Into the Atlas Mountains

Friday, December 6

Charlotte:

Today we woke up early at 05:45 because we were going on a 3-day excursion. We got picked up at 7, and we were the first people to get on the bus. Other people on the tour were from lots of different places like Brazil, Denmark, Australia, Netherlands, France, Spain and the USA. We also had a great tour guide named Youssef. He really likes me, I thought it was maybe because I was the only kid.

The roads that we were taking were very bumpy and curvy. We were going up high into the Atlas mountains. We were all feeling really sick, except Sam.

There are lots of little villages on the way, but no cities. We stopped for some photos because the views were very pretty. We were driving into the desert, but we saw snow! The man who came from Brazil said that it was the first time he ever saw snow. There was even enough snow for him to throw his first snowball. It was kind of hilarious because no one goes to Morocco to see snow. We were so high up; we were about 2260 metres, which is why it was cold enough to snow.

Later on, we stopped at a place where local women made argon oil. They showed us the steps in the process: cracking the nuts with a rock, boiling them to soften the shells, taking out the seeds, and then grinding the seeds and catching the oil in a bowl. It was interesting, and I kind of wanted to do it. Argon oil is very good for skin and hair and you can even eat it. It is very expensive in Canada. In the parking lot of the shop, instead of stones or gravel, they had millions of argon shells.

About an hour later, we stopped for lunch with our group. We had tagine scrambled eggs and soup. It was pretty good. I just had rice because I wasn’t feeling well from the driving.

We stopped to learn about scarves to wear into the desert. We didn’t buy any here because Youssef told us we would get a better deal closer to the desert tomorrow.

We also saw in that city (called Ait Ben Haddou) a 1000-year old village made of stucco, which means straw, water, and dirt. The tour guide said that it only has heavy rain about once every three years and surprisingly, it was raining that day. There are five houses that were really big with four towers that kind of looks like castles. They are called kasbahs. The tour guide also told us that many movies were filmed here: Jewel of the Nile, Gladiator, Game of Thrones and more.

We got back in the van and what we’re passing by we saw lots of movie studios. One was called The Atlas film studios. We also saw a lot of mountains. Then finally a few hours later we went got to our hotel. It had been a looong ride.

We also got dinner at the hotel it included soup, bread, chicken and vegetable tagine and fresh fruit. Some musicians came to entertain us, but we were so tired, so we went back to our rooms and slept.