This morning we explored Marrakech by horse and buggy, caleche. We drove through the modern part of the city to arrive at our first stop the koutoibia minaret. This is the sister minaret in Seville, Spain which we also visited. Next was the saadian tombs where the well to do were buried. Those that were more important were buried inside, those less important outside. We visited the Bahia place where you could see the bedrooms of the wives. The concubine section w...

After leaving Ouarzazate we drove by moroccos film production studio where Lawrence of Arabia and many other famous feature films were shot. We stopped and walked to a mountain top kasbah or fortress at the hub of the Trans Moroccan caravan route linking Casablanca to central west Africa. We drive the rest of the way to marakesh through the high atlas mountains. The views are stunning and incredibly varied. Sorry to say goodbye to the mountains. We will spend the...

We drove through the dades valley. Still having the atlas mountains in our sights we saw rock formations that are shaped like monkey paws. From there we visited a local family where we observed and then ate Berber pizza. It is bread, onion, a little fat, spices. It was really good. The family had 5 adorable little girls who sang a song for us. We then walked through another gorge with breathtaking views. From there we drove to a home hosted lunch with a local ima...

Today we walked through the oasis where the villagers farm. We cut alfalfa with one of the villagers. The oasis is divided into plots with many different things growing, alfalfa, pomegranate, olive trees to name just a few. We then walked to a madrassah from the 14th century that is maintained as it was then. Children as young as 4 would go to the madrasah to learn the Koran by heart and eventually become Imams. Today there are no more madrassah. We then walked t...

We leave our Sahara camp and bus to tinghir, a modern Moroccan city. We saw the oasis surrounded by the city from the tordra gorge in the high atlas mountains. After viewing the gorge and checking into our hotel, we went to the hammam for a 'cleansing'. It was quite an experience. We are now exfoliated and very clean! Ha. Tomorrow is our day in the life of a Moroccan.