Morocco, Part Two

Monday morning (May 9th) we woke up to a beautiful sunny day.  What a great way to start our trip into the mountains outside Marrakesh.  Our destination for the day was Imlil, the jumping off point for trekking up the mountains.  We did not come prepared for a full 2 day trek, required to hike up to the top of Djebel Toubkal, but we did have a fun 4 hours exploring the foothills and the villages surrounding Imlil.

Hyrum and I in the cab at the beginning of our journey (remember this photo, we'll call it the "before" shot)

Paige chatting with the taxi driver in Arabic.  I love this photo.

The beautiful Atlas mountains

Many people use donkeys for transportation, the poor animals looked extremely overworked and underfed.

Visiting Morocco in the springtime is great, everything is green and fresh.

Paige and I on our hike

So, we were on a trail to what we thought might be the right destination but just to make sure we asked these two boys if we were heading the right way.  I guess they assumed we needed personal guides because they insisted on showing us the way and then, of course, wanted money for their time.

They did lead us to a pretty neat waterfall, we probably wouldn't have found this on our own.

Ummmm, is this a trail?

I'm not 100% positive these kids knew where they were going but we sure got a great hike and an insiders look into how the locals travel around the foothills..

 If you look closely you can see the town of Armed in the background.  We had hiked up there because we were told it had the best view of the mountains.  Unfortunately, by the time we got up there it was rainy and the mountains were covered in fog.  Oh well, we still had a great time.

A highlight of the trip, hearing the call to prayer from the mountain village of Armed echoing off the surrounding mountains, magical.

These ladies obviously didn't want their picture taken...oops.

Crossing the river on a "Berber bridge" Not quite so easy as it might seem.

On our hike back to Imlil we met this guy selling things from his little shop.  Paige and I both bought earrings from him.  He was very interesting to listen to and quite funny.  He kept saying, "no money no honey, no worry, chicken curry."

Right as we got into Imlil it started raining pretty hard.  We stopped at a local cafe and ordered some hot mint tea, it warmed us right up.

And this is the "after" shot.  We were pretty exhausted after our adventures so we slept during the two hour taxi drive back to Marrakesh.

Back in Marrakesh Paige and I got the obligatory henna tattoo's.  

Paige and I showing off our henna.

After a long day we decided to have a quiet evening.  We went to this bakery near our hotel and picked out a few treats....

...then we took the treats to the rooftop of our hotel where we watched the sun set and enjoyed watching the Djemâa el Fna come to life at night.

Tuesday, May 10th, our last day in Morocco.  We had seen enough of the crazy markets and wanted to escape the heat and madness of the city.  There are many gardens in Marrakesh but we decided to pay the small fee to get into the Majorelle Garden.  This garden was owned by the designer Yves Saint Laurent.  It was sure an oasis amid a loud and dirty city.

This garden was the perfect setting to say goodbye to Marrakesh.  It was a really hot day but inside the gardens it was about 20 degrees cooler.  There were little streams and fountains.  Tall bamboo groves grew everywhere, and the beautiful blue color that was used to paint all the buildings was amazing.  Goodbye Morocco, I don't know if I will see you again but you have given me wonderful memories and a new gratitude for what I have.