This morning we chatted a bit with the owners of Riad Laarousa before leaving. The riad is 400 years old. It began as a koranic school and was a butchery before this couple bought it. The riad has 8 rooms, all colour coded (we had the cream room). The ceilings must be 20 feet high. Laarousa means "bride". We needed to check out, and the owner wouldn't let us pay for last night's dinner because he saw the plates that were brought back and he said we didn't eat anything.
Our old guy trundled our luggage back through the medina to a waiting Brahim.
Today was a driving day, with "Japanese photo stops" along the way. For example, Brahim stopped to show us a double stone wall lined with hay that stores onions.
And he stopped to show us how walls are constructed using boards filled with clay. When the clay has hardened, the walls are removed and another layer is added. The walls are a few feet thick, which cools in summer and warms in winter.
Brahim says that every Moroccan has 3 things: a cellphone, coca cola, and a satellite dish. Kamal called the satellite dishes the "white flower of Morocco". They are everywhere! Brahim says that once you buy a dish and decoder, you get all the channels you want and don't have to pay anything.
We stopped in a city called Ifrane, which is known as the Switzerland of Morocco. We met Thomas and Fazia, the travel agents who planned our trip.
We drove through thick forests of cedars and oaks. A truck drove by hauling the largest logs we've ever seen.
We stopped to watch some barbary apes, who didn't seem concerned about us at all.
The terrain changed once we hit the mid-Atlas mountains. Back to windy roads stuck behind slow moving trucks. Brahim must be getting used to us because he just motored around everybody today. He seems to prefer to drive down the middle of the road and then move over at the last second for oncoming traffic.
Brahim is a "free agent" who works contract for several travel companies. The van belongs to a transportation company who rents them out. It is so nice to be able to sprawl out in the van.
We had lunch in Midelt at a fancy tourist resort, Anton had buffet and Frankie had potaches which turned out to be potato and zucchini soup.
There were alot of scrub brushes, and Brahim stopped and picked some for us, and it turned out to be wild rosemary growing everywhere. The bees pollinate the rosemary and honey is made from it, but it is very expensive at $30 per kg.
When we left Fez we were among Berber towns (Berber means "barbarian" thanks to the Romans), and as we travelled we now had towns with Berbers mixed with Arabs.
Giant brick walls for snow fences (we saw snow on the mountains) have now been replaced with straw sand fences. We stopped at a geyser and Frankie wanted to give gifts to some children there, but only made them cry instead because they were afraid of us. Oops.
After more than 8 hours of driving, we finally arrived in Arfoud. We weren't sure what to expect out here in the middle of nowhere, we are staying at a kasbah called Xaluca. It is an absolutely beautiful resort dripping with Arabic atmosphere.
They sang and danced for us as we arrived. Our "room" has a large sitting area, a separate bedroom with 2 gigantic beds, and a washroom with 4 parts.
We explored the resort, we can see sand dunes in the distance. There is an indoor and outdoor pool, and a mini golf on the roof of the pool. We went for a quick dip in the pool, and as soon as we entered the pool the singers and musicians (tambourine and mandolin) put on a show for us and kept it up until the second we left the pool. It's too bad we are only staying for one night!
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