SB 2010 - language barrier

our driver abraham had a hard time understanding us. he said he can understand england english fine, but he has a very hard time american english. i think that maybe we are speak to fast and slur everything together, oh and having weird names and multiple meanings for the same word probably doesn't help.

entrance to the 'cave houses'

day 2 in morocco. started with you guessed it, moroccan crepes! i am sad that tomorrow will be our last day to eat them, maybe i can talk the guy into giving us the recipe... we met the driver (abraham) at 9:00 AM. our first stop was visiting this (remote) village where the people lived in caves. i knew the area was impoverished so when the driver was telling us about the town in where people lived in the caves i was thinking like 10,000 BC - the movie. where barbarians would be running around. hey, you don't know. it isn't every day you hear about people living in caves and keep in mind morocco is tribal and all, and not to mention 3 world country and what not. we met a widow who lived in the cave with one of her 5 children. she served us the traditional 'moroccan skotch,' or the mint tea i wrote about yesterday. she even showed off her water transportation skills.

lil coco and i standing in the 'living room'

our sweet little hostess.
believe it or not this 79 year old lady is
balancing a bucket full of water on her head.
she was very talented.

this is where they get the water.
because the caves do no have running water.

the 'cave' village.

after we left the village we headed to a lake, location - some national park. we saw the cutest little donkeys. i want one now!

the lake.

cute little kid and cute little donkey.

i want one!

when we were finished petting the donkeys we headed to a 'modern' town outside of fes. the architecture was a cross between traditional german architecture and english design. i think the highlight of this visit was to finally find an ATM (they are scarce around here) and getting a drink and candy. the store had every flavor mentos imaginable - grape, strawberry, COLA - ewwww, and my new favorite mixed berry. then it was back in the car, and getting ready to visit the monkeys!

some examples of the architecture.

my national geographic shot.

the monkeys were sooooo cute. some people that were there before we got there had some oranges and were feeding them. we had some nasty oranges that had been traveling in my backpack all the way from italy that i would have gladly given to them. the small 'babies' were my favorite. when we went back to the car to get our wallets to buy some things (i think we can find something to buy everywhere we go). a little monkey was waiting on the top of the car. it was a cute little one and really wanted to get inside the car. lil coco was standing on the other side and wanted me to take her picture with the monkey. she stepped closer to the car to get a better picture, and the monkey moved closer to her and startled her.

that little monkey has good taste, he wanted to get his hands on CHANEL.

they are sooooooo cute!

then after we were through playing the monkeys it was lunch time (don't worry we used a wet-wipe to wash our hands). abraham took us to a little local place that was famed for their tajine. we started with a berber salad: tomatos and onions. basically i had some kicking breath after this course...thank goodness i bought all those mentos at a few towns ago!

it was good, but too onion-y!

next we were served the tajine. i think i ate lamb or beef, i am not sure. it was served similar to an american style 'pot roast.' the meat was in the middle and the veggies (carrot and potato) were stacked around it. the top was garnished with raisins. the tajine had some type of curry sauce and the potatoes in the curry sauce with the raisins = success! i want to make up a dish that works with those 3 (now i have something to do with all that curry i bought from the pharmacy!).

tajine!

for the last course the moroccans like to serve fruit. today we had banana and apple. i ate the banana and then saved the apple for later (possibly breakfast). when we were full we headed to see some local rugs be produced.

a woman weaving a traditional berber rug.

these rugs were a little more in our price range. i splurged on a small silk mat that i can use in my apartment now. here is a picture of my newest (and hopefully last) purchase.

performing some minor surgery.
cutting the rug i want from another.

our driving tour was about to come to an end - although we were not complaining, it was so nice to have someone drive walking (surprisingly) takes a lot of energy. we drove past the king's palace (morocco is still considered a 'kingdom'), and we got a picture in front of the famous doors.

in front of the largest palace in morocco.

a treat our driver got us,
they are the north african cousin to an american funnel cake.

one of our last stops was a hill in fes, that allowed you to have a panoramic view of the city. this was about 4:00ish and the muslims were all congregating for their daily 'prayer' at the mosques. the arabic sounds were echoing across the hills and mountains of the city, it was very beautiful sounding - although i have no idea what they were saying. sadly the weather was not that great, it was starting to get cloudy.

this arch is a 'muslim' door, jews had a different shaped door.

FES.

black smoke from the pottery workshops.

possibly some of the ancient wall that helped protect the city...
that was my historical guess.

agave plants.
all the silk in morocco is from these plants.

our last stop of the day was at a workshop that made the doors for the palace. it is a special artisan craft, done with one little tool that looked like a flat head screwdriver and a small mallet/hammer.

whoa! too intricate and tedious for me,
but beautiful work and craftsmanship!

this brings us to the end of our tour. one last tour in the morning and then back to italy. two more minor things that i would like to mention. i have noticed an abundance of older (i am talking late 60's) non-moroccan people. like old french, americans and various other european nationalities. they are EVERYWHERE, and always in huge swarms. what is up with that? my best guess is that they are buying all the beautiful expensive rugs. and at the riad where we are staying, i think the next youngest person here might be late 50's. another thing i have learned about moroccans is that as soon as you tell them you are from american, they get very excited -they are all HUGE obama fans. and think that every american LOVES him - not true. but i think that covers everything i have learned/ noticed about moroccan culture. until tomorrow...