From Cairo to Casablanca

We recently returned from a 2 week trip to Morocco. We began by flying across North Africa from Cairo to Casablanca. From there we drove North to Rabat Sale', the capital, where we stayed in a Riad, which is a kind of Moroccan bed and breakfast, usually an historic private home with several rooms, courtyards, and fountains. From there we drove our tiny rental car East to the medieval Islamic city of Fes, then 10 hours South to Marrakesh at the base of the Atlas Mountains. We ended our trip with a few days relaxing at a private riad in the country near the coastal village of Essouira, before driving back to Casablanca. This first post focuses on stage one of our travels: Rabat, and its sister city Sale'.

Mary Leigh and the boys hanging out in front of the old medina in Rabat. The walls surround the old city, and the fort overlooks an inlet to what was once a major Moroccan port used by merchants and pirates alike. I was also able to score a morning of surfing along the jetty in Rabat. It is hard to tell from this angle, but those waves are at least 10 feet high...

Above Mary Leigh is a sign in both French and Arabic, the two languages most widely spoken in Morocco. Her knowledge of French saved the day quite a few times, as the Moroccan - Arabic dialect is notoriously difficult to understand, as it is a mix of classical Arabic, French, Spanish, and Berber.

We spent a day walking through the streets and alleys of the old quarter, the Medina of Rabat. It was clean, and painted in the blue/white color scheme throughout.

We stopped for mint tea, the Moroccan national drink, also known as whiskey Morocain (I was upset to find that the stuff is not actually mixed with whiskey at all) after a walking through the old quarter of Rabat. And the boys stopped to rock out for a while with this dude.

Dusk in Sale', with the minaret lit for the night. Islamic architecture is different in Morocco, where minarets are larger and more rectangular.

The view of the Atlantic from the rooftop veranda of our riad in Rabat - Sale. We ate some very nice meals on the roof, and had some good Moroccan wine as well. Moroccans cook just about every meal in a covered clay pot called a tagine, where meats such as lamb, beef, or chicken slow cook crock pot style with vegetables over hot coals for a number of hours. As my grandfather and uncle would say, it was "larrapin." (spelling unknown, origin unknown, means "pretty dang good")

Fes: Into the Medina

Fes is my favorite city in Morocco. It is just old school Morocco. It is a living city, chock full of mosques, markets, people and history. It was the capital of a Moroccan empire that covered the whole of North Africa and some of Spain, though now it depends more on tourism since the French moved the captial to Rabat. The lane in the picture is about the average width for a street in the Medina. They definitely get smaller. Without a guide you will get lost there, period. Luckily, we had a good one.

Meet Mohammed. Our tour guide for 2 days in the labrynth that is Fes, Mohammed is one of life's one of a kind characters that you are glad you got to know. He lived all of his 50 some years in the old Medina, so he knew every alley and every corner, and everyone knew him. One minute he'd be breaking up a street fight, the next minute he is snagging you some almond candy treats straight out of a baker's oven or a glass of sweet lemon juice. He is prone to belting out American songs from the 60's and 70's (he says he met the Beatles and CSN&Y when they came to Morocco - I believe him) and he was great with the kids, often hoisting them into the air and yelling the word "Rakooda!" which as far as we could tell is a term of endearment. (The handsome mystery baby in the pic belongs to our friends).

A glimpse into the Kerraouine Mosque, one of the oldest mosques in Africa, and an important center of learning in its time. In the distance a group of men are praying the noontime prayer, the second of five they perform each day.

In Fes they do things the old fashioned way. Water for the hammams (Turkish style baths) is heated in huge underground ovens, the fires stoked by old men; pottery is made by hand; and leathers are dried and dyed in tanneries the same way they did it 1000 years ago (see tannery pic at top right).

While in Fes, we visited a pottery factory - better described as a group of artisans and workers that create lots of beautiful pots and tile goods. To the amusement of every Moroccan working in the factory, Cooper fell into 20 foot x 6 inch deep slab of clay, getting the stuff all over his shoes and legs. Only Cooper... The foreman hosed the lad off and he was as good as new.

Marrakesh

The main attraction in Marrakesh is Djema al Fna Square, which has food vendors of all sorts (Andrew Zimmerman from Bizarre Foods did a show here; they have boiled sheep's head, all kinds of organ dishes, and lots of snails. ML and I disgusted Luke by opting for the snails - a little briny, but not half bad...), snake charmers, monkey handlers, musicians, hustlers, extortionists (demanding 100 Dirhams for a picture with him and a snake - this Gringo didn't pay). There is also a nice maze of markets to one side of the square.

Unlike the rest of the Arab world, the jalabia in Morocco has a hood. Therefore in brown, it looks very much like a Jedi cloak. So of course we bought the boys their own, and had them tailored that same night in the souq. In the background you can see the full assortment of goatskin slippers, the preferred Moroccan footwear (though real Moroccan men only wear yellow ones).

Enjoying some juice with some of the local men at Djema al Fina Square.

Essouira: the Atlantic Coast, South Morocco

This is the private house where we stayed in Essouira. The owners are French, and as you can see there is a nice pool which the boys enjoyed daily, as well as a little turtle sanctuary in an inner courtyard. Situated outside of town, it was the perfect place to relax after being in Marrakesh. Oh yeah, and that is a picture of Luke with tree climbing goats behind him. More on that in a minute...



Just to show how remote we were in Essouira. At night we heard dogs, donkeys, and the a few African jam sessions from a neighboring farm that drifted in over the plains. Our AC here was a constant Atlantic wind: hot by day, but cool by night.


View from the hills above a fishing village South of Essouira.

One of the residents of a fishing village we visited. After fishing, the boats land on the beach and the donkeys are hitched up to pull them up to the village where the fish are sold in the market.

Goats in trees. Apparently they eat the Argonne nuts from the trees. We had to stop and take a few pictures of goats in trees.

Mary Leigh and Luke posing with the tree climbing goats of Morocco. We paid the goat herder 14 Dirhams for trespassing and snapping photos. He also planted a kiss on Mary Leigh to seal the deal. No kidding.

Chopping into some local melon at the beach.