Our first stop on our way was at a women's cooperative making embroidered fabrics and looming blankets and bedspreads in several weights. The embroidery work is quite intense so that each woman only works two hours on the projects. The embroidery is also reversible, which is a challenge I never came close to achievng back in the years when I did that type of work. I thought one of the silky (cactus fiber!) bedspreads might make a fine tablecloth, but I would have had to cut it down in ways that reduced the charm for me. I did acquire a lovely scarf, however.
From there, we drove to Ait Benhaddou, a mountainside ksar (fortified city) with its impressive kasbah. Several of us chose to climb to the top -- we were held back from the very top at first because filming for another movie is going on there and the structure at the top features many 'rocks' made of hollow fiberglass, but then the guard relented and we got the full view. It has actually been featured in several movies, and Ouarzazate is a center of Moroccan filming -- one of the benefits of being a stable Saharan country I guess.
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| View from the top |
Then we headed into the High Atlas Mountains to go over to Marrakech. The area we have been in is all part of the Sahara, dry and rocky except for the occasional river or oasis (though many of the oases have been much larger than I imagined). Along the way, the scenery changed from rocky and barren to forested. Green is such a lovely color outside!
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| The very rocky High Atlas Mountains |
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We stopped at the highest pass to take photos and saw this
biker coming along behind us. WOW! |
As we headed down the other side of the pass, we stopped at a women's cooperative working with argan oil, the next big thing in cosmetics. We got a demonstration of how the nuts are turned into food and cosmetic oils and had an opportunity to buy stuff too. I was able to resist....
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| Shelling the nuts to get at the small almond-like seeds. |
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| Actual trees among the rocks |
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| Terraced farming among the hills |
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| Sheep going home in preparation for Eid on Monday |
Finally, we arrived in Marrakech at our last hotel in Morocco. We got to our room and figured out how to use wifi here and crashed for the night.
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