Blogs from Morocco, Africa - page 201

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Africa » Morocco » Marrakech-Tensift-El Haouz » Marrakech November 3rd 2007

Our cab dropped us near the Djama el Fna: Marrakech’s notorious central square, described as the center of night life for locals and as a twenty-four hour tourist trap. From the road we entered a pedestrian only pathway and walked past a park, where rows of boys sat on benches and stared intently at us—challenging us to break our determined, straight-ahead gazes. “Hello gazelle.” “Hey sweetie. Welcome to Marrakech.” We kept our eyes forward, pointed in the direction of the strip of white lights that our cabbie had pointed us toward. At the center of the square was a maze of tables covered in neat rectangles of white oilcloth; a cluster of tables belonged to one food stall, and each of the fifty or so food stalls was lit with a single bare bulb or a ... read more
The inferno.
Armani man.
Self-portrait.

Africa » Morocco » Fès-Boulemane » Fes November 2nd 2007

In Morocco, music is all around us. Here are some short (sorry about the quality) videos from our daily life with the family and not so daily life as we summited Toubkal. ... read more

Africa » Morocco » Souss-Massa-Draâ » Imlil November 2nd 2007

From the rocky desert outside the city our taxi pointed toward the vague outline of the High Atlas mountains, eventually climbing through low red hills until the turns grew tighter and we were deposited in our small-town mountain destination. Imlil is the sleepy Berber town that exists primarily as a starting-point for trekkers who set out to hike the Toubkal region and summit Toubkal, Africa’s second tallest mountain. Imlil is like many of the other small mountain towns that I’ve encountered. Endless budget hotels, restaurants that offer more or less the same few dishes (no menu to speak of), and provisions stores selling all the canned tuna and Snickers bars that the unprepared trekker could hope for. We bargained our way into a small hotel (where we slept on mattresses on the floor) and at five ... read more
Candle light vigil.
Hot mamas on the trail.
Snowy refuge.

Africa » Morocco » Meknès-Tafilalet » Todra Gorge October 30th 2007

Adam had never been to Paris, so we flew from Paris to Marrakech, taking the TGV from Geneva. We met up in Paris with my uncle, JB, his wife, DIDI and my aunt, Chantal and rode bikes around to discover Paris by night. Yap! Bikes! There is a new system in Paris, called Velib (www.velib.paris.fr): every 300m are bikes stations where you can pick up or return a bike for super cheap (free for the first 30min!). Outstanding! Someone recommended that we take a taxi from the Gare du Nord to the Orly airport. Big mistake as we got totally ripped of. Apparently, taxi drivers know where the traffic jams are and intentially go into them: we ended up paying 60Euros for the ride, instead of the 30Euros he told us it would cost. The trip ... read more
Arc de Triomphe
Snake Charmers
Food stands at Djema El Fna in Marrakech

Africa » Morocco » Marrakech-Tensift-El Haouz » Essaouira October 28th 2007

Here it is - our last entry from Morocco. Essaouira is a lovely little fishing village and the perfect place to unwind before heading on to the next stage of our trip - England. Morocco has been an amazing country to visit it truly has and we are all glad we got to see and experience so much of the culture. On the surface the driving here seems crazy, especially in the cities, where you are sharing very narrow streets with donkeys; bikes; motor bikes, cars and people. But in reality there is a lot of order to the chaos and everyone knows their role. We have witnessed very few accidents - only one - and the cars are remarkably undamaged. Unlike Spain where most cars, even expensive ones; have scrapes and dents all over them. ... read more
Goats in trees?
Moroccan Movie Set - Essaouira
Essaouira Harbour

Africa » Morocco » Meknès-Tafilalet » Merzouga October 26th 2007

It has been a whirlwind of activity since the last post. We finished up our Sociology and Arabic courses with a pretty brutal final exam in Arabic, and a quite lax one for Sociology. We spend the previous weekend studying, and making last minute stops to shops, interesting sites, and Marjane—a very large supermarket that gave us a little slice of the huge supermarket scene we were accustomed to at home. In Morocco, most stores are specialized and often quite small, so it was very rare for us to see something this large. If we weren’t making it on foot in the Medina, we were most likely traveling around by Taxi—an experience in which a co-traveler, Monica, documents quite well in this narrative. http://docs.google.com/View?docID=dd4bh73x_1fh66km&revision=_latest In Morocco, I have felt that I have made a stronger connection ... read more
Hassan
Sunset
Land Rover

Africa » Morocco » Marrakech-Tensift-El Haouz » Marrakech October 25th 2007

To be honest, our first impression of Morocco was not inspiring. The drive from Tangiers to Casablanca was a sad sight - fields and fields littered with garbage and plastic bags (mind you, we were warned). However, it did not take long for us to forget this image as, starting with our visit to the Hassan II Mosque, things improved dramatically. It seems like so much time has passed since we left Fez, but really it has only been 6 days. The diversity of the landscape has been amazing. Just when we think we have had the ultimate experience something else catches our attention. Martin, the answer to your question is YES. Don did buy a fossil - a very large one!! I made the mistake of letting him go to the Erfoud Fossil Factory by ... read more
Our Bedouin Tent in Merzouga
Sunrise  - Merzouga
Our Riad - Marrakech

Africa » Morocco » Fès-Boulemane » Fes October 20th 2007

We arrived in Casablanca’s Mohammed V airport at about midnight. Other than us and some German tourists, the airport was quite empty, and we quickly went through customs and baggage claim before heading outside into the (surprisingly) cool African air. We hopped into two vans and headed for Rabat, about 100 kilometers away. We were told that it would be easier driving to Rabat, the capital rather than going all the way into Casablanca, just to drive back out again the next morning. We were still on Istanbul time, three hours later so it was fair to say that we were exhausted. We arrived at our hotel around two in the morning, and crawled into bed, excited to start our time in Fez the next day. The next morning we climbed into the vans and continued ... read more
The Tannery
Volibulis

Africa » Morocco » Fès-Boulemane » Fes October 20th 2007

Our original desire to go to Morocco came after we had a chat with Jamal, a good friend of Benoit’s. Jamal has an apartment in Fes, and had booked flights in September, inviting us along to stay in his apartment - an offer difficult to refuse. We were not the only ones accompanying him - his dad and bubbly girlfriend, Julia were to join us. Luckily French is spoken widely in Morocco, so at least one of us could communicate well with the locals. It’s not the cheapest country to travel in though, so we had to watch our dirhams along the way, as we hadn’t budgeted for a trip like this. On the Sunday night, we arrived late in Fes, and didn’t see much travelling with a mad grand taxi driver from the airport to ... read more
Tea time in Morocco
Jamels family,and girlfriend on left
Our first daylight view of Fes - from apartment

Africa » Morocco » Fès-Boulemane » Fes October 20th 2007

Okay - so they say a photo is worth a thousand words. As this arabic keyboard, plus the slow computor, is getting the better of me - here are a few photos to keep you all going for a while. Life is good and having the car and driver is fantastic. Morocco may only be a short ferry ride from Spain but it truly is a completely different world. We are enjoying our last evening in Fez and tomorrow we will head for the desert. okay _ so just as I finished downloading the photos the internet system in Fez crashed - never to return _ so here we are, a day later in Erfoud, after an abosoutely stunning drive _ so I am going to send this off while the going is - will be ... read more
Casablanca
Rabat
Volubilis




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