FEZ - May 6

 

We had a fantastic journey through the Atlas Mountains and into the Sahara for three days this past week that we have not yet told you about. We met with a small group early in the morning last Saturday to begin our ten hour journey out of Marrakech. Immediately we knew we were in for a treat as our group of 14 introduced ourselves to one another and quickly learned that we hailed from all over the globe (US, Japan, Australia, Argentina, Spain, Germany, Uraguay, England and Morocco). Our guide spoke to the group in Italian or French, which was then translated into Spanish by one of the group members, and a third translated into English for the rest of us.

On our first day, we traveled to Ourzazate taking a winding road through the High Atlas Mountains. The view from the ride was just spectacular, with mountains towering over us and lush valleys below. Small villages and casbahs (castles) dotted the hills as did small herds of sheep and goats, terraced farming, and poppy fields. Though we had originally decided to arrange for the tour to see the desert, we soon found that the ride itself was an awesome part of the trip.

We made some pit stops at roadside villages, and walked through a casbah built entirely out of mud bricks that was begun in 950, and completed about 150 years ago. It was extremely well preserved (thank you, UNESCO and Hollywood) and we felt like we were walking through a huge sand castle. We stopped for a few photo opportunties, at Tizin Tichka Gorge and some other spots, and continued on to M'Gouba to catch the very beginning of their annual Rose Festival. We browsed the shops containing anything you could dream of containing the scent of roses, before stopping at a lovely small hotel for the evening.

The next day, by late afternoon, we had reached the small town of Merzouga, perched on the very edge of the desert. The town itself consisted of a few small hotels that served as a base for travelers wishing to visit the desert. There was a main road and to reach each of the hotels, one simply had to pull off of the main road, and drive across the sand.

With a few grunts and groans (both from us and the camels) we each hopped climbe up and rode our camels into the desert. As the sun was setting, we caught our first glimpses of the silky dunes named Erg Chebbi, though much of our ride was in darkness. We reached our camp after a 2 hour ride, and climbed down, bow legged from the journey. Dinner was a Berber tagine, and we danced to the drumming and singing of our Berber guides for hours under the cover of the stars. As the party wound down, we laid out mattresses on the sand, and slept soundly on the soft Saharan sand.

On the last morning of our Saharan adventure, we had a delicious breakfast of bread and cheese (it's amazing how much better everything tastes in the middle of the desert) at our Berber campsite and then climbed back onto our camels. The sun cast long shadows on the sandy dunes as we slowly rode back toward Merzouga. With our tushies sore from two days of camel riding, we squeezed back into our tour van for the eight hour ride back to Marrakech. Once there, we used multiple languages and lots of hugs and kisses to say goodbye to our new friends.

Lots of love,

Jillian + Ari

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

  

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

MARRAKECH - April 30

Jillian's fallen in love. Totally head over heels in love. The kind of love you could only feel for Joey in New Kids on the Block when you were 10. But then again for Jason Priestly when you were 13, and maybe Barak Obama when you were a little bit older than that... She's totally in love with Marrakech.

We've spent the last two days wandering in and out of alleys, past spice shops, carts with freshly squeezed orange juice, through markets with brightly colored textiles, brass lanterns, furniture, and carpets. We've watched street performers entertain crowds in the same square that they have been singing and dancing and snake charming and fortune telling and remedy making for one thousand years.

We set out for a walking tour of the city and only actually got to the Bahia Palace, before being reeled in once again by the magic of the alleyways and the lures of the shops. The palace was truly spectacular, though, and unfortunately the oodles of photos that we took there can't do it justice. The tilework was gorgeous, and the painted ceilings in every room, utterly breathtaking.

All of the photos are at the end for you today, so you can wander through the old city of Marrakech as we are.

Lots of love,
Jillian + Ari

CAIRO - April 28

 

We had one last day in Cairo, and have been in Marrakech for two days since we last posted. This city is utterly magical and we have completely lost all track of time and place. Though just a few hours by plane across North Africa, we are worlds away from Cairo and Egypt (and everywhere else in the world, really).

We have a bit more to share about Egypt before we can delve into the wonders of Morocco. Back from the temples of Luxor, a felucca ride on the Nile, and an overnight train, we hit the streets of Cairo one last time. Having left the city for two days and then returning, we realized just how dirty the city actually was. The air was actually totally gross, and perhaps we enjoyed our sheesha dates so much because it felt even less harsh than the soot-filled air on the streets and in the markets.

Perhaps we should backtrack a little bit, explain the layout of the city more clearly. The hotels that we stayed at were all in the downtown area, a modern neighborhood filled with western style boutiques that all looked like spinoffs of H&M, fast food restaurants, and young couples strolling around on dates. We even noticed that the hijabs worn by the women in this neighborhood had the feel of a big fashionable European scarf and not what we would think of when we imagine the tightly fitted (traditional?) hijabs.

Just blocks away in one direction were impoverished slums, and in another direction was a medieval Islamic quarter filled with thousand year old mosques. We had sought out Islamic Cairo on two separate occasions, and both times sort of fell flat. Our first day in the city, we were so overwhelmed with the hustle and bustle that we didn't even make it to the foot of Khan al Khalili, the big market in town (that of course we thought we were smack in the middle of because it was so busy where had been). On our second venture, we actually made it to the market, but only with the help of MANY guides, and once there quickly retired into a coffee shop to escape the craziness.

Determined to not be entirely defeated, we tried on our last day to again find and visit Old Islamic Cairo. Apparently, we toughened up quite a bit during our week in Egypt, and we were able to press on and actually make it on our final attempt. Our efforts paid off, and the mosques we were able to visit were extraordinary. All dating back 800-1200 years, they littered the alleys and towered above the din, each more interesting than the last. One with austere white walls and huge courtyard had been used as a madhouse, and another boasted ceramic tile ornamentation unparalleled in anything we had ever seen. Old mauseleums and medersas (upper level madrassas?) were associated with some, while intricately carved minarets and woodword adorned others. It was quite an afternoon, and the walk and perseverence well worth it.

The gentlemen at our usual sheesha spot welcomed us back warmly as we bid farewell to an awesome week in Egypt.

Lots of love,
Jillian + Ari

LUXOR - April 27

It's hard to know what to say about our visit to the temples and tombs in Luxor. First of all, 9 hours south of Cairo, it was really hot. We hired a tour guide who brought us to all of the sites on the East Bank of the Nile on our first day in Luxor, and we visited the West Bank with him on our second day. 

The East Bank of Luxor is the living city-- it contained the temples of Karnak and Luxor with an Avenue of Sphinxes, a few km long, connecting them. The Egyptian government is currently undertaking a project to clear the homes and stores where the avenue once ran and restore it for tourists and make the entire city of Luxor "an open air museum." The city itself was quite poor and relied on tourism for 85% of its economy (with the balance for sugarcane farming and processing). It was really striking to walk a block from our "four star" hotel right into the slums.

Poverty aside, Luxor is a remarkable city. The temples were enormous, and extremely well preserved considering that they were 4000 years old. Many of the reliefs and hieroglyphics (no one seems to use that word here, though) still boasted their original vibrant colors and told the stories of the pharaohs and gods to whom they were dedicated. Our guide brought the stories to life for us, and gave us the condensed version of 3000 years of pharaonic Egyptian history.

The West Bank of the Nile contained the tombs of the pharaohs and nobles. Much as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, the pharaohs lived on the East Bank of the Nile and waited for their afterlife on the West Bank. In the Valley of the Kings, the pharaohs of the New Kingdom period built their tombs not in pyramids but into the very rock of the mountains, so as to discourage robbers (the pyramids had already been robbed 1000 years before). Photographs were not allowed in these tombs, but the paintings on the insides were spectacular and the colors rich and vibrant.  

We also visited the Valley of the Nobles and Valley of the Workmen, each containing tombs of Egyptians of lesser stature, but of no less striking beauty to us. The tomb that we saw at the Valley of the Nobles was particularly interesting because it depicted the activities of daily living, and contained many unfinished paintings, so we were able to see the process of the artisans.

The last site we visited on the West Bank was Queen Hatshepsut- a three story temple she built (see the first photo above). She ruled as a king, wore a false beard, and insisted that male pronouns be used when addressing her and speaking of her. In this way, she was able to circumvent the law that only men could rule as pharaohs. Obviously, Jillian liked this site.

With no time to spare, we were back on an overnight train bound for Cairo. With the conductor waking us at 3:30am for breakfast, we were pooped when we got back to the city, and flopped right down on the couches of our hostel for a nap as soon as we arrived.

Lots of love,

Jillian + Ari