Storyline: Highlights of Morocco
Jan 27
Aboard the train from Marrakesh to Casablanca: the tour is over and we are off to our last days before flying back home.
Morocco is a really interesting country. Although we didn’t know what to expect, we were pleasantly surprised by its diversity and contrasts.
From stunning high mountains, through ancient cities with their buzzing medinas, to the dazzling Sahara Desert.
And it is populated with extremely warm and friendly people. OK, we knew all about Casablanca because of the movie (i.e. we really knew nothing about Casablanca). “You should visit Rick’s Café”, everyone told us.
We’d heard about the Marrakesh medina; we knew of Fes’ famous red-tasseled hat. We knew of Tangier, where one can get to by ferry from Europe. Eh, we also knew of the bullet train between Tangier and Casablanca. And I had been planning a train trip through Morocco before I found this tour. But honestly, we did not expect such diversity.
We also didn’t expect the well-developed infrastructure, and the urban modernization we had the opportunity to experience. In my mind Morocco was a country of the desert.
And so, I was surprised to discover that it is actually a green, fertile, mountainous, maritime country, with a desert touch.
We booked the tour in the midst of Xmas preparations and new year’s celebrations, so didn’t have much time to read more on Morocco. But we read that it is the most visited African country, with over 10 million tourists a year. We were told during the tour (pre-coronavirus scare) that in 2020 they expect 6 million tourists from China alone.
As our tour progressed, we learned about this country’s history, geography, cultures, religions, climate and much more. Most of Morocco lies at an altitude about 800m (2600 ft) above sea level. There are two major mountain chains and we’d drive by, cross and hike in both. The Rif Mountains in the north and the Atlas Mountains cutting right through the middle.
We’d visit Said’s (out tour guide) village Imlil and stay in a gite at about 2,000m, facing the highest mountain of Morocco, Mt. Toubkal, 4167m (~13,670ft). We drove by and through the High Atlas, Middle Atlas and Anti-Atlas Mountains.
It is predominantly Muslim country (99%, virtually all Sunni) and the 1% includes Jewish, Christian and some Baha’i. This is what our Tangier guide told us. What struck us was the extreme hospitality everywhere. People are very friendly and although it was predominately men we had contact with, women were everywhere, especially in the big cities.
We visited women’s collectives and cooperatives, although some could have been just tourist attractions:
- the G-Adventures-funded project to support the local women in an area, where we had lunch in a local village.
The women cooked chicken tagine for us and then one of them taught us the Arabic alphabet and spelled each of our names in Arabic script,
- The Berber carpets collective where women demonstrated carpet weaving in Aït Benhaddou,
- The argan oil collective near Essaouira, where we were shown how the oil is made, and its varied uses.
As we criss-crossed the country, we were surprised by its excellent infrastructure. We drove through high mountains with steep and sharp turns, we drove through the desert and through many cities. All the roads were good (except for a stretch in the mountains that was being reconstructed). We didn’t drive on a dirt road anywhere. Roads were much better than in Canada, especially outside our big cities.
Olives and almonds are everywhere. Almond trees were already blossoming in mid-January. Apples and cherries, figs and walnuts, apricots and plums are also well distributed around the country.
Near Essaouira we also saw the argan trees and observed how argan oil was produced. Sheep and goats are also part of the agriculture. And of course, there was a region in the mountains where we were told by the local guide not to take photos because of the subsistence industry of growing “Mint Tea” (marijuana).
Medinas, Souks, Casbahs, Riads and… Hammam
Many of you probably know what all the terms mean and the difference between them, but here’s our understanding.
A medina is the old part of a city, typically walled with narrow and winding streets, mosques, souks, palaces and casbahs. It is often a maze where one can easily get lost, especially in the big ones like in Fes. Since the streets are old and narrow it is also a car-free zone. Many, though, have motorbikes, scooters and mopeds buzzing around. One can only see the doors to the houses set in the blank walls. The reason being it’s part of their religion and culture where it is not appropriate to overtly display affluence. So, from outside you wouldn’t know if the people living behind the door are rich or poor. One can find souks, riads, dars and casbahs in a medina
A casbah (or Kasbah) is a fortified house or many houses. It actually is an older type of medina, usually built by a king or other high-ranking person as a fortress to protect themselves and their people. Although some of the older houses in some casbahs are abandoned, many are still inhabited. There is also a Kasbah class of hotel, which is defined by its walls and by a minaret (tower) at each of its four corners.
A souk is a market. There are many souks in a medina. One can find souks outside of medinas too.
A riad or dar is a multi-level house. As with every other house in a medina, from the street you’d only see a door.
A riad has central garden in the middle of a square. Windows and doors all lead inwards facing the central part.
It is distinguished from a similarly-structured dar which has a central courtyard instead of a garden. Many riads and dars in Morocco are now hotels.
And in the end what is hammam? Well this is a public bathhouse. They are separate for men and women. It is similar to the Turkish baths and involves soaking and scrubbing. We didn’t try one, but some of our group did. It was part of the extras we didn’t sign up for.
Surprises of Morocco:
Medinas excluded, Morocco felt closer to Europe than the Arab world, perhaps because of the French influence. And although it is a Muslim country it has no fundamentalists (that we encountered), perhaps as some suggest, because of the high percentage of the friendly and peaceful Berber population with nomadic past. It also is constitutional monarchy, with a King that in many ways is a ceremonial presence.
Although our photographs contain mainly people with traditional clothing, this is because of our interest in it and novelty for us. In the big cities you’d notice men and women with western clothes wearing blue jeans (and slacks for women).
Environment
Environmentally, Morocco is years ahead of Canada. It has one of the most ambitious renewable energy targets. It is covered by wind turbines and has the largest concentrated solar farm in the world near Ourzazate at the edge of the Sahara Desert. And yes, there are no plastic bags in use. In the grocery stores they use the old light fabric bags that I remember using some 40 years ago. Or paper.
Infrastructure
- All major roads (and we spend a great deal of time on the road) in Morocco are in great condition. This was the biggest surprise to us. There was a lot of maintenance work in some parts through mountains due to erosion, but nowhere were we on dirt roads.
- We drove by many new development lots. Lots are fenced and serviced before any houses being built. This, to us is a novel (tongue in cheek here) concept, because we are so used to overdevelopment at home without first creating a sustainable infrastructure.
Spoken Languages
The local (and official) languages are Berber and Arabic. French is spoken in most places and you can hear some Spanish to the north However, English is increasingly popular and we had no problem anywhere. Many are fluent in both, especially in the big cities.
Wine
Alcohol is served in many restaurants catering to tourists and can be bought in liquor stores and in some supermarkets. However, we were surprised by the quality of locally produced wines. And some can be quite expensive, especially with restaurant mark-ups. One wine we enjoyed cost 90MAD (about 13CAD) per bottle in the store. We saw the same wine for up to 330MAD (~43CAD) in a restaurant. These prices are similar to what we’d see at home.
Morocco is the second-largest wine producer (after Algeria) in the Arab world. There are five wine-producing regions, including Meknès/Fès, which we passed through on our trip.
If you go… (Travel tips and suggestions)
- Banks and credit cards
- Visa and Mastercard are equally accepted. You can use them in many restaurants that have signs on their doors, in shopping malls, grocery stores and liquor stores. In small restaurants that cater mainly to locals, in the souks and many tourist stalls in the medinas and in small town and rural areas cash is still king.
- ATMs are readily available in the cities. There are two banks that didn’t charge transaction fees for our Canadian cards: BMCI and Al Barid. If you have a debit card from a bank that belongs to Global ATM Alliance as is Scotiabank in Canada, then you won’t be charged a transaction fee at your bank end either. We have Tangerine (the online unit of Scotiabank) cards and used exclusively BMCI, which is subsidiary of BNP Paribas. A caution though, we thought we needed some cash at the airport (later we discovered we didn’t, because we paid for our train tickets by credit card) and although we used BMCI, their airport ATM forced us to accept its less-than-optimal currency conversion rate, and also charged transaction fees.
- Trains
- There is a bullet train (TGV) between Casablanca and Tangier.
- We took a regular train from Marrakesh to Casablanca. Trains are frequent, reasonably-priced and comfortable. A snacks trolley came around a couple of times, but we carried our own on board.
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- We used 1st class. There is not much difference in price, but you are guaranteed assigned seats in 1st class. Trains were nice and clean, including the WC, which had toilet paper. The train from Marrakesh had compartments like those I remember from my childhood. Six people per compartment in 1st class and eight in 2nd.
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- Marrakesh is the southernmost train station at the moment. We recommend you buy tickets a day in advance, but they can be purchased on the day of travel.
- Camping
- Camping is allowed only in dedicated camp spots and requires a permit
- There are some RV/campervan sites too. However, one cannot rent a campervan in Morocco. You have to ferry it from Europe.
- Taxis
There are two type of taxis: Small (petit) taxi and big (grand) taxi. Small taxis operate within city limits and big taxis roam beyond. A big taxi leaves when it is full and it is more expensive. They are identified by colour: white for grand and another colour, which is different in each city, for petit . And grand doesn’t mean new. Many of the grand taxis we saw were 1970’s Mercedes sedans. We did not use any of them, but in general our guide would tell us the maximum we should agree to pay. Meters are usually not used for tourists, although some travel sites indicate that you can insist. So do your research and negotiate the price before you hop in.
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