Morocco part 3

Day 8 was spent mostly just driving from Erfoud to Ait Benhaddou, described as “a prime example of classic Southern Moroccan architecture, this fortified city's high-angled towers stand out above the family dwellings, all set near the foothills of the Atlas Mountains”. We passed several of these earthen clay fortresses and they looked pretty formidable.

One of the most interesting sights, if not the most bizarre, were goats that climbed trees. Yes, it seems there are some cloven hooved goats who climb one particular type of tree, the Argania spinosa, or argan tree. The fruit must be super delicious, because the tree itself is very thorny. No one else wants the fruit, not humans or other animals. What humans do want however, is the nut in the center of the fruit. The argon fruit is eaten by the goat, but the nut is not digested. It passes entirely through the digestive tract and pops out the other end, where some unfortunate soul gathers them up for processing. Yup, this is where all that argon oil comes from. Apparently, there are other ways of extracting the oil, but this method is still used, primarily for cosmetics. You are smearing argon oil and goat poop on your face for that younger looking skin we see promised in commercials.

Day 9 we drove to the charming resort town of Agadir. This former fishing village is well known for its current fleet of small blue, single person fishing boats. We visited the harbor where these nearly identical boats were tightly packed 8 to 10 deep. Luckily, everyone knows each other, so they know who needs to move their boat when they want out. I would love to have seen the morning rush hour. We did a short, guided tour of the walled city, with its quaint shops, cafés, street venders, and restaurants lining a maze of narrow corridors and open squares alike. For lunch, four of us visited a roof top restaurant with amazing views. My 3 friends got fresh sardines, but since I’m not a fan, I stuck to the tried and true favorite, spaghetti bolognaise. I know, I’m so adventurous, right!?

Day 10 saw us back on the road, this time headed to the seaside resort town of Essaouira. The only stop we made that day was to Marjana Cooperative. www.coopmarjana.com. It’s a co-op where women manually extract the oil from the argon nuts. One group of women crack open the almond size nuts using a flat stone and a small rock. The seeds are then put into a hand cranked stone grinder / mortar and pestle and pulp that looks like mud is slowly ground out. I might mention that all the ladies are sitting on mats on the ground. The pulp is then kneaded in a bowl, but I’m not sure how they get the oil out of the bowl, we didn’t see that part. If you are interested, look them up on Facebook, there are a few videos but the explanation is in French. An interesting tidbit, the shells are used in cooking fires. They burn well and smell good.

Day 11 was a pretty chill day, which we needed after going non-stop for the past several days . After a nice tour of the city, we went back and spent a bit of time in the souk. We sat at a café and people watched for a bit then did some shopping. On the first day in Marrakesh, I found a painting that I really liked. Since I live out of a suitcase, I rarely buy anything in my travels, so I didn’t really consider buying the painting. But later I realized I would in fact, be headed back to the States in a few weeks, there was no reason not to buy anything. Many of the street vendors and shops in the souks were selling a specific type of painting by local artists. Of course, the paintings weren’t the same, but many of the styles were similar. As it always the case, once I decided to get a painting, I couldn’t find one I liked. Until this day, oh joy! My friend Christina was kind enough to join me on my hunt for the perfect painting and we finally found it. Naturally, it wasn’t as perfect as the first one, but it was so good, I ended up buying two. It was small enough to roll up in my suitcase, let’s hope it doesn’t get smashed.

Day 12 and we’re back on the road, this time to Casablanca, our departure city. The itinerary describes it thus - “Casablanca's history goes back thousands of years as the Berbers established settlements there around the 10th Century BC. Famed civilizations such as the Phoenicians and Romans were known to have traveled through there as well. During World War II, the city served as General Patton's headquarters for the North Africa campaign, and the host of the 1943 meeting between the heads of state to plan the Normandy landing.” Of course, it’s better known as the setting for the movie and wouldn’t you know, our tour guide just happened to have a copy for the long bus ride. I admit, I’m not a fan of old movies at all, and had never seen it. While I still don’t like old movies and probably won’t watch another one, I did enjoy it.

The city was huge and took us a while to get to our hotel. As we drove, we passed through many different neighborhoods. We saw slums not much better than cardboard boxes, which oddly enough, all sported satellite dishes. Just a few miles away we passed through stately mansions with expansive gardens. We stopped for a visit to the Hassan II Mosque, which is the largest Mosque in Morocco. It was absolutely stunning and the most massive church I’ve ever seen. We drove along the beautiful Corniche seaside, but the view was a bit foggy. We did have a nice seaside lunch and it was warm enough to sit outside. Again with the candy; as we were waiting for the bus to come back for us, I popped a hard candy in my mouth and beggar immediately made a b-line toward me and held her hand out. She did so with a big toothless grin that I just couldn’t resist.

We saw Mohamed V Square which was just a crowded square like any in the world where people enjoy a day out and congregate. What made this square a bit more fun were the thousands of pigeons. There were several people feeding them, including our guide. The birds would land on your head or hand and then all take flight in a swarm as people walked around them.

Our group had one final dinner together then it was time to go our separate ways the next morning. I really enjoyed my group, the guide, the tour company, and most of all Morocco. The company was Gate1 travel and many of the group had used the company before. www.gate1travel.com. They also talked about Oat travel, which is somehow connected. Their tours are with smaller groups and people raved about them as well. www.oattravel.com.