Our second (and final) day in Morocco, we went on a tour of the High Atlas Mountains, an hour from Marrakech. This is the tallest mountain chain in Africa, and marks the edge of the Sahara desert. We set out in an SUV with about 6 other tourists, from all over. I had trouble guessing what language one couple was speaking - it sounded a bit like Czech (or so I thought) - turns out it's Swiss German, and a particular regional dialect at that. The man explained that it is very similar to Old German - so in university when he was studying history he had no problem understanding the old texts, while they were barely intelligible to the students from Germany. They actually have to learn "German" as a second language!
We drove past plenty of hotels on the outskirts of the city - one even had a waterpark. Marrakech is one of the major tourist destinations in Morocco, particularly for French tourists (Morocco is a former colony). The landscape is a mix of desert with low shrubs and cacti, and evergreens.
The High Atlas Mountains in the distance.
Pit stop on our drive to the High Atlas Mountains.
The mountains are populated almost entirely by Berbers, and we passed many small villages on our way, tucked into the hillsides. I'm not sure what kind of economy they have here - I would think it's subsistence farming but I didn't see any visible signs of agriculture.
Berber village.
Berber village.
Berber village.
Village, farther along the road.
This building is a pottery workshop.
Mountains of pottery outside.
There were many small streams criss-crossing the landscape, many with very rickety bridges!
Watch your step!
The landscape was very rugged and dry, with lots of cacti and shrubbery. There were many micro-landscapes, with different plant-life and cover depending on which side of the hill you're looking at and how sheltered the area is.
Who knew our first day at Queen's we would be taking this photograph in Morocco together?!
Chicken shed at the side of the road.
We stopped for lunch at a small restaurant at the side of the road. The main course consisted of tomatoes, peppers stuffed with rice, zucchini (I think) and potatoes steamed in a tajine: a bowl with a conical cover you heat on the stove. We also had chicken kebabs, and delicious clementines and pomegranates for desert.
View from our lunch table.
Steam rising from the tagine.
Lunch.
Dessert.
We continued our journey into the mountains, driving to the end of the road. After that it's all on foot. We walked around the village for about an hour, which was certainly an interesting experience. This was the first day of Eid, so all of the villagers had just sacrificed their sheep. We saw people walking around carrying fresh sheepskins, and dogs fighting over entrails. The village was fairly poor, although we didn't see any signs of extreme poverty. There were lots of kids out playing soccer for the holiday, and adults drinking coffee at small tables in doorways. There was also a car parked in the middle of a shallow river (only a few inches of water) - why, I couldn't say. On our way out of the town the car stopped because of kids in the middle of the road dressed in sheep skins, with animal masks on. I wish I had taken a picture - that's something I will certainly not forget. I'm glad we were there over the holiday, because you get to see many more aspects of tradition and culture than you would normally.
Berber writing on the building.
No comments:
Post a Comment