The Berber Palace

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We were in the High Atlas region in my last blog. I chose the wrong section. We are now in the Anti-Atlas. We left Tinghir this morning after two nights. The hotel wasn't very good. The one now is fantastic. I have only 20 minutes before dinner, so just some notes.

Three of us went to the haman, the bath. Very different from all the others I've gone to. (The Korean one in Atl., the Swedish one in Copenhagan, plenty of Turkish ones, even the one in Phila in the vast areas under the city.) Our guide had arranged for two women to take care of us. We each paid 100 dirham and we got scrubbed, oiled, washed with olive oil soap and had several warm buckets of water poured over us. There were a lot of women and children there; it was Sunday afternoon.

I do admit to being a bit self conscious, but all the women were kind and not interested in us. We were in a nice warm room with tiles all over. The floor was heated--good because we had to lie down on the floor.

We went to a Berber women's cooperative where the rugs that were sold by the women (brought in from all over the country) were sold. Yes, I did buy a rug. To get a lower price I negotiated away my cute pocket printer. The salesman/manager/president? had helped the Peace Corps in Morocco so he had excellent English. Later I regretted including the printer in the deal. I miss it. But the rug is fantastic. Come visit me in Atlanta and see it.

The Berbers are over 40% of the population of Morocco. They aren't restricted to this country but are all over Africa. The French found it very difficult to control them, so there are lots of war stories.

I hav to go now. Will upload photos later. We are off to a French restaurtnat for dinner.

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