Skip to main content

Lifestyle of Morocco's berbers in Atlas mountains

Hassan is the best guide I have ever met. He managed to offer us some authentic experiences which we wouldn't have had them otherwise. As he says thanks to the life's course we encountered each other.
Thanks to him we had the chance to practice our Spanish. That was the common language we all understand and speak. He came to pick up us from the riad early in the morning.
It was early enough to catch the sunrise
We stopped first to admire the Grand Atlas from faraway. 

The High Atlas in the background
Then to see closely the dromedaries. He explained that the dromedaries were used by caravans trekking across the desert. Now they are used only for tourism.
Dromedaries waiting tourists
Drought land
After that we went into a village where we could see the simple life of berbers. Berbers are the overwhelming majority of Moroccans and they represent the descendants of pre-Arab inhabitants of North Africa.
Donkeys are extensively used as working animal 

Interior staircase
The houses are build from abode bricks, with animals living at ground floor and upstairs with the family having a small kitchen with stone oven where they bake the every day bread, a salon to receive the guests, a  small terrace, a small bathroom (I haven't been inside but I imagine it's with minimum conditions), and 1-2 bedrooms.
The people from villages like this one are living from agriculture. With the products they make they go to souks to exchange them for the products they need.
And there is no house without a cat
We also learned about the ritual of serving tea. In the Moroccan culture the tea is a symbol of welcoming guests. You start by boiling the water, add some dried green tea leaves and let them stir for a couple of minutes. Then, depending of the season, different medicinal plants and sugar are added. In order to mix the plants and sugar you have to pour at least twice from the pot in a glass and back. Then you are ready to serve it to your guests. The pouring is done from a height of 30cm or more until the glass is half filled. It is considered rude to refuse tea.
We were invited in one of the houses from the village to taste home made butter, bread, olive oil, olives and tea.
And behind the village is this valley

Dirt road in the village
Most of the villages have the name of the first family which established there
Another village where we stopped to see the local souk

Red earth rich with iron

The higher the luxurious is the vegetation
For dinner, Hassan arranged to have a feast at riad Sougtani.
The garden
Too bad it was raining that evening.

A cozy corner

Traditional Moroccan salon where people gather around the table, drink tea and tell stories.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Stories from Hamburg

Lately I've heard a lot about Hamburg, how awesome it is and I was curious to see it with my own eyes. Being in Berlin these days, was the perfect moment to do it. I bought train tickets and here I am in a train going to Hamburg. With my book, enjoying a 2h train ride  The weather was not favorable to me, but I still have all my fingers. I must say, the rainy day enhanced the colors of this city. I was not kidding about the cold It took me a few time to get used with the temperature, but after that I forgot it was cold. I had set in mind to see the canals. I came here for that. I read some articles about this and I was impressed. It's said that it has more than Venice or Amsterdam. From what I've seen, it looks a lot with both of them, but on a different scale. If in the two cities mentioned the buildings are not so tall, here we find massive constructions. #wanderlust #urbanphotography #enthusiastictraveller A post shared by Madalina G. (@gmadalina92)

Magnificent Florence

After reading Dan Brown's Inferno I wanted to go to Florence! That was two years ago and I had booked a trip for March 2020 but it was canceled due to the pandemic. This year I booked another trip for March, but that one got canceled too because I got covid. One month later I finally managed to visit Florence, but the plan doesn't always works out the way one expects. Initially the trip was for 3 nights but the airline with which I got the flight tickets changed the timetable and the first direct flight to return was after another 2 days, therefore I ended up spending 5 nights. Which turned out to be better! The journey to reach Florence was hellish! Apparently the airport is small, between cities, with only one runway, fairly short and not very wide. Additionally to that, the place is surrounded by high mountains, which is why it can be approached only in one direction. Not only does the terrain brings this challenge with it, but it also effectuates in a very unusual microclim

Kasteel de Haar - a luxurious castle

During the rainy days and with the current restrictions, my only consolation is writing about magical places I discovered in the past months in Netherlands. The subject of this post is De Haar Castle, a place rich in stories!  The joy of exploring this flamboyant castle De Haar is the largest castle in the Netherlands, once the private residence of the Van Zuylen family, whose descendants still stay there yearly. In the last century, the castle also frequently hosted members of the international jet set with their lavish lifestyle; from Coco Chanel to Roger Moore, they too left their mark on the sumptuous rooms of the most opulent spot in Utrecht. I visited the castle a couple of weeks ago, together with my dearest friend, Ioana, and it was a lovely Sunday, even with some warm sunshine!  This year I bought  Museumkaart  which allows free entrance to about 400 museums in the Netherlands, De Haar Castle included! Despite the months when the museums were/are closed, I got to use it a coup