The accommodations were superb. The property in Marrakech was extensive. The main building had about ten rooms with fireplaces. There were three large buildings, each with a swimming pool, which were rented to large family groups. Then there was the owner’s home. The owners invited all the guests from the main building to cocktails one night. After the meal we mixed and mingled so it was like a large family affair.

Our cooking lesson was conducted in the owner’s kitchen, which was huge. We learned to make two different tagines – very flavourful and aromatic stews – and later we purchased a tagine cooking dish. The dish has a round fairly deep bottom and a conical top, which allows evaporating moisture to be redirected down to keep the ingredients very moist.

The hotel in Essaouira was also wonderful but more formal. The day we arrived we were informed that our cooking class could not be honoured as the chef was too busy preparing for New Years. We discussed this with the hotel manager and he agreed to pay for our wine during our stay in lieu of the trip to the market with the chef and our cooking lesson. We were happy with that. The New Years celebration was wonderful with a seven course dinner, lots of entertainment and dancing.

We saw many sights in the cities and in the countryside. One of the more amusing sights was in a grove of argan trees. These trees are very gnarled and their fruit is a nut that is ground into an oil. If the nut is toasted first it becomes salad oil. Nuts that are not toasted, yield oil that is used in cosmetic creams which are purported to have many amazing qualities – fountain of youth kind of things. There is a small breed of goat, which climbs up in the argan trees to eat the fruit and the leaves. We saw one tree that had atleast five goats on the branches. Of course the tourist attraction is to have your picture taken by a tree with the goat in it. The goatherd wants to take the picture so he can get a tip. We do not travel with a camera so the young boy who was tending the

goats was disappointed but we gave him a tip anyway. Our guide said that some goatherds will tie a goat in a tree so there is always a photo op when a tourist happens by.

There is another tree, which grows in Morocco called a thuya tree. This tree yields beautiful patterned wood, which is fashioned into all kinds of furniture and a wide variety of trinkets, picture frames, boxes, etc. These pieces are often inlaid with ebony and citron wood. A piece we purchased has a carving representing the hand of Fatima. Fatima was a religious woman from Kairouan, Tunisia who had come to Morocco with many Kairouan refugees and settled in Fez. Fatima donated her worldly riches for the construction of a mosque in Fez in 869 B.C. This mosque became the first university in Fez. The people of Morocco believe that the hand of Fatima with its glass eye in the centre will protect you from evil. People hang a hand at the door to their home to protect them from evil.

Our one frustration was the credit card use or non-use. Here are some examples. When leaving the hotel in Marrakech, we owed 770 dirhams($120.00) and we presented our credit card. The lady asked for cash; they only use the credit card for amounts over 1000 dirhams. The same thing happened at restaurants and at the thuya wood vendor but the threshold amount for using the credit varied. By the end of the trip we would ask in advance if we could use VISA; at one restaurant they said yes, but when it came time to pay they said their VISA machine was not working. Thank heavens we had a guide who knew where we could exchange our Euros and American dollars and where there were banking machines so we could get more cash. We were very happy that most of our trip was prepaid.

Out time in Barcelona was short but we enjoyed the city. Hotel Neri was delightful and had a great restaurant. The hotel was not located down the street from the Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia cathedral as I had thought but that was fine. We were about twenty minutes by cab from the cathedral, which is an absolutely fascinating architectural work. It was drizzling and the line up to go inside was long, so we decided to pass on that this time. We walked back to out hotel, which was fun because we saw a lot of other interesting sights and got some exercise in the bargain. The prearranged cars to and from the airport worked well.

Roberta and Elmer

Enjoy this slide-show of Morocco