Vacation Morocco, Vacance Maroc

Kelaa M'gouna - The city of roses

2010-04-26T02:46:00.000-07:00

In the month of April all the city is covered with roses. At the entrance of Kelaa M'gouna people with roses necklaces are waiting for visitors. First when I saw this my mind flew to Hawai.

Every year, in each first week of May there's the Festival of roses in Kelaa Mgouna. A cultural and touristic event known all over the world gather together singers, dancers, local people and many tourists.

Many products are made from the roses of Kelaa Mgouna. Tones of roses there are used to produce oils and cosmetique products. In all Morocco you will find in shops rose products coming from Kelaa Mgouna. They have good quality and they are the most wanted in Morocco and the most asked by tourists.

The city is full of greens. People here are very friendly and they live life intensive. Berbers (Tamazirt) they have a different way of seeing life. Every moment counts. They don't care much about tomorrow, the present is more important.

All the day we walked through the fields of roses and we let the smell fill our senses. You can feel so much the connection between you and Mother Earth while you are there. No more stress, no more running after money, no more bosses and managers, no more computers. I felt like I was escaping from a cage and start to breath again the real fresh air. I missed this air since long time. Up from some rocks we let our eyes to enjoy the beautiful surroundings, the Atlas mountains, the oasis, the fields of roses, the figs, the olives and all the greens from there. Wonderful. This place is just wonderful and it relaxes you completely.

Kasbah Taourirt, Museum of cinema, Museum of carpets

2010-04-26T01:51:00.000-07:00

In Ouarzazate there are many places to visit and many things to do. One of them is to visit Taourirt Kasbah and also the museums of cinema and carpets that are located in front of kasbah.

What it makes famous Taourirt kasbah: it was one of the first berbere big construction, its architecture it has the air of a sand castle and all its qualities made it be a part of UNESCO's heritage.

While you are inside kasbah you can have a great view of the valley. In fact when it was built it had the purpuse to make also possible the watching of caravans that cross. The windows are built so you can see outside, but the persons from outside can't see you. These aspect was mostly considered for the women of Pasa Glaoui. So during parties the women can watch without being seen.

You can visit the medina with tiny streets, decorated walls, people that are still living there, museum of carpets, blankets, traditional berbere objects and much more.

Taourirt kasbah it is also a place where movies have been shot, like for example some scenes from Prince of Persia.

In front of kasbah there are museums, shops, restaurants and a place like an opened theatre park where people come at night and relax watching the lights of kasbah.

It is a nice place of Ouarzazate full of history and life.

Cinema Atlas Studios - Ouarzazate

2010-04-25T02:51:00.000-07:00

In Ouarzazate there are 2 cinema studios: Atlas Studios and CLA, 2 cinema schools Kanzaman and OFPPT and many sets for movies. This city it is also called Moroccan Holywood and it really worths this name.

Many movies have been shot here: Kundun, Cleopatra, The Mummy, The mumy returns, Alexander, Gladiator, Babel, Kingdom of Heaven, Hidalgo, Prince of Persia are just few titles that come now in my mind.

Visiting Cinema Atlas Studios was interesting, pity the guide was bored and didn't have much appetite to explain more about this fascinating world of movies. Ouarzazate has many values, it just need people to show these values.

Many sets from movies there are exposed for visitors. The fact that I saw them so closed to me it made me understand more how much work it is behind a movie. In fact, my opinion is that the list of names from the crew displayed in the end of a movie should not start with actors but with the people that work in the backstage. These people are very important and without them there will not be any Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt and so on.

So, if you will ever travel to Ouarzazate, don't forget to visit Cinema Studios. They will make you understand more about movies and the way there are made.

Quads adventure in Ouarzazate

2010-04-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

The first thing in the morning, our host, which is a very kindly and opened minded person, served us breakfast and gave us an idea of what it will come next.

The tea was so good in the morning. Olive oil homemade (amazing taste, so strong, you will not believe it's the real taste of olive oil), olives, honey, milk, jam, bread, houbz houdra (bread filled with vegetables and spices), batbout (a kind of rounded bread that you use it to eat jam, honey, butter so on), everything natural and homemade. It was delicious.

So the plan for the first day it was like this... QUADS for everybody. Half day excursion.

At 11 o'clock we left to the agency to take our quads. Our destination it was Oasis of Fint. So speed it up.
On the way to Fint we crossed by Kasbah Tifoultout, Kasbah Cigone, where we stopped for 10 minutes to take a better look and meantime we were surrounded by the local children, curious to see who we are and if we have any gifts for them. In one minute candies and baloons were spreaded all over for the children. Happiness is in the air.

From Kasbah Cigone we turned and went to Fint. The landscape is amazing. Mountains, oasis, river, traditional houses, so relaxing. Our host that came with us as our guide, gave us plenty information about the places. One of them is that for the movie Prince of Persia they were shooting some scenes there.

From the Big Fint we crossed a river with quads and entered through oasis. So nice the place around. All is green and fresh. The guide from quads agency took us to an auberge located in Fint, Terase des delices. The view from there is very beautiful. Many tourists were inside resting before continuing their journey in Morocco.

We had lunch there (the food was so and so but the ambiance and the people that work there they know how to entertain tourists so you forget about the aspect of food). The tea they served us was really strong. After two cups I felt like I am drunk. It's not without reason that they call it "whiskey marocaine".

So after we danced and listened darbouka we left back to Ouarzazate. The sun was getting hot so we had to speed it up to Ouarzazate.

Everyone should try quads in his life. The feeling is great.

Here it comes Ouarzazate !

2010-03-09T03:04:00.000-08:00

It tooks us 4 or 5 hours by taxi to reach Ouarzazate, departing from Marrakech. The road is long and winding with plenty of curves. My advice, don't eat much before you travel to Ouarzazate, cause your stomach will really feel sick.

The landscapes are various and captivating. You travel up and down, side by side with Atlas Mountains. The weather is sunny then is windy, it's hot then it's so cold. You can see crowdy places with shops, restaurants and "souks" and then very calm and peaceful places. Villages built in clay or stone, where only the light of sun is known. You can live plenty of sensations on your way to Ouarzazate.

For me travelling by taxi it was really fun, because of the number of persons that were accepted to travel. You can imagine an old Mercedes with 4 people in the back seat and 3 or 4 people in the front. This is an experience. My luck it was that I always travelled with slim people next to me, 'cause otherwise I don't know how it would be.

First night in Ouarzazate it was splendid. Fresh air of night and lot of sparkling stars on the sky. When you will get down from your car in Ouarzazate, just save a minute to enjoy this picture.

We were accommodating at Dar Tuzzalt guesthouse and all the services were very good. Spacious maroccan saloons, cozy rooms, friendly people and a relaxing garden in front. It was perfect and this was just the start of our great time in Ouarzazate.

Henna tattoo and khol

2010-02-19T00:06:00.000-08:00

Henna or Hina is a flowering plant, Lawsonia inermis, used since antiquity to dye skin, hair, fingernails, leather and wool. The name is also used for dye preparations derived from the plant, and for the art of temporary tattooing based on those dyes. The name is also misused for other skin and hair dyes such as black henna or neutral henna which do not derive from the plant.

Khol has been worn traditionally as far back as the Bronze Age (3500 B.C. onward) by the Egyptian queens. It was originally used as protection against eye ailments. There was also a belief that darkening around the eyes would protect one from the harsh rays of the sun. India's oldest caste, the koli, used kohl as a cosmetic. In addition, mothers would apply khol to their infants' eyes soon after birth. Some did this to "strengthen the child's eyes", and others believed it could prevent the child from being cursed by the evil eye.

Nowadays the preparation of khol can be done in many ways. The danger is when in khol composition it is added lead or galena (PbS). A good and harmless khol is made from amorphous carbon. Plant oils and the soot from various nuts, seeds and gum resins are often added to the carbon powder.
Consumers should verify that any cosmetic product is lead free before usage.

My first henna experience was in Marrakech, in the famous square Djamaa El Fna. It costed me about 3 euro for a tattoo on my arm. Usually when you decide to make a tattoo they ask you the color you want. Me, I had to choose between black and red brown. So, I choosed black and it was a mistake to do this, because real henna has only red color. But this I was about to discover later on when my husband came home and saw my tattoo. So, be careful when you decide to have henna on your body, because chemicals added in some of henna products can harm your skin.
From my husband (who is Moroccan) I also found out that henna is a very good treatment for hair and women in Morocco use it a lot.

Khol is a make up product and it is very used in Morocco by women and men also. If it is natural khol recipe, it can help cleaning your eyes and protect them from sun. In desert, men use khol to protect their eyes from sand. So, khol can be very useful if it is prepared corectly.

The khol I bought from Morocco was a powder in a small glass bottle and next to it they gave me a small wood stick to use it as a tool to make up my eyes. The seller told me that I can buy dark black or lighter black khol. The lighter one, he said it is used only on Friday. Anyway, both colors look great for a make up. Even if it is a little bit difficult in the beginning to use that tool, if you practice few times it's easy.

When I first make up with khol, my eyes burnt a little and started to tear. This effect is normal considering the fact that this product is made to clean your eyes from dust. So no need to worry or to panic.

Khol can also be normal or picant. Picant khol has a stronger effect on your eyes. I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner.

Hmm....I think that's all about khol. If you know more, I invite you to post a comment and share your experience on this page.

http://www.zoufi.com

"Marrakech" feeling

2010-02-15T04:47:00.001-08:00

It seems for me that I have lived many interesting moments in this city while I was on vacation. Everytime when I want to post a new review, the first thing that comes in my mind is Marrakech. Maybe I like this city more because here I met for the first time the one that now is my husband.

In that time we rented an apartment for 2 weeks. I was on vacation and he was working for Prince of Persia the movie, so he used to go to work very early in the morning.
In the begining I was thinking it will be hard for me because I don't like to stay alone and I won't have the posibility to see many places by myself. But, it wasn't like that.

In the first morning at 4 o'clock maybe, after my husband left to work, I was staying in bed and watch the moon in a splendid sky. I couldn't fall asleep again and my mind started to fly.

Few minutes later, a strong and extremely confident voice was about to make me feel something incredible in my heart. The feeling that I am not alone. That voice was of the muezzin from a mosque next to our apartment.

"Allahu Akbar" - which means "God is the greatest" - were the words that inspired me protection, safety, confidence and love in this new world for me. We are never alone, someone is always with us no matter where we are. You can call Him Allah, God, Dumnezeu and many more other names, but He is just ONE for all of us and He is the ONE that will always be here for us. I am not a very religious person in my day life, but from that moment my way of thinking changed and every morning I was woking up waiting for "my new friend" the muezzin to start a new beautiful day.

Travelling by bus in Marrakech

2010-02-15T04:45:00.000-08:00

This is a true, funny and new experience

What every foreign driver should know when visiting Morocco!!!
The traffic in Morocco is always unpredictable. There's no rule in driving. All over Morocco, driving is a huge challenge.

Travelling by bus it can be a problem sometimes in many countries. They can be too crowded, or they don't arrive in time, they have technical problems during your trip and so on. But for Marrakech things are a little bit different.

Here you have to fight for a bus and you have to be really tough to be able to get in.
The buses in Marrakech travel in a strange manner. Most of them they forget to stop in the bus station.

And when they stop, this means that you are a little bit lucky guy. If you succeed to get in, then you are more than lucky, and if you can find a seat also, this means you are veryyyyyy lucky.

The first time when I got acquainted with buses in Marrakesh, I wanted to go back home from Djamaa El Fna. The station was full of people waiting. Finally, a bus arrived and everybody started to run and yell. I was wondering why and I was hoping that it's not my bus for home. But, bad luck for me. The next thing I have heard it was "Hurry up! This is our bus!"

So I said to myself that maybe all I have to do is to stay in line and wait to get in, but I was wrong again. There was no line...it was just a mass of people fighting for getting into this bus. Then I was thinking that In this case my elbows and my knees could help me a lot... and I was not wrong this time. It is obligatory to make your presence known. Only in this way you win a bus travel to your "home".

Visiting Marrakech

2010-02-15T04:33:00.000-08:00

Morocco Travel Diary

Marrakech

Summer 2008

My first time in Morocco, a country that I knew only from geography classes and that fascinated me due to a Brazilian series called "El Clon".

My first step I did on the moroccan land it was in Casablanca airport. After a long flight with one stop in Paris, in the most crowded and mad place I have ever seen in my life - Charles De Gaulle airport, I finally arrived in Casablanca.

28 Celsius degrees and 81% air humidity...hard for a beginner. That was the moment when I realised how important is humidity in weather forecasts.

A friend took me with his car to the bus station. Bus station in Morocco is an experience for a tourist. From the moment I entered in there I felt that arabic is not an easy language. Hundreds of voices attacked my ears. Prices, bus numbers, city names, special offers, in all the languages they knew, just to convince me to get in the bus. (the bus ticket Casablanca to Marrakech costs 70 dirhams = 7 euro). But all in all I was lucky. Why? Because my friend was a Moroccan and he was of great help for me during all my vacation.

In 4 hours or less here I am in the "Red City", the famous Marrakech.
For me I loved this city from the first moment. Warm orange lights in the streets, beautiful gardens, exotic palms, so many green places and colorful flowers and so so many tourists from all over the world in this old but still fresh imperial city.

Our accommodation was in a rented apartment, spacious with 3 rooms, balcony, in a building with reception downstairs and it costed us about 300 euro for 2 weeks.
After a good night sleep we started to plan our visit using Marrakech touristic map.

First option: Djamaa El Fna

The biggest square in Marrakech, the heart of the city.
Music, drums, rythms that can put you in trance, apes (one of the apes jumped in my arms attracted by my necklace), water sellers in colourful costumes with traditional leather water-bags and brass cups, snake charmers who will pose for photographs for tourists, Moroccan women that make for you henna tattoo, (but you have to be very careful because real natural henna has red color, not black....if they want to make tattoo with black henna you have to know that it is chemical and it might burn or affect your skin), dozens of stalls with fresh oranges inviting you to a big cup of vitamins juice, street restaurants, lots of flavours from spices used in traditional Moroccan food, sugarcane juice (very healthy - used especially for kidney stones - and delicious when is fresh and well done),

horses and carriages waiting for tourists to take a tour, bazaars, many traditional clothes markets and many tourists from all over the world, all these making a colorful and exotic painting, everything seemed like drawn from a fairy tale.

So, Djamaa El Fna - a heart forever young and restless of Marrakech.

Second place we visited was Bahia Palace
intended to be the greatest palace of its time, its name means 'brilliance'.

A funny story happened here and this can be also a tip for tourists.
In the day when we planned to visit Bahia Palace it was free entrance for Moroccan citizens and because I was dressed in Moroccan clothes and my physiognomy is aproached to a native Moroccan, I was considered as being a Moroccan citizen also, so I was invited to visit the place for free......Shukran.

When I entered in Bahia domain, the first thing I liked there were the gardens. So green and so beautiful, orange trees, roses and other plants that I don't know their names but that look awsome.

We tried to follow a group of tourists that had a guide and in this way to hear some of his explanations regarding the palace. One interesting thing it was about the RIADS, because in Marrakesh everybody says that he has a riad to rent for you. So, the guide explained that a riad is a house that has an interior garden with a fountain. And only that is an authentic riad. Palace Bahia is a Riad.

When you enter in that palace you don't know from where to start taking pictures. There are so many details and so many incredible paintings that you can't take your eyes from ceilings, walls, floors, doors, glazed ceramic tiles, carved and painted woodworks. So many fascinating details, a real decorative art. The rooms are opening onto courtyards.
The palace is divided in 4 sides. Each side for each of concubines.

Koutoubia Mosque

In front of Djamaa El Fna entrance there's Koutoubia mosque, the largest in Marrakech.
The tower has 69 m height and according to legend, the globes were originally made of pure gold, and there were once supposed to have been only three globes.

The fourth globe was donated by the wife of Yacoub el-Mansour as compensation for her failure to keep the fast for one day during the month of Ramadan. She had her golden jewelry melted down to flab the fourth globe.

The minaret of the Koutoubia was the model for the minaret of the Giralda mosque in Seville which in its turn has influenced thousands of church towers in Spain and Eastern Europe.

The park surounding the mosque is impressive by its green. I could not imagine so much green in Morocco. By the way, the park has also free wireless internet, at least this is what they wrote on a board.

Menara gardens

When we went to Menara gardens the weather was so hot. The temperature in the street was 40 degrees. We took a taxi to the gates of Menara. The distance between the gates and the lake it seemed to me soooooooo longggg and without end. I just wanted to go back to taxi because the weather was killing me. But eventually I made the tour of the garden.

"The Menara gardens are located to the west of Marrakech, Morocco, at the gates of the Atlas mountains. They were built in the 12th century by the Almohad ruler Abd al-Mu'min.

The name menara derives from the pavillon with its small green pyramid roof (menzeh). The pavilion was built during the 16th century Saadi dynasty and renovated in 1869 by sultan Abderrahmane of Morocco, who used to stay here in summertime.

The pavilion and basin (an artificial lake) are surrounded by orchards and olive groves. The intention of the basin was to irrigate the surrounding gardens and orchards using a sophisticated system of underground channels called a qanat. The basin is supplied with water thanks to an old hydraulic system which conveys water from the mountains located 30 km approximately away from Marrakech. "

There's something that I couldn't explain to myself about Menara. In all the pictures from internet I could notice in the background of the pavilion, standing the Atlas mountains. But when I was there, in real, I have seen no mountains. Perphaps there's an explanation.....

Someone told me that in the night is very beautiful to go there, to see the sunset and also sometimes they organize shows with music, dancing.

All in all the place has its charm, maybe next time I will enjoy more.

Majorelle Garden - amazing place

For this I have no words to describe. You definitely have to see this.
"The garden was made in the 1920s by the French painter Jacques Majorelle, with marble pools, raised pathways, banana trees, groves of bamboo, coconut palms and bougainvilleas. Perhaps unsuprisingly as the garden was designed by a painter, the garden is composed and coloured like a painting.

Many of the built features were painted in a dark blue ('Majorelle Blue') which works very well with the soil, climate and plants. In fact, Majorelle's garden rather than his paintings was his masterpiece. Water is an important feature of the garden - there are channels, lily-filled ponds and fountains. Majorelle was an avid plant collector.

After years of neglect, the garden was then taken over and restored by the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge.

Saadian Tombs

From Djamma El Fna you can follow the Rue Bab Agnaou till you find the Kasbah Mosque and then the route to the tombs is well signposted.

The route to the tombs is interesting while you walk through narrow streets, with riads (more or less riads) on both sides.
Sellers are all along this street. Babouch, scarfs, djellabas, kaftan, veils, khol, cosmetic products made from roses, almonds, argan and so so many others. You will not get bored not even a second.

When I crossed the courtyard I was again impressed by the garden. The rooms that shelter the tombs they have very detailed designing. Your photo or video camera will have a lot of work to do again.
The most significant chamber in the tombs is the Hall of Twelve Columns. Here rests the Sultan Ahmed el Mansour and his entire family. This chamber is complete with vaulted roof, columns of Italian marble, beautifully decorated cedar doors and carved wooden screens. Inside the inner mausoleum lies Mohammed esh Sheikh, founder of the Saadian dynasty, as well as the tomb of the Sultan's mother.

One can only wonder how much the Saadian Tombs would have cost to construct today. With beauty, detail and luxury incorporated in every room, from the floor to the ceiling, it is not hard to see why these tombs have become one of the most visited attractions in Morocco.