After almost two weeks on the road, we were so looking forward to spending some downtime on the beach in Essaouira. Our riad, The Madada Mogador, was a gem with private balconies, each with a great view of the water, and probably the most comfortable beds of our entire trip. I also spent some quality time in the beautiful bathtub with a glass of delicious wine they had in stock for their guests-a rarity in […]
This is more of a drive actually than one destination but well worth it. Passing through the Dades Valley, Todra Gorge, and Ouarzazate, travelers are supposedly treated to 1,000 kasbahs. We certainly didn’t see all of them, probably not even one quarter of them and most of what we saw were crumbling remnants of kasbahs. Others had been turned into hotels or restaurants. All in all we enjoyed the ride and scenery and the history […]
By far the most memorable thing we did on this trip was to visit two Berber families at their cave homes. They are considered Nomads but have lived in the same caves for over 8 years–in places so remote and camouflaged that you would not even notice them if you drove past. In general, everyone in Morocco had been a little cautious of us but these people seemed actually excited at our arrival and as […]
Another highlight of this trip was a visit to the Gnaoua Music Cultural Center. The Gnaoua are local musicians and there is a Gnaoua music festival each year held in Essaouira. The festival provides a platform for exchanges and a meeting point of music and dialogue between foreign artists and the Gnaoua. This consists of jazz, pop, rock and contemporary world music and about 500,000 visitors over four days attend. Here at their cultural center, […]
This was a surreal experience to say the least and one we feared and were most excited about all at the same time. My biggest fear was the heat, and I’m not going to lie, it was hot – about 124 degrees that day. That being said, we didn’t set out on our trek until almost dusk and it didn’t really feel that hot since the sun was not beating directly down on us. It […]
Ifrain, also known as “The Little Switzerland” of Morocco is a picturesque village in the Cedar Forest. Probably the cleanest place we have seen, we were told the wealthy of Morocco own homes here and come for holiday. But our favorite part on this leg of our journey was a stop at the edge of the Cedar Forest where it is home to a colony of barbarian apes. When we were told we were going […]
Volubilis is a partly excavated Roman city in Meknes. I’m not too interested in that kind of history and the day that we visited it had to be about 140 degrees with virtually no shade available so we did not spend a great deal of time there. I almost felt very sorry for our guide who was really trying hard to engage us in the history behind Volubilis but we convinced him to simply give […]
Fez tannery was interestingly cool and horrific all at the same time. I should have known how bad it would be as upon entering you are given a snippet of mint to hold up to your nose because the smell is so bad. And how could it not be…..the start of the tanning process begins with the collection and sorting of raw animal skins. The types of animal skins include: sheep skin, goat skin, camel […]