MOROCCO 2007: Americans in Morocco — Day 6: Day After [our non] Christmas. December 26, 2007

Quite a big shift tonight as we checked into our hotel in Midelt. We left our wonderfully sensitive riad in Fes (where every detail was considered) and are now in the Kasbah Asmaa in Midelt (a dusty little town in the mountains) where we have pink walls, curtains in another shade of pinkish rose, orange carpet, baby blue tiles, tangerine and rose plaid bedspreads, aqua painted closet doors. Even better, above the bed is a wooden “arch” nailed to the wall.  But the wall has a column so the wooden arch has been cut into numerous pieces and tacked to the wall to shape around the column.. I hope you can get the sense of this, because it’s a real interior wonder. But, we have a teeny television in the room hanging off the pink wall and we are getting some news in English (first time since we left Madrid). But I digress from the more important description and tales of our travels.

Started out this morning by learning that the Fes hotel didn’t take credit cards and so had to venture to the ATM (amazing how easily we can all access cash!) to be able to pay for our wonderful four days in Fes. Then we got a taxi to the rental car office which turned out to be a bit more complicated than planned… as the taxi driver couldn’t find the rental office. Eventually we found the way and were a bit surprised to see the car – a huge 4 wheel drive SUV – clearly the biggest car in all of Morocco! We begged for a smaller car.. but supposedly this was the only car available. So, we’re embarrassedly.. truly Americans in Morocco.. although as we drove through the mountains we did begin to see some other SUV type vehicles.

Getting out of Fes proved uneventful, although we certainly didn’t take a straight route. Signage is a little complicated. Names of streets and information are only in Arabic, but major city names and direction signs are in French. Unfortunately those signs are not placed frequently enough nor early enough to prepare for turns. But all in all it’s been OK. We were given varying times for how long it would take to get from Fes to Midelt – ranging from 1.5 hours to 3 hours. Well, despite our powerful vehicle, it took us about 6 hours (including a stop for lunch, and short stops in two towns along the way).. But we did get here before dark.. sort of …

We got pulled over by the police (I should explain that their police stand on the roadside about every 20 miles or so.. not sure what they do).. but we were pulled over. Apparently Mike passed another slow moving car in a solid line zone..  This was a good moment to say we only speak English (although I did understand the cop’s explanation). In any case, the policeman didn’t really know what to do, so just told us not to do it again. Frankly, the lines on the roads would need a good painting for anyone to be able to know when they are solid and when striped. Arrest diverted by lack of communication! (I think Mike was sort of looking forward to getting a souvenir ticket to put with his collection of traffic tickets from East Germany, Moscow, and Mexico.)

We’re now pretty high in the mid-Atlas mountains and the landscape is both surreal and desertlike. Houses truly disappear into the landscape as they are low and built of the same color as the ground, so they sort of emerge and disappear, based on the quality of sunlight. I guess they use local soil in the concrete mixing and the older structures are probably rammed earth. The towns along the way are all very, very small.. just one little street with the basic shops.. and the requisite local petit taxi stand (In Azrou they were all green; in Midelt they are yellow.) In the distance we can see the snow-capped High Atlas mountains. I suppose these were all forests, but now it’s all scrub…

Everywhere you see contradictions. Men wearing long robes with the pointy hoods looking like they are right out of some medieval novel but they are on cell phones; teenagers in the back of the car dancing to hip-hop music while their parents are in the front seat dressed in traditional garb.  But perhaps the most amazing is that I can use my Blackberry here in the middle of nowhere in the Atlas Mountains. I am truly surprised.

It’s pretty cold – low 40s, dipping below freezing tonight. We’re not quite prepared for the cold, so we are grateful that our room has heat. We’re off to dinner soon.  More tomorrow.

Best — Fern