May 5 - Marrakech

We're back from a short trip from Marrakech through the Atlas Mountains and into the Sahara Desert. It was absolutely amazing, the sights were breathtaking, and the photos will be posted soon.

This is our last night in Marrakech (on this trip- hopefully many more to follow!) and we have had a sensational few days. Again, we are posting all of our photos together for you, but we will tell you a bit about our last few days here. Along with our usual daylong ambles, we were able to find some of the sites in the city, which is not as easy as it sounds. Most destinations can only be found by paying a local kid ten dihram (about $1.20) to walk you through alley after alley of winding pink walls, beautiful doorways, and dozens of shops. Most of these streets and alleys don't have names on the map, and when they do, it is generally safe to say that you can't find it anyways.

Yesterday, we hit the sites of Marrakech like good little tourists. We visited tombs of emperors past, an ancient looted palace, and in the afternoon, we took a short taxi ride to the Ville Nouvelle. Just a few short blocks away from the windy streets of the ancient medina (walled city) stands a modern, clean, bustling metropolis that could be mistaken for any small European city. Here, streets are lined with cafes and expresso bars, whereas in the old city, they are filled with fake Berber jewelry stores and live poultry booths. We enjoyed a mojito at a hip terrace restaurant and were all set to go.

Today we took a cooking class at a riad (traditional Moroccan inn). We first went to the market with our guide to get our produce and lamb that would shortly become lunch. People in Morocco are generally not to keen on getting their photo taken, but Jillian shot from the hip- literally- and captured some market scenes without disturbing anyone. The cook only spoke Arabic and a small bit of French, so verbal communication was limited, but words were not needed to convey her recipes and techniques. She expertly guided us through the making of eggplant caviar, cinnamon and orange water scented pumpkin,  fresh parsley and coriander zucchini salad, and a tomato and roasted pepper salad. These were followed by freshly baked bread and a lamb and squash tagine- perhaps the best meal we have had yet.

Rolling instead of strolling through the alleys, we made our way into a hammam- a traditional Moroccan bathhouse. It is somewhere between a spa treatment and being washed like a small child in the bathtub, but definitely awesome. We stripped down to our undies, and sat in the hammam while the attendant washed and scrubbed and bathed us. Intermittent buckets of hot water were poured over us, and the scrub down was no joke. Every last dead skin cell was sloughed off as she scoured us with the hammam glove. Slightly less invigorating, but far more soothing was washing with savon noir- soap made from black olives.

We closed out the day with a visit to the Medersa of Ben Yaccoub, a 14th century Islamic learning center that housed students for 500 years (until the bathrooms just became unbearable). The space was breathtaking and we relaxed by the reflecting pool just taking it all in.

Lots of love,
Jillian + Ari