Spring Break

Wow - because I'm behind on this blog, it looks like all we do is travel! I guess it's because I don't take pictures of most of our life - Gerald grading papers or the girls doing their homework and me washing dishes! But when we can, we do travel more than we ever did in the States - because we have only one family member close by, very little home maintenance/yard work (we live in an apartment), and few or no theatres, restaurants, concerts, gatherings, zoos, events, etc. And it is very cheap to travel here. Most of the expatriate community at the university gets away every chance they can because Morocco has so many tourist destinations. The most common Sunday-night church conversation is, "So - where did you go this weekend?" Just this spring break besides people traveling all around Morocco, we have friends who went to Egypt, Italy, France and Ireland - all for about $60 a plane ticket!



This spring break we went down to Southern Morocco - where we have not yet been. It is a dry, rugged, rocky and harsh land with camel and goat herds grazing here and there on the little there is to eat. But in between the rocks, there are some fabulous gorges, valleys, mountains and waterfalls! (For those of you who know Morocco - apologies - I know these pictures are out of order.) The Todra Gorge - small and dramatic with easy hiking around.

Who would have thought Gerald's first chance to ski in 16 years would be in Africa??? The beautiful High Atlas Mountains gave Gerald about an hour of fun skiing! We were 'looking for spring' on this trip (it's been a loooong winter) - and most of the time it was cool and sunny with blossom-filled valleys and trees getting their leaves. So when we went up into the mountains for a day, the girls asked, "Where did spring go???"

How amazing to be driving through brown, stark land and turn a corner to see an oasis! One evening we took a walk in one and this man made these palm-branch animals for the girls in a few minutes. They worked and worked on their own creations for hours after this!

The High Atlas - my favorite part - I love mountains! We had full, panoramic views of them for four days of our trip - ahhh!

The Dadees Gorge - "Monkey Bread Rocks" as the Americans call them - super for climbing and scrambling! Note the ancient Kasbah (fortified house) in the foreground.

The top of the Dadees Gorge. This place reminded me of the Kabul Gorge where our family rode bikes down every year - yikes!

Cascade D'Ouzoud - we'd been here before but were amazed at the amount of water this year - gorgeous!

Atlas Film Studios - where many a film has been made including "Gladiator" and many Bible and Cleopatra movies. It is a favored location for these since Morocco looks like Egypt and Israel but is much safer! We saw a French documentary on Cleopatra being made while we were there. The girls loved watching the actresses getting made up for their parts! Gerald did not get discovered for a brilliant acting career as he was hoping....

Ait Benhaddou - a UNESCO World Heritage Site - which means this is a protected village that cannot be significantly changed or altered so that it can maintain its original form. About eight families still live here and I had to wonder what they were thinking as we visitors marched up through their town! Movies like "Gladiator" and "Jesus of Nazareth" were filmed here.

And then back home - where we are back into our routines which all center around school or university.