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Discovering Morocco
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The idea came from my husband, Carlo: two weeks in Morocco on our own. Fantastic!
The plane landed in Agadir, a city made for tourists, but those tourists who fear the real Morocco… in other words, I didn't appreciate it so much, although I recently saw on TV that it also has some pretty areas.
We headed for Essaouira, an ancient Portuguese colony on the sea, which is fortified and has a medina with narrow alleys and crowded streets. Its main resources are fishing and tourism, but a slightly less European sort of tourism, if you know what I mean. It also has an immense beach full of bay watchers that are kept extremely busy by the reckless Moroccans who challenge the ocean's tides - I never saw so many people drowning in only 2 days! You can eat fish, fresh out of the sea and cooked in one of the stalls that are set up on the big square on the sea front. Essaouira has a tiny fishing port, which is smelly and picturesque. I liked it for its worn and untidy atmosphere. Sitting on a bench on that square, Carlo and I read short stories by a Moroccan writer called Tahar Ben Jelloun. We played this game in which, after reading a story, we would look up into the passing crowd and spot the characters of the story. It always worked, and it made the stories so real! In the end of June, Essaouira hosts a very popular local and international music festival… Unfortunately, we missed it by just a few days.
After Essaouira, we reached Marrakech by bus. It is great fun to take the bus (but I mean the cheap and run-down ones) because they are always crowded with local people and their heavy bundles of crop from the fields, etc. In any case, I appreciate these sort of things. The buses are filled over the legal limit, and when a police road block is approached, all the standing people have to duck to avoid a big fine! There is even a person in charge of informing the passengers when they are supposed to duck! A woman refused to do so, when everybody else was squatting, and she gave her reasons in a shrill voice.
The driver probably fretted, but nobody got upset, and we managed to avoid the fine anyway.
Marrakech is very beautiful. It is crowded with all sorts of people: you will see rich next to poor and ragged. They are dressed in a variety of styles, depending on their ethnic origin, and on how much liberty they take in their clothing, but in any case, everything is tolerated. In the center, there is a huge square called Djema el Fna, which is the heart of the city. Just about everything happens over there.
There are story tellers, which unfortunately I could not understand, that were surrounded by locals who sit down just to listen to a story. You can find improvised street-pharmacists, who have natural remedies for any illness, or snake charmers, and stalls selling every sort of meal, ranging from orange juice and dried fruit, to grilled meat and snail soup! Marrakech offers monuments and sites to visit, and a souk to be explored. We slept in a Riad, which is a hotel that has an open-air lobby, with a fountain and colorful majolicas. The rooms have windows facing the lobby, to keep out the heat. On the roof there is a terrace where you can have breakfast in a colorful setting with a great view over the city's roofs.
One day we went for an excursion in the countryside around Marrakech. It was an organized tour, and besides the driver there were only the two of us and Harry Potter. The latter was a very pale Scottish lad who had just spent a week in Casablanca with the runs. He had gone out only on one occasion, during which his wallet had been stolen! This excursion seemed to be the only happy moment of his holiday.
No panic however, he was the sort of person to whom these things would happen just about anywhere! The driver took us to visit a Berber family who lived in a typical house. We even took a walk along a stream that cut through the valley, where Berber children appeared out of nowhere and begged for sweets. After Marrakech, we took another bus to Ouarzazate, a town that didn't strike me particularly. It is considered Morocco's Hollywood, because there are movie studios that you can visit, but I am not too keen on these sort of things. There is also a Kasbah which is worth seeing. But most importantly, in Ouarzazate you can find Berber guides who take you into the Sahara Desert, which is about two hours away (not that you can find much vegetation in Ouarzazate, but it isn't the proper desert yet!).
It is there that we met Lahcen and Abdoul, who became our good friends. The next day, we set out with them towards the Sahara in 4x4.
In my opinion, the desert is the most sensational experience of our trip to Morocco. I still carry it in my heart. We spent 3 days there, roaming from one bivouac to the next, pampered by Lahcen and Abdoul who prepared delicious meals (colorful salads for lunch, tajine or couscous for dinner) that we ate with our hands, all together.
In the evenings the Berber guides would gather to sing and play their traditional songs together, using whatever came to hand for a drum. After dinner Lahcen would tell stories (Moroccans are born storytellers), and the atmosphere was magic. In the desert we slept beneath the stars, in beds that appeared out of nowhere, all set with mattress, sheets, blanket and pillow. The starlit desert sky is a unique and amazing sight, it is studded with millions of bright stars!
During the day it was very hot, and the local people spent the early afternoon sleeping the heat off. It is well known that the heat can cause mysterious phenomena in the desert, and a mirage is among these.
Although I knew it was absurd, that lake that I could see at the horizon with the dunes rising out of it seemed so real to me! One day we visited an oasis which is said to be sacred, because of the water that spurts out right in the middle of the desert. The oasis is full of plants and animals, some of which are rather cheeky… In fact, while we were having lunch in the shade of a patio, a black goat with long twisted horns, came to finish up whatever was left in our plates, napkins included! I discovered afterwards that the goat was called Didi, she was the owner's favorite, and therefore acted as the queen of the oasis.
After lunch, while everyone was having the usual siesta, I started wandering around to explore hidden corners of the oasis. It was so that I discovered a pool full of water (with a young Moroccan in it… but I waited for him to get out and pull his trousers on before I got near!) The discovery was like a dream come true, so I fetched Carlo and we bathed in it (together with the Moroccan guy…with his trousers on this time!) Perhaps it wasn't allowed, but it was so refreshing! After the oasis, we headed forward, to a place called Erg Chigaga, which has splendid dunes that light up with marvelous colors at sunrise and sunset.
Back in Ouarzazate, we spent the night at our friends' house (or rather, on the roof) where we cooked spaghetti for a dozen hungry Moroccans.
The following day we had planned to take the bus to our next destination, but the bus left 15 minutes early (!!!) and we missed it!
So, to avoid wasting time, we rented a car and continued on our own. We stopped at Taroudante, where we spent the afternoon in the souk, buying spices from a man who told us the secrets of every concoction that he had in his shop. We then continued towards the coast, where we stopped to visit some of the fishing villages along the coast. We even came upon an enormous beach, which had gigantic arches made of red rock sculpted by the wind and the sea: beautiful. One of the villages that I liked most is called Sidi Ifní. It is an ex Spanish colony. It was abandoned by the Spanish a few decades ago, but it still has the air of a phantom town, with the exception of the market place, which was lively and colorful. Finally, we headed back to Agadir to catch our plane.
I found Morocco a marvelous country with marvelous people.
Many Europeans are prejudiced against North-African countries, as they believe they are unsafe for Western women. I never felt endangered, I found very kind people, and I made good friends.
As a matter of fact, Carlo and I liked Morocco so much, that 6 months later we went back, this time for an excursion into the wild of the Sahara Desert, riding camels. If you're interested, you can find useful infos at www.desertdor.com to organize a trip in the desert and surrounding areas.
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| Duration: 2 weeks |
| Number of travelers: 2 |
| Travelers name's: Daniela |
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