After our flying delay adventures, we took a whole day of rest in Marrakech before we felt like we had the energy to do anything. It worked out fine, because we needed to catch up on some homeschool work anyway. We slept in, homeschooled and figured out what we wanted to do around the city. We decided on a day of Marrakech adventures, a second day in the Atlas Mountains and then a third day doing some Quad biking in the dessert!
Marrakech is a large city of a little more than 1 Million people. It was developed in the mid-11th century, so it's a very old city with much history and culture. It used to be the capital of Morocco but lost its status as capital after only 100 years. Currently Rabat is the capital of Morocco, if you're wondering.
When we were in the Atlas Mountains, we met several locals from the area. There was a huge earthquake in Sept 2023 that devastated much of the area. Over 3,000 people died and even more were displaced. They have been living in tents while their homes are being rebuilt. It's a very slow process to clean and renovate the area, especially because a lot of the damage is in the remote hills of the mountains. Despite this challenge, the people were very pleasant, friendly and seemed to be taking things in stride. I was happy to witness the community-as-family feel, as kids came up to hug our driver and men were constantly saying hello and hugging their neighbors. Many spoke at least Berber, Arabic and English, if not also French. I found the people of this area to be very positive and resilient.
First visit to the grocery store - I guess this is their version of the "bulk" section! Colorful spices!Koutoubia MosqueCute lamps with elephants. We found these in a little park behind the mosque.In Jemaa al-fnaa, the famous square and marketplace, there are all sorts of things to entertain! We did not want to capture the attention of any of the street performers with their snakes and monkeys, so we took pictures from afar.Just a second before this picture was taken, this monkey did this big backflip!The cuisine in Marrakech is as varied as the countries in the world. In this one restaurant, we ordered an American cheeseburger, Italian pasta, Asian noodles and pizza (which seems to be a global cuisine).We always enjoy the beverages! They always taste so fresh.On our way to the Atlas Mountains, we stopped along the way to ride some camels. They put us in some traditional Berber clothing.Camels are tall! I guess the hump gives the rider a little more height. They are gentle animals and the handlers seemed very nice, which was good to see.We went to a women's coop that produced argan oil products. They grind the argan nuts by hand to produce oils for eating as well as for cosmetics, which they sold on location.Sheep herder in action!Imlil Cascades in the Atlas Mountains.Moroccan Pride Rock.In the Atlas Mountains. It turned out to be a beautiful day.Toubkal Moutain is the highest peak in Morocco at 4,167 meters (13,671 feet). The guide says that people will hike 2 days to ski on this mountain! No chairlifts here!The spring fills this river bed full of melting moutain snow and ice.We rented some quads and rode around in the desert. It was SOOO dusty!Max was wearing my backpack because he was riding behind me. When we stopped to rest and have some tea, I took the backpack from him and realized how dusty he got!Tea in the desert.Our Airbnb had a washer (thank goodness!) but no dryer. Thank goodness they had this drying tree. . .From our Airbnb we could see this beautiful mural by Hendrik Beikirch. It is one of a series of murals all over the world that he calls "Tracing Morocco," where he illustrates portraits of Moroccan characters he met.
