Last day in Morocco

The last morning our village was further from the mosque, so we didn't wake up quite as early. We still were up early enough to see a beautiful sunrise over the mountains before a quick Berber breakfast of bread and mint tea.

Sunrise over the mountains

Double fisting, Moroccan style

 Today we only had a short, downhill hike of about an hour to get to the van that was to take us to Marrakech. It hadn't really warmed up yet, so we had wonderful cool air and more gorgeous views.

Just beautiful

 One of the things that was most interesting about the trip was seeing the Berber farming techniques. Much of the land is carved into terraces to make the hills farmable. They then have little channels running all down the hills from basins of water at the top. They dam up or undam the top to let water run down as needed to irrigate the plants. They also use dried branches of a prickly, thorny plant to line their field, thus keeping out goats and other animals that might eat their plants.

Terraces for farming. What an incredible amount of work.

 The first day of hiking some of the group had the chance to ride the donkeys, but there wasn't time for everyone. The last day I was reminded that I wanted to try and got hoisted up on Couscous...

Like a sack of potatoes

Me and my buddy, Couscous

 Unfortunately, Couscous had a predilection for ledges. Most of my ride was spent in terror as he continually walked right on the edge of the ravine. The guide kept grabbing his head and turning him towards the middle of the path, but he always turned back out to the precipice. He seemed pretty sure-footed, but there were definitely times where my leg was hanging out into space. I'm not such a fan of living on the edge.

A valley oasis

 We finished our hike, took a minute to enjoy the view, then climbed in the minivan to go back to Marrakech. That was pretty terrifying too. The roads were very narrow and winding and at times it looked like you were going right off the cliff.

And pretty maids all in a row

 We knew we were stopping somewhere for lunch on the way, but we didn't know where. After awhile our van pulled off the main road and started down a dirt road. We kept going and going through dirt fields, and started to feel car sick since it was really windy (even though we were just going through a flat field). Imagine our surprise when we ended up here!

Rugs and mint tea in a garden oasis

 Our guides had taken us to an organic farm that just opened a restaurant. We had one of the best meals of our life in the middle of nowhere, Morocco.

Delicious food

 We started with a delicious assortments of hot and cold salads, bread, and banana milk. Then there was a tagine with dates, couscous with roasted vegetables, and melon, the standard Moroccan dessert. We were so stuffed we could hardly move. Another highlight was the Western toilet! (even though it didn't work too well). We had to rush through in order to make our train, but if we're ever in Morocco again we will certainly go back.

On the train ride (which was mercifully shorter than the way there) we had to finish off the last pomegranates, as we aren't allowed to bring fruit on the ship. I'll leave you with a picture of my hunky husband opening even more fruit with his bare hands.

Pomegranates are even harder to break into than pineapples

Berber Villages, day 2

Although the stars on the roof were lovely, we didn't get all that much sleep. We were surrounded on all sides by animals in their pens, including cows, donkeys, and roosters. The cows weren't bad, but the donkeys and roosters were braying and crowing all night long. Also, Muslims are supposed to pray five times a day, and in Muslim countries the call to prayer is broadcast  from the mosque. That meant that around 6 am we woke up to chanting blaring from a loudspeaker. Although not conducive to sleep, it was a really cool experience since we definitely don't have those at home. It also meant we got to see a gorgeous sunrise.

One direction

And the other

 After a Berber breakfast of homemade bread, honey, and tea, our donkeys were brought around and once again loaded up. Our guide jokingly called them Berber 4x4s.

Was it you he-hawing all night long? Bad donkey!

 The day two trek was even prettier than the first, as the mountains got higher and the vegetation changed. We took time for some funny photo ops:

Photobombed!

Hang on, Jason!

 We had also been given a large number of toothbrushes to hand out in the villages, courtesy of Global Grins. As we passed a tiny village school, we made our first distribution stop. It was really fun to see how excited the kids got, and to try to explain to them what the toothbrushes were for! It was also a nice break, as the hiking on day two was longer and harder, and the temperature was also warmer. We were all wishing for turbans to protect the back of our necks from the sun!

The international sign for brushing teeth.

Not a bad view

 Our guide pointed out that even the most rustic and isolated homes had their own personal hammams (steam baths). In the background of this next picture you can see a hammam for one person, right out where the cows are.

Hammam, house, cow. You can see the hammam is really as small is a cow, definitely for only one person!

Typical Berber village

 We were getting really hot and hungry when we suddenly came upon groves of trees creating a beautiful, cool forest. Luckily this is where our guides had picked for us to eat. We settled unto some mats they pulled out and drank mint tea while they cooked our lunch. We were very surprised to see our rough, manly guides bring out this beautiful dish of rice, tomato salad, and olives!

Presentation is very important, apparently

 We all really enjoyed our delicious lunch, then gladly accepted our guides' suggestion that we take a Berber nap - ie, a one hour nap out in the woods. It was wonderful, and only interrupted by the sudden arrival of a shepherd and his flock of sheep and goats. They scared a few people who were trying to find a place to pee in the woods!

After lunch we only had to hike about an hour more to get to the village we would be staying in for the second night. We once again had the opportunity to take a hammam, although this one was much smaller and a bit more rustic. This village also didn't have any running water, so we were asked to be very careful with how much water we used.

Inside the hammam - this one was really only big enough for 2, maybe 3 people. The hot water is in the hole in the wall, and the fireplace that heats the water and the room is below that. Cold water comes out of the tap, which leads to a big barrel outside filled with water from the stream.

 After the hammam, we went outside and were greeted by dozens of children from the village. They took us all to their school yard and taught us some of their games. We, in turn, taught them red light green light, tag, the chicken dance, and the hokey pokey. The chicken dance was a HUGE hit! It was so much fun to play with them. Jason also got to hand out more toothbrushes, and was absolutely swarmed by kids. It was amazing to see how excited they got over something so simple.

When it was starting to get dark we headed back to our place for the night and ate a late dinner, then crashed. Below are two pictures to give you somewhat of an idea of the house. The first is the view from our bedroom window. What you can't tell is that right below the bedroom was the stables - we were literally sleeping on top of them and could occasionally hear the cows moving and mooing.

Luckily this night the donkeys slept too.

Berber homes are typically built around a center room that is open to the sky (there's a hole in the roof). Off of the central space are the kitchen and several bedrooms. The bathroom (a squat toilet) is also off to the side.

Here you can see the big barrels of water brought from the stream

 This house wasn't quite as clean as the first, and we were all getting a bit tired of squat toilets, flies, and feeling a bit dirty. Mostly though, we were tired, so we climbed onto foam pads on the floor and listened to the cows as we tried to go to sleep.

Berber Villages, day 1

I started the morning with a swim in the hotel pool then met up with Jason for breakfast. The hotel buffet included a small salad bar, which was definitely different than American breakfasts!

Posing with the Moroccan tea service

Then our group hit the road to head into the mountains where we would start our hike. On the way, our guides stopped at one of the many pomegranate stands and bought us a huge bag of the fruit. None of us really knew how to eat them, so they taught us to break them open and pick out the ruby red seeds.We also practiced tossing seeds and catching them in our mouths. 

Our guides picking out pomegranates

My first whole pomegranate!

When we reached the starting point, we met up with our donkeys and mules and loaded them up with all our bags. The poor donkeys have to carry a lot of weight! The morning part of the hike was beautiful, through river ravines and up some hills past olive trees and lots of thorny bushes. We stopped for lunch in an olive grove, then kept climbing past adorable baby goats and lambs. We also learned that donkeys can be VERY loud!

Our guide, Hussain, leading the way.

Happy camper

Lambie! Too bad lambs just like this were served for dinner a few nights...

 Around 3:30 or so we reached the village where we were to spend the night. I have no idea what the village was called, but it had about 20 families and had just gotten electricity and running water about 3 years ago. We stayed with the family of Mohammed, one of our donkey wranglers.

It's hard to see in this picture, but this donkey and owner had just been to the market down in the valley. He's loaded up with all sorts of food including yogurt. Donkey is the primary mode of transportation in the Berber villages.

 After a snack of mint tea and Moroccan "donuts" - fried dough without the powdered sugar, I went in the hammam with three other women, including another faculty member and one of the resident directors. A hammam is like a Turkish bath - a steam room where people scrub themselves down. In big cities there are public hammams; in our small villages most of the homes had a personal hammam. They are essentially tiny concrete and ceramic rooms with very low ceilings. There's a fire place under the floor that heats the room and creates steam. You strip down until you're naked (that was a surprise aspect of the hammam!) then all climb in together and scrub up and rinse off with water from the tap. Moroccan women go in with their friends for 2 or 3 hours at a time, as it is a private place where they can gossip and be sort of free. I only lasted about 30 minutes due to the heat, and later got told by the guide that I needed to stay much longer.

While I bonded with the women on the trip, Jason went off on an adventure with some other members of the group. They hiked around the hills, spoke with a shepherd, and he caught this great picture of a hungry sheep:

Giraffe sheep?

 Later on the boys went in the hammam while the girls started getting henna tattoos. They were done by Fatima, the 16 year old daughter of the owner of the house. She did beautiful designs, although the henna was pretty rustic and has already faded quite a bit. I wasn't sure if I really wanted to do it, but when in Morocco...

She was also a ridiculously fast worker and managed to do 10 of us in an hour and a half.

 We enjoyed a gorgeous sunset.

Looking towards the Atlas Mountains

 Then were served a traditional dinner of soup and tagine with melon for dessert. It was all very good. The flies swarming everything only slightly detracted from the experience, as we had been bothered by them since we first docked in Morocco.

 After dinner some kids decided to play music for us. They were very talented drummers, especially given that all their instruments were made of trash! Our hosts also taught us Moroccan songs and dances. It was wonderful to see how people spend their time when they don't have internet, movie theaters, etc.

Drumming on empty water bottles and other plastic jugs.

Grandpa came out and invited us to dance.

 Grandpa (in the last picture) was a highlight of the day, as he asked all the women how old we were and then told all the unmarried ladies that they were getting old and needed to start looking harder. He promised a cow and a room to anyone that married someone from the village. Too bad I found Jason, it was hard to pass up such a good deal!

After all the dancing, we dragged our mats up to the roof. It was such a beautiful night with so many stars that we couldn't resist the opportunity to sleep outside. Berber homes have flat roofs that often double as decks, so it worked out perfectly and we eventually fell asleep to the (sweet?) sounds of some upset donkeys.

There is no such thing as the Marrakech Express

Four days ago we woke up in Africa. Casablanca, Morocco, to be exact.

One of the first Semester at Sea official trips we signed up for was a four day trip to the Berber Villages of the Atlas Mountains. So as soon as the ship cleared, 12 of us (7 faculty/staff, 5 students) met our guide and headed to the Casablanca train station ready to hike, sleep in tiny villages, and brave squat toilets.

The little we saw of Casablanca was overwhelming, industrial, and gritty, so we weren't too sad to head out of town. Unfortunately, as the title of this post says, there is no Marrakech Express. In fact, it took us 6 hours to make the normally 3.5 hour trip as the train frequently stopped for a long time and for no particular reason. Apparently in Morocco there aren't really arrival times for trains. As a result we had to quickly throw our suitcases down at our hotel in Marrakech and run off to the medina (old town) for a quick shopping trip before our scheduled dinner.

The main souk (market) was quite the experience. Vendors selling dried fruit and nuts, fresh squeezed orange juice, and other food called out to us - "Shakira!" "Lady Gaga" "My flower!" and sang rhymes about their stall numbers. There was a snake charmer with a viper and reportedly monkeys, although we didn't see them. Further in were what seemed like miles and miles of stalls full of scarves, rugs, tea sets, souvenirs, clothes, and anything else you can imagine. Haggling is part of the game, and Jason and I worked out a routine where I negotiated a price, then called my husband over to get money. He acted upset with the price I got and tried to get a better one. I'm sure we still paid more than any Moroccan would, but I think we did okay.

First Moroccan mint tea. We drank a lot of this and it was so good!

Marrakech medina

Fresh squeezed OJ

Sunset over the souk

We go nuts!

Olives and other jarred things

For dinner we headed to a restaurant that was geared towards tourists, but was delicious nonetheless. The best part was the music and dancing. The musicians were very good, but the first dancers were THE most apathetic, unenthusiastic dancers we have ever seen. No smiles, eye rolls, hardly any movement. It was amazing how bad they were. The rest of the trip we got a huge kick out of imitating them.

Beautiful tile work

Yes, she balanced a plate of candles on her head while she danced. And looked incredibly uncomfortable the whole time.

We couldn't care less if we tried.

 Luckily things picked up a bit after they finished. One group got everyone including Jason on the dance floor.

Any color-coordination with the apathetic dancers was purely accidental.

 And then we had an enthusiastic belly dancer.

A bit peppier

Exhausted, we headed back to the hotel to enjoy our last moments with Western toilets and real beds before heading off into the mountains armed with our own feet, a few donkeys, and a lot of Pepto-Bismol.

Spain, Portugal, and off to Morocco!

No pictures in today's post, thanks to some sub-par on-ship internet. The last week or so has been a total whirlwind, as we did Spain and Portugal in a period of 5 days, sailed yesterday, and have arrived in Morocco this morning. 3 countries, 2 continents, 7 days? You got it.

Lisbon, Portugal, and Cadiz, Spain, were beautiful, although we paid for the gorgeous weather in Russia and Ireland with rain in both cities. "We have 300 days of brilliant sunshine a year," the tourist people repeated. "I'm getting wet," I insisted.

We didn't have any real plans in either port, as we were a bit burnt out after so many European ports in a row. Instead we wandered around both cities, eating and drinking our way through the best they had to offer. Tiles, beaches, tiny medieval streets, and castles tempted our eyes while wine, cheese, and pastries filled our bellies. On the last day in Spain I helped with a field lab to sherry vineyards and Jason used his Spanish to get around Cadiz on his own. All in all it was a lovely few days in Iberia, and we know we will be back.

Today we head to Marrakesh, and from there will spend three days hiking through the Atlas Mo