Morocco

We went on a trip to Africa! The kids were regular angels on the flight out there (through Paris). The first few days we spent in Casablanca which was SO big/busy and the roads were super confusing! After that we took the train to Marrakesh which was much cleaner and more picturesque. 

There were several markets we went to, and at one Lincoln had to fight off monkeys the vendors put on his back! The cobra charmers were a real thing that felt other-worldly. 

We stayed in this 3 story riad in Marrakesh with a rooftop area which was so cute. Each morning we would hear all of the prayer calls from the minarets -  there were so many of them the sound would echo in the early dawn light. 

We visited a tannery where they cured leather and bought some amazing leather products. They gave us mint leaves to smell on entry cause it was rather foul smelling with all the leather curing in different pools dug into the ground. 

Yves Saint Laurent had a home in Morocco before he passed which was turned into a museum and gardens. It's a popular spot due to it's vibrant colors. We had a fun time touring it and visiting the more Westernized restaurants that were nearby. 

The major food they seem to eat there is tagine. We had some amazing tagine, and some tagine I would have passed on. It's basically just vegetables and meat cooked in a special teepee-shaped pottery over rice. They have a unique seasoning blend they put on it and honestly I think that is the difference between the good and bad ones we had! Moroccans do not drink a lot of wine - I would guess that's because the country is primarily Muslim. Most of the women there did wear a hijab or full burka. I did not and especially in Marrakesh it was ok since that is the major tourism hub for Westerners (it's called the Las Vegas of Morocco).

There was so much we learned about the Moroccan culture crisscrossing from the country. Due to Covid we did end up leaving earlier than we had anticipated and the only thing we missed on our trip was touring the Atlas Mountains via camel. 

It was a bit of a fiasco getting back to to the USA. With airports closing the air traffic it was impossible to fly home commercially. This is why we traveled to Rabat (the capital) as it was where the US Embassy was. Unfortunately they were of no help to us so we traveled on to Tangier, thinking that we could easily hop across the channel and go to Spain. Upon arriving we learned that the COVID rate in Spain was much higher so we scrapped that idea. At that point we got in contact with Senator Rick Scott from Florida and he got us on a FULL State Department flight from Marrakesh back to the USA!  Strange times make you thankful for great representatives. We drove from Tangier to Marrakesh during the wee hours of the morning to make the flight and it started raining, which apparently it had not done for years in that area. I told my husband it was just like the "Africa" song and we blessed those rains!

 And in case you're wondering, the state department flights are free to board but they send you a bill later which is roughly what you would have paid anyway for a commercial flight. I'm not complaining!

Hope you enjoyed these photos from our trip. :) 

#covid #travel #marrakesh #morocco