What I did on Easter

Zaouia d'Ifrane, revisited, this time with T and our friends Brian and Sara.

Zaouia d'Ifrane hike

Yesterday, I went on a hike with a Brazilian, a Moroccan, an American, and a Portuguese-Canadian (sounds like the set up for a joke, doesn't it?). Our hike began in Zaouia d'Ifrane, a (somewhat) nearby village with a name confusingly similar to the name of the town in which I live (ifrane means "caves").

We hiked to the top of the cliff/ridge in the background.

This was one of the most visually interesting Moroccan towns I have been in!

I made this picture extra large so you might be able to see the baby stork in the nest.

Hike near Immouzer (which I did not go on)

I can't get T to post a blog entry about the hike he went on without me a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't want to deprive you of photos from the hike, so here they are without commentary. Make up your own narrative to go along.

First Moroccan hike - Azrou!

Today we went with eight other people to hike near Azrou, a "real" Moroccan town 21 kilometers (13 miles) from Ifrane.

I hope to go back to Azrou soon in order to properly explore the town itself, but since we walked through town to get to the hiking trail, I used today as an opportunity to get some pictures of a place that looks more Moroccan than Ifrane does.

I really didn't mean to get this woman in the picture, but I'm glad I (accidentally) included her.

Kian, from the UK, and T.

I really wonder how clean people's laundry can stay clean with everyone walking by and kicking up dust onto it.

We walked through Azrou into the hills behind town. At first, we were walking along a small stream of water, and we surprised a man who was bathing in the stream. Further up we saw another man doing his laundry in the stream--he had his package of Omo laundry detergent and clothes laid out upon the rocks.

All along our hike, we came across Berber shepherds tending herds of goats and sheep, and we walked by some Berber homes. I kept thinking how ridiculous we must have seemed, a group of people walking about in the hot hills for no necessary purpose.

One highlight of the hike was an abandoned Berber home. The organizer of our hike, Kolin, said that he had never been able to get a close look at it because people were living there up until three years ago.

It ended up being a rather long hike, with a climbing scramble near the middle to the top of a ridge. But all of the effort was completely worth the view.

We came home this afternoon to a broken refrigerator that is leaking water all over the floor, so I'm sure I'll want to review these pictures later and remember that, yes, it was a good day.