Kasbah Shama Ouirgane

The High Atlas refers to the largest and highest range of Mountains in Morocco. They run down the center of the county dividing it roughly in half and rise dramatically from the desert to almost 3000 meters. This creates superb scenery with snow capped mountains and dry desert hills that reminded us of the Eastern Sierras (enough we decided that this area was the Bridgeport of Morocco). They also have also created dramatic isolation for the Berber people ...

Full day in Imlil today - took another little walk (only an hour this time, although still UPHILL!), up to the next village and had tea on a terrace overlooking the highest peak. Can't ask for anything more than that! Currently stuffed after having chicken brochettes for lunch and waiting not so patiently for my photos to upload :)

... abaixo. Escorreguei umas tantas vezes mas sem muito perigo. Chegando la abaixo fui lavar a minha tshirt com agua da fonte e quando regressei para o pé dos rapazes tinha à minha espera uma Coca-cola. « Não obrigado ». Caras estranhas. Mmhhh, que se foda, ja deixei cair tudo, não vou agora mudar a filosofia da aceitação de caridade, « ta bem, da ca essa merda ! ». Nao me caiu la muito bem, sobretudo porque depois enfiamo ...

... 4pm, checked into our rooms and set off exploring. The town does smell a lot of horse/donkey poo as that is the main means of transport. A few of us set off for the 20 min walk up the hill to the Kasbah du toubkal, a former holiday house of the local ruler that has since been renovated by a UK company. We climbed all the way to the top and ordered a hot chocolate and admired the views. You could see the village that was transformed ...

... Minister of Finance.... This has kind of stuck. Mustafa wrote down a number... somewhere in the 4,000Dh range. This was way too much. Beth, practicing her French blurted, 'deux mille' (two thousand). Mustafa was not interested in this number. Steve offered him 1500Dh for both which he refused. Steve then offered 1000Dh for one.... Mustafa maybe thinking we only had 1500Dh said how about 1500Dh for both ...

... can hardly afford to turn without tipping, and donkey carts with colorful produce. People waved and waved, and the kids became intense. By the end of the day Lucie was losing her patience, cursing some kids who accompanied us up an incredibly steep 3 mile hill leading into Imi-N-Tanoute who intermittantly said inappropriate things in French and asked us for our hats, or other 'gifts'. It seems that many a tourist Western website recommend that ...

... to "buy now", and even a tannery. In the souqs there were some amazingly colourful and delicious-looking spices, plenty of nuts and dried fruits, loads of woodwork and aladdin-style lamps, leather clothes, musical instruments and heaps heaps more. Cam bought a really tough black leather jacket which looks great. I bought a belt. The brasilians bought a drum. The tanneries were ****. We were shown there by a local kid, who introduced us to a "tour guide". This guide basically ...

... of them speak spanish. Well, apparently Abdul doesn't make any sense when he talks so she says it is almost like they aren't talking at all. He keeps trying to talk to me in Spanish and I politely agree with what he says. The long walk lead us to his house. I am really happy we got to see suburban Marrakesh away from the tourism. We were in a normal neighborhood with corner stores and schools. We went through a pretty run down area and then on to another section a ...

... including one I have already seen but I acted like I was amazed. After a few tricks he would go back into story telling and then back into music making the crowd clap and laugh, and clap... this went on for 30 minutes or so and eventually we split away. We went back and listened to more music and started talking about plans for tomorrow. Abdul invited us to have couscous at his home tomorrow for lunch that his family would prepare. We took them up on the offer. I ...

... angry than I think he was expecting, because I turned on him so that we were face-to-face (almost), close enough for him to realize that I was at least 3 inches taller and probably 15 pounds heavier, and said, "Don't you threaten me or I'm going to kill you, you evil little man!" In retrospect, I wish I'd been a little wittier, maybe insulted him in a casually clever manner, but I was really really ****** off. He backed off instantly to a safe distance, maybe because he thought I ...