Almost everyone was up around 8am for breakfast with the plan to be packed and ready to walk to the van at 9am – This was mostly successful.
Maati appeared around 8:45am had breakfast and STILL made it to the van on time. Skillz.

Breakfast was a selection of breads, honey, and jams. Again more sweet stuff, but eggs could be provided on request (which I did).
We are noticing between the sweet tea, dates, arrival cookies, and breakfast spread that sweet stuff plays a big part in the diet here (at least for tourists).

We were all ready at 9am and headed out to the van.
There was a quick run to the Pharmacy because both Mimi and Erica are struggling with head congestion. Most of us are feeling a bit of something as sticking our noses in a variety of spices, oils and other things upset some sinuses.
But Mimi and Erica have been fighting an cold since the wedding so it was time for some pharmacy advice.
Here (like in Europe) the pharmacist can help diagnose and provide options for most regular illnesses.
Going to a doctor is not required to get treated for something that is obviously a cold.

There was some discussion (over previous meals) regarding the best seats on the van and the comfort of the chairs. There was some “grass is greener” discussion and talk of moving around to share the worst seats (which everyone thought they had).
But once boarding people pretty much ended up in the same seats (other then a few shuffles).

When underway Kahlid jumped on the microphone and started to share info, and tidbits about Morocco, Marrakech, and the area we were driving through.
Other than the mic being turned up a bit loud (making it distorted) it was nice to get some info on the sights we were seeing. Maati eventually coordinated a levels check and all was good.

Traversing the plains of Marrakech we passed through a town having its weekly market and that marked our climb up into the Atlas mountains.

The road becomes windier and narrower and bumpier and we head further up.
The Atlas mountains get up to 14k feet and from the plains look similar to the Rockies in the Utah and New Mexico areas.

As we hit the top of the first ridge we stopped for a bathroom break at an overlook cafe.

The toilets were communal with private stalls. There was a guy attending and handing out toilet paper to dry your hands for a tip. Turns out he is not paid by the cafe and keeps the place clean on his own for tips.
Washing my hands in the sink I noticed a centipede crawl out of the sink overflow hole and then back in.
As one of the girls came up to wash her hands, I figured that was a bit of info to keep to myself. Nothing the attendant could do so I tipped and moved on.

Continuing the winding drive we passed several people selling geodes and shops selling clay tarjines. The geode guys might have a table with many of varying sizes, or one guy on the side of the road holding up a single rock split in two. It makes me wonder “Did he just find that and figured he’d sell it to tourists?”
The geode thing wasn’t mentioned, so either it is a new phenomenon, or not encouraged by tour groups.

The turns get sharper as we get higher and start to follow a dry riverbed. Passing van to truck or bus traveling in the opposite direction has us going slightly off road especially at the turns.
Other then “Sharp Turn” or “Falling Rock” signs there are no signs. Mostly there are distances and info stenciled on rock faces next to the road. X meters to Y shop. Or Z Km to one can only assume is a town (written in Arabic).

At our next stop for a break (a Berber village terraced into a hillside) geodes were mentioned.

Kahlid talked about how the colored ones will be fake and painted. Not everyone heard that message and David bought 2 of them for about 50dh ($5) each. One with crazy crystals sticking out.
Kahlid once again clarified the colored ones are painted. “If they were real they are worth many thousands of dollars and not sold on the road.” he added.
“Ah damn.” David exclaims re-examining his purchase of a pink “geode”. (which he later dissected).
And we were off again.

We got near the top of our climb and it is very sparse.
Barron tops of volcanic origin with the road we are on carved out in 1913.
This is not dissimilar to some of the roads in the rocky mtn national park except for the fact that these roads are used for commerce in trucks and not just tourists in cars.

Flatbed trucks, and tankers share the road with busses, vans, cars and mopeds.
We stopped for a moment to take to photos.
The road is under construction to widen it, so as we came down the other side there were many “choke points” but you can see the path of the new road will be wider and less windy.
Shortly after our stop we hit the top of the pass at 2260 meters.

Once almost down the other side we were asked if we wanted to stop for lunch or keep going what he estimated another 45 mins. We half heartedly said to stop for lunch which was a good call.
Lunch was really good [turned out to be one of my favorites] and gave a chance to stretch.
Service was a bit odd as the place we stopped got invaded by several tourist vans at the same time, but Maati and Kahlid was on it and made sure we got attention.
There was also Argan Oil and butter making going on – as a result the parking area was the hard outer shell of Argan nuts.
The process was fascinating to watch but we are told we will be seeing more of this later so didn’t spend much time there.

We piled back in the van and continued on our way.
Turned out to be 1.5 hours (not 45mins) to our stop for the day. As we approached the city (Ait Ben Haddou) we stopped for a photo op.

It was a cool overlook and again there were trinkets to buy and a snake charmer to take photos with.
Some bought more trinkets and after hearing the prices paid Mimi declared our group the worst buyers ever. 🙂
Maati jumped to the defense with the argument that sometimes haggling for 30 mins to save $5 is not a good use of time.
To which Mimi responded “There is a lot more then $5 at stake here.”
It was nice to see even our Moroccans can’t unite on the degree to which one should negotiate.
But they agree…. you should negotiate.

We arrived at the hotel in Ait Ben Haddou around 4pm where again we were greeted by tea (which I just found out I could ask for “not sweet” and add sugar myself – which I did) and just as explained yesterday, our hotel paperwork was handled by Kahlid and our bags were already in our room by the time tea was done.

We changed and spent some time at the pool which was pretty darn chilly and quite salty. Turns out that is the nature of the ground water here. Mike executed some excellent cannonballs as the group moved around the pool chasing the sun.

At 6pm we gathered in the lobby for a tour of the old city.
On the way we stopped for water and decided (as a group) that this was not a shopping trip but a hike to the top.
It was a light hike up to the top and included a stop in almost every nook by our power shoppers. No stress and we had great timing for a beautiful sunset.

We were educated on Casbahs and the structure of such places which dispelled many myths I had in my head about what a Casbah is. Basically a home with 4 towers in which an entire family (multi-generation) lives. There are several together in a single village.

It ended up in a flurry of selfies and photo shoots because the light was absolutely amazing.

The city has been used for many films and as we hiked back down we stopped at the place the colosseum for the movie “Gladiator” was constructed (now removed).

We were running late so the van met us at the base and shuttled us back to the hotel for a cooking demonstration. We almost left Bruce behind, but counting the numbers we knew he was missing. He came running along a few moments later.

We were supposed to be at the cooking demo by 7:30pm but all gathered at 7:45pm. The young lady just stood at the table patiently waiting as it took us time to gather. One of those awkward moments that went on too long.

The demo was excellent and took us through how to make Tajine and Cous Cous.
It was a walk through that took 30 mins not sitting around watching it cook for hours – So the result was an uncooked turkey Tajine and cous cous that looked really great when she plated it, but would kill us if we ate it.
Seeing how this is done made me realize it’s simple, but time consuming and now I know why I’ve never made Cous Cous.
I will CERTAINLY try a variation of Tajine though.

We were all hungry after the demo and ready for dinner which was on the terrace at 8:30.
It was a shared meal of Cous Cous, Tanjine (both cooked this time), and some egg dish that none of us can remember the name of. Topped off with some fresh fruit of Yellow Melon and Grapes.
This was the first location where alcohol was not served, and was not missed.

David broke out the SoloWheel (since – why not?) for some post meal entertainment. The terrace was probably not best suited for a demonstration (with low walls and lots of furniture), but David teaching Kahlid how to do this was great entertainment for us and the German group that were finishing dinner as well.
Again – all of this with no booze. Just imagine the potential for disaster.

It was an early night with most of us heading off to bed at 10-10:30.
The rooms were comfortable but with less “niceties” as we continue our trek towards the Sahara.
The water from the tap (and in the pool) was very salty as this comes directly from the wells. There are large salt deposits in the area.
Hot water was also a bit of an issue if we all took showers at the same time, but didn’t seem to dampen any spirits. (it is a bit warm out afterall)
Perhaps if we were to do this trip again we could recommend to the group to do “sailing showers” to conserve water. (e.g. wet down, lather up, wash off turning off the water between steps).
Now we are getting to the “adventure” part of our adventure.

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Today we traveled 187km of curvy mountain roads.