From the desert to Ouarzazate

We opened our eyes to freshly brewed coffee and scrambled eggs... in the Sahara! And then we made our way back across the sands to our bus, waiting to take us to Ouarzazate. We were in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. Those would be the high peaks in the first photo, and you will hear more of them in the next post.

The next photos show a window - actually two - and two hallways that look like colored squares. The fenestration of buildings here in Morocco is very peculiar. The traditional buildings have VERY few windows. Usually three sides are solid adobe and only the facade has any openings: a door and 1 or 2 windows at most. Even new construction is similar, except for modern structures in business districts. However, most buildings have inside courtyards that are open to the sky, so the sun makes the splashes of light seen in the halls of the photos - but not after sundown. Maybe the national esthetic likes dim cool interiors as a contrast with the heat and dazzling sun outside. The interior lighting is also odd. The (nice) hotels where we are staying have 5 or 10 watt bulbs in their fixtures. There is enough light to read in the bed, but not enough to see in the closets or the hallways. We use our phone flashlight to find the stairs.

On the Way of a Thousand Kasbahs, as it is called, we stopped at a small private museum In a ksar (multigenerational family home) and saw the intriguing tool in the photo: hooks for retrieving ropes fallen into a well. That is indeed a specialty item. Another one: a loom (shown here for the benefit of Barry Sellers and Doug Johnson). And another: a silver case for the plastic water bottles found on every table.

Ta-da. We arrived in Ouarzazate. This home of the Moroccan film industry is pronounced something like "Ou-ar-za-zat". so of course we all call it "Where's z'sat." Our very large hotel was filled with race car drivers and their wives?/girlfriends??/crew??? on a week-long car rally. One of the autos had a sticker reading "Dept. of Defense. Ft. Worth JRB." Makes us wonder whose tax dollars entered that vehicle in the race. One thing we do know is that the rally drivers are fearless. They hugged the 6000' high and very narrow roads and when we were ahead of them they flew around us, seemingly without a glance at the road ahead.

Here are some bits of housekeeping:
1). If you click the word Morocco in RED at the beginning of this blog you will get a map of our location.
2). Travellerspoint asks for a daily temperature, and we usually enter the daytime high. But 100 degrees in the day cools off to 75 or so in the evening with lovely breezes.
3). We have been out of touch because we couldn't access WiFi in the desert or out last hotel. We'll try again tomorrow.

We miss you all and delight to hear from you and to think that you are reading of our adventures. Thanks
Hope and Bill