow alleyways everywhere.

 This man crocheted all of these hats. I couldn't believe how fast he would do it and would talk to people as he did it and never look down??

 Each village had a public watering place to get water.

We went to Jardin Majorelle gardens with lots of cactus and exotic plants.

Lots of date palm trees

Our hotel in Marrakesh.

 Notice Russ is on his iPad trying to do some "church catch up".

One night in Marrakesh we had about an hour carriage ride with a beautiful sunset & then had a really good dinner. For entertainment we had a belly dancer & some African men dancing & singing.

From Marrakesh we had a LONG bus drive through the Atlas Mountains. It was a very slow and winding road & I got pretty bus sick. We went through several towns and lots of people were out getting ready for "the Feast of Sacrifice." You would see people carrying sheep on their backs, putting them in their cars, etc. to get them home.

On our way to Dades we stopped at Ait Benhaddou, a World Heritage Site. Its a giant fortification, an example of pise clay architecture and one of the filming locations for several films, including Gladiator, Prince of Persia, Four Feathers & many others. They have their own movie studio in Morocco, as many movies have been filmed there.

Always someone trying to sell you something!!

Very common dish, meat grilled on a skewer.

Our tour guide, Ham. He was awesome and went beyond the call of duty to help everyone!!

 From our hotel balcony we were able to see the Muslims begin the "Feast of Sacrifice," it is the second of the two major Muslim holy days. This celebration is in commemoration of the command given by Allah to the Prophet Abraham to sacrifice his son. They wear their nicest clothes and attend a morning prayer. This is followed by a short sermon, after which everyone socializes. Next, people visit each other's homes and partake in festive meals with special dishes. Children receive gifts and sweets. Muslims who can afford it usually offer a sheep as a symbol of Abraham's sacrifice. Some of the meat is given to the poor. Our guide told us 5 million sheep are slaughtered in Morocco on this day!!

 As we drove around in the bus we saw lots of scenes from the Feast of Sacrifice.

 Just slaughtered a lamb.

Women washing parts of the sheep in the river.

 Todra Palmeraie Gorge with 985 foot high walls.

We stayed one night in Dades and at our hotel they had a bunch of camels. Whenever I've been around camels they have been quite temperamental & not very friendly. Well when I met these cuties my opinion of camels totally changed!! I fell in love with these guys. They were soooo nice and so cute that I made several special trips out to pet them. They were even eating peanuts out of my hand. I would have loved to take one home for a pet!!

Today was a REALLY fun day!! We got to ride camels in the Sahara Desert! We did it in the early evening so it wouldn't be so hot. When we arrived at a certain spot we parked our camels and hiked up an incline and watched the sun set. Then we rode our camels back to where we had parked. I was really glad I had brought a gallon ziplock bag with me for my camera. When we stopped, the wind starting blowing really hard  and some people's cameras got ruined from sand getting in them. We had it in our hair, ears, everywhere!

This is Jacob. He was our guide for the 4 of us on our camel ride and was awesome! He spoke such good English & was always so happy:)

This is overlooking the city of Fez. I was thinking how much it reminded me of standing on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem when a lady in our group had the same idea. Notice all the olive trees in front. Its really a beautiful city.

Here we are on Sept. 15, 2016 celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary!! What a ride we've had together!! I love my faithful, kind, loving, giving, handsome, fun......you get the picture...WONDERFUL husband. I pray we'll have many more years on this earth together and throughout eternity:) He's my BEST friend!!

 We walked the streets of the "old" medina in Fez. It has 9,800 alleyways so you want to stay with the group or you could definitely get lost! All these wooden doors open up into shops, but they were still celebrating their Holy day so most of them were closed.

 Part of our tour was going to where they make rugs. The Parkins and us did NOT want to go to that so we walked the alleyways for 45 minutes until the presentation was over and the high pressure salesmen were done. They were very beautiful carpets and VERY expensive.

It just so happened there were 3 couples on our tour that were celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary. All of us were married within a month of each other. Hamou's, the couple in the middle live in Maryland. His parents are from Morocco and he was born in Jerusalem. His grandfather was buried in the Jewish cemetery we went to this day, but they weren't able to locate it. Then the Parkins from SLC and us.

This was very common to see people riding donkeys along side the road.

 We went to a leather tannery while we were in Fez. WOW, it was something. I can't even imagine these men that work there!! It smelled SOOOOO bad and they would stomp on the hides in these big vats. Surely this had to be WAY unhealthy for these men with all the color, and chemicals used to dye the hides of animals!! All the ladies walking around had handkerchiefs over their noses.

They had a huge wall of leather shoes for sale, that many of the locals wear. As with most tourist traps things were WAY over priced. My friend Lynette, found some cute purses she liked and dickered the man down to $20 each. The next day when I was shopping in the Souk markets I found the same purses and got the guy down to $6 each!!

 Ancient ruins of the Roman city of Volubilis

 This was used as a hot tub. As the sun would move so would you, to sit where the sun shined.

 Ruins of a Roman town known as Sala Colonia.

We saw large stork nests all over Morocco.

In Rabat, we visited the Hassan Tower. The minaret is incomplete after Sultan Yacoub al-Mansour passed away. It was intended to be the world largest. It began construction in 1195.

On the steps of the Mosque.

 You might recognize this scene from the last Mission Impossible Movie

 A Muslim cemetery.

Its always interesting to learn about other countries and religions and makes me more appreciative of what I have and of my way of life. A valuable lesson I continue to learn over and over as I travel to different countries is: there are a lot of really good people still living in our world!!