A Day in the Life...and then on the road again--Days 11 and 12

Today we visit Ait Benhaddou, a picturesque, mountainside town, where our group will experience "A Day in the Life" of several aspects of the community.

When we arrive, we are met by Mohammed Ali, a local man who will take us around the town.

Our first stop is to the home of Fadma. She is expecting us and welcomes us into her home.

With our Trip Leader translating, we visit with Fadma and her husband and learn a little about their life.

This is their shower.

Their oven

 Their animals are penned in a room off the oven area.

  They never go outside.

This room is only used for family celebrations.  

They were a joy to visit with.

Next we went to visit Fadma's son, Houcine.  

He is an artist and showed us how he paints with sugar mixed into the paint.

 He has finished painting and watch what he does next....

 He holds the painting over a flame...

...and like magic, the colors appear.

 The finished painting.

Back outside we walk over to the fields and visited with Fatima and her granddaughter.

They were harvesting alfalfa for their animals.

Terry and two others from our group jumped in and lent a hand at pulling the alfalfa.

The view from the fields of the High Atlas Mountains.

 We walk back into the town...

and visit the Imik Smilk Women's Association for Rural Development.  Established in 2012, the association's goal is to create workshops and programs that teach girls and women how to sew, read, cook, develop healthcare and further education that otherwise would not be available.

We visited with these brave ladies, Nawai, Hasna, and Houria who broke the patriarchal society rules and founded their self independent project.  They told us how they are trying to change their lives and those of the young women in their community for the better.

The women raise money by making and selling pastries and couscous to the villagers.  They also receive support from the Grand Circle Foundation, which our tour company O.A.T. is partnered with.

We "helped" the women by making some pastries...

and couscous

We went to Hasna's home for lunch...tagine with couscous and chicken.

After lunch Terry and I were pulled aside and dressed up in traditional wedding clothes to surprise the group.

On the way back to our hotel in Ouarzazate, we stopped by the Atlas Corporation Studio for a tour.

It is a film studio in the desert...they say it's the world's largest, measured by acreage.  Many movies were filmed here including "Jewel of the Nile", "Blackhawk Down", "Lawrence of Arabia".

Chariot used in the movie "Ben Hur"

 Mohammed lifting a "heavy" studio boulder

 Movie set used for "Cleopatra", and other Egyptian-themed movies.

This looks like it could be Abu Simbel; we saw the real thing in Egypt.

And way off in the distance, we saw one of the movie sets used for the "Game of Thrones".

The next morning we have a beautiful sunrise.

 We leave Ouarzazate to travel over the High Atlas Mountains to Marrakesh.

 It's about a 5-hour drive through twisty roads...

 The road is called Tizi-n Tichka and is the highest vehicular pass in Northern Africa.

It's cold as the wind is coming off the snow-covered mountains.

Once over the mountain passes, the scenery changes...to green valleys

and we arrive in Marrakesh and check into our riad

 It's late afternoon and we meet our local guide who takes us on an orientation walk.

We are warned that Marrakesh is a city of motorbikes and to watch out!

They are everywhere and the streets are narrow.

As part of the orientation walk, we visit the Saadian Tombs.

This is the opulent final resting place for the royals from about 1550 to 1600.  The mausoleum is filled with marble, gold, and beautiful tile work called zellige.

We passed mosques

and went inside a spice store

 After learning about the Moroccan spices, of course we bought a few.

We then walked through the famous Marrakesh markets...

 where the streets are lined with food stalls.

 Mohammed led us around to various stalls where we sampled Harira with dates (Moroccan soup)

 sheep head..

snails

and spicy tea

and to finish the night we headed up the stairs of a restaurant to overlook the entire Djamae El Fna Square.

In this square there are snake charmers, water sellers, story tellers and fortune tellers performing.

It was quite the introduction to Marrakesh.  We'll see more of it tomorrow!

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