http://www.visitmorocco.com/index.php/eng
As we landed in Morocco after a 3 hr flight from Paris the warm air with a tempertaure high in the 30's hit us.Cassablanca is on the Coast so we wandered to the Mosque and along the sea coast to a bar selling ice creams and cool drinks. The majority of swimmers were boys. All the buildings were in shades of natural brown colouring.Streets were clean and spacious. We dined in an old house that had been turned into a resturant in the centre of a residental area.Potted red gerraniums lined the entrance steps. We all ate fish for dinner as we are so close to the sea and it was a delightful meal.
Over the next week we were to visit a phosphate mine and have the thrill of watching this enormous dragline scoop the rock out of the hill side and send it on its way for sorting.
Marrachech was to be our home for 2 nights where we visited the soux markets and mixed with the locals tellling them about NZ while we bartered for shoes, jewlery and clothes. A souk is an amazing place.It is a market squeezed into a very small space where you can buy every imaginable thing. Shoes were our focus for this trip. Most people have soft leather slip on colourful shoes that can be assily removed at the door. In the evening the whole parking court comes alove with snake charmers, dancers, magicians and food stalls.
http://www.visitmorocco.com/index.php/eng
Im linking some web sites as they have a better picture of this amazing country than my photos can give you.
After Marachech we traveled to Feez.Through the country side we drove past fiels of wheat that had been harvested and the straw baled into small bales waiting to be picked up. Farmers were out in fields or under Olive trees minding their sheep. It never ceases to amaze me that the animals dont run off. I did see one lady chasing a small herd of sheep out of a green crop. Donkey carts were traveling aling the roads with their baskets loaded with freshly cut grass. Probably they were being taken to the cows in the sheds.
This time it our hotel backed onto a Medina which is a market village with 900 small lanes making up a living and shopping complex of markets. You need to have a guide to go in and find your way through. Shops are serviced by mule or donkies laded with goods. If they come through the lane you are on you litterly have to put your back against the wall and breath in so the donkey load can go past.Then you have to watch where you put your feet!!
I loved the food here. My favourite dish would have to have been a tagine. This is a bit like a steemed stew. A clay dish holds the meat, potatoes, carrots, pumpkin and onion. a funny hat like dish goes on top . This is set ont bed of coals and left to cook for hours.
One day we went to visit and hike up to a waterfall running through a canyon.Tagines being cooked on stalls on our way up the mountain. (We ate itin a small resturant when we came down) It was so hot people had placed plastic chairs in the small river and were sitting there with their feet in the water.
There were many stalls on the way selling a variety of goods. I loved the way the drink stalls cooled their drink bottles by buliding a small cave where the water came out and trickled down the mountain and allowed it to run over the bottles keeping them cool.
Another is a mix of tomatoes and cucumbers cut fine and sprinkled with fresh corriander. This makes a great compliment to other dishes.Spices usedin different food dishes are cummin, chilie, cinimon, paparika and ginger. Im always too full to get to the desert stage. Small cakes and pastries like in France are readily avaliable.. To drink I had mint tea with sugar.This has a green tea base with fresh mint leaves soaked in the hot tea. I did see a man dressed up in the medina in traditional clothes as the tea seller. He wouldnt let me take a photo of him though.
All too soon it was time to leave for home.
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