#ouazazate

[essaouiramorocco]

La plus belle cérémonie de mariage que nous n'avons jamais vue. . Tradition, solidarité, complicité, émotions, couleurs, gentillesse et respect. . Des moments magiques sous le soleil de Ouarzazate. . #ouazazate #mariage #berbère #tamazight #visitmorocco (à Ouarzazat, Ouarzazate, Morocco) https://www.instagram.com/p/CWYVANKMS-C/?utm_medium=tumblr

[ichwill100]

Great visit!! #ouazazate (at Ouarzazat, Ouarzazate, Morocco) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq-AMUggY84Bfj49Tzu_WfHUaBhhbOKpjPK0c80/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=xavn95ec45ov

[jonathantrapman]

Art naturally created even through neccessity is still art. Capturing it is a gift. #morocco #photography #ouazazate #ochre #wallart #azure #jonathantrapman https://www.instagram.com/p/BqOMODXAwfG/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=12c7n70dlvgbi

[travelsinmorocco]

Mountains, gorges and kasbahs

Our route follows the length of a high plain through the High Atlas to Ouazazate,  a largish town with a heavy army presence and surprisingly, several film studios. The studios have been used for very famous films in the past - anything calling for rugged, hostile, desert, mountainous terrain that could look like any stereotypical badlands or another planet - but are now little used perhaps because technology has bypassed them. But that's just a guess. 

There are many big rivers, permanently spring fed , and fertile oases along the whole route in the valleys. This is the main way to the south and to Marrakech and has been for centuries so kasbahs in various states of ruin or repair are common. Marauding bands came this way frequently so locals had to build fortified places to live in. Some were big enough to house a whole village .

The kasbahs appear to be the most environmentally friendly buildings ever. As they fall into disrepair and ruin they melt back into the earth they were made from.

There are some amazing gorges carved from the mountains. We visited two and stayed overnight. In the early mornings it was cold and deserted. Later the souvenir sellers would set up and the tourist buses arrive . 

Here's the landscape the film makers were looking for. When the fierce wind blows up in the afternoon it sandblasts everything including little patches of exposed skin. Those wrap around turbans leaving just the eyes exposed that the Berbers wore seem very desirable.

It looks completely hostile but at the bottom of all of these steep valleys there's water, often big rivers, and winding oases of palm trees , villages and gardens.

[mtamar2020]

Comptable - restauration

Comptable – restauration

Job title: Comptable – restauration Company: Job description: de 6 mois) emploi … Responsable comptabilité l’entreprise Secteur d’activité : Hôtellerie et restauration… comptable et financier de l’entreprise Grand Hotel à Ouazazate dans le encadrement de sa nouvelle restructuration. Secteur… Expected salary: Location: Casablanca Job date: Fri, 23 Jul 2021 04:00:05 GMT Apply for the job now!

[nathankarlylondon]

Day 1 and 2 of our Moroccan excursion. Marrakech to Ouazazate to Todra Gorge

[dybdahltravels]

Family life in a Moroccan Village

April 2, 2019

Bonjour and Salaam!!

Back to the lunch in a small home in Souss-Massa- Draa - outside Ouazazate.  Luckily, it was Spring Break and all the kids of the village were home and OMG!! - what a great day!! This family was very wealthy in their village.  They had lots of goats and sheep.

They had an outdoor oven to bake bread that they shared with all the neighbors.  They even let our friend Gwynn try making some bread and baking it in the oven.

Then after bread making we walked into their field and had our welcome tea.  We left the house carrying stools and all the things we needed for making tea and eating the freshly made bread - but all the neighborhood kids grabbed our stools and carried everything we needed.  They were so helpful!  Gotta’ love spring break!

The family had 5 children and the boy in green is part of the family - the rest of part of the community family. Below is the second oldest daughter and the oldest son.   She is wearing the hijab because she does, but the little boy has on a turban - not part of his family wear - but he is dressed for the play they will presenting for us. They were magnificent.

Here is the second oldest daughter holding her youngest sister.

This little guy was so smart and wanted to learn English.  In just a couple of minutes I taught him the words “nose” “ear” “teeth” “hand” “fingers” “foot”, “knee” and “elbow.  I would have liked to bring him home.  What a sweet young man.  I believe he will go far!

Soon it was time for lunch:  Lamb tagine and couscous.  YUMMY!

After lunch, the children has planned a play for us.  FANTASTIC!!!

The kids sang us some songs...

...and then we did the same to them.  Ok - they were cuter!

All too soon it was time to go.  We hated to leave our new friends.  All the kids from the village escorted us to the bus and waved good-bye.

From there we went to a nearby Woman’s Association in Ksar of Ben Haddou.  Now this is the place we viewed from across the valley - the UNESCO site.   I would have liked to wonder around in this city - but instead we went to this site - and THAT was an excellent choice. 

Any organization supporting women is new and revolutionary.  Morocco has a real girl/women problem.  More that 50% of all girls quit school by age 12 - or don’t even go to school - and most of those that leave school live in the small villages.  Girls are supposed to get married and have babies and learn to do everything to take care of the house, children, fields and their husband.   If a girl is unhappy with her husband - even if he beats her - TOUGH!

If the husband does decide to divorce her, she returns to the home of her mother and father and is a disgrace.  In Morocco a man can have 4 wives - even if the first wife doesn’t like it.  TOUGH!  Wives are not allowed to work outside the house, either.  Oh my!!!

But occasionally a girl in a village manages to convince her father - who makes ALL the decisions - that she would like to go to school and become something other than a wife and mother.  When it happens, she is considered not suitable for marriage and motherhood and is an embarrassment to her family - even if her job is a doctor or a lawyer or a teacher.  From my perspective, this is CRAZY!!  I believe that girls can be anything they wish AND a wife and mother too - if they choose and I may have mentioned that to my daughter, sons and grandchildren - more than once.

 These new Woman’ s Associations are helping young women learn to do other things that will bring in money into the home and even helping them start businesses.  We talked to two amazing women who started this program and to several women who are currently running a bakery. 

They are in the process of building a big building - thanks to Grand Circle Foundation (part of OAT)  - and that will provide women lots of opportunities.  We walked to the building site and were so happy to see the progress.  Jobs - jobs - jobs for men and women!

The young women told us that many men are starting to change their minds about the role of women - but that it is a VERY slow process.  I believe they are on the right track.  Many of us made donations to this program.  We know that education is the only way to improve the lives of people and we also know that if women are educated they will make sure that their children are educated as well.

I confess that when I sent my letter to the classrooms  I MAY have carried on a bit about the value of education.  As a matter of fact - here is what I sent the kids: 

You are VERY lucky to be able to attend school.  So many children around the world would give anything for the educational opportunities you have.  Make sure you appreciate your books and your desks and your teachers and your building with heat, running water and bathrooms.  Way too many children around the world have none of this and their lives will continue to be filled with hunger and poverty until they can change their lives by obtaining an education. Take time to look around your school today and be thankful.  Don’t waste a minute of what you have.  You might grow up to be the person who can help fix this education problem in countries like Morocco. Lucky me - lucky you.   Take a minute and thank your teachers for what they are giving you.  Right now would be a great time!

I truly enjoy getting a look into the lives of the people who live where we visit.  It takes the trip from superficial to remarkable.  

Loving Morocco!

Stay tuned!

[labitacora]

La Kasbah de Telouet está a 1650 metros de altitud, situada a 136 km. de Marrakech y a 107 km. de Ouazazate. Nosotros fuimos desde Marrakech por la carretera que lleva a Ouarzazate, después del puerto Tizzi-n-Tichka hay que desviarse 21 km. hacia el este y... Voila! Si quieres más información, puedes copiar y pegar el siguiente enlace: http://labitacora.es/kasbah-de-telouet/ #labitacora.es #elblogdelabitacora #labitacorablog #bloglabitacora #kasbah #cabah #kasb #kasba #CVTravelBloggers #marruecos #larutadelasmilkasbah #africa #viajes #Travelblogger #viajeros #viajes #viajar #lugaresimperdibles #voyager #voyages #voyage #voyageurs #voyageur #voyageursdumonde #blogueurdevoyage #accessoiresvoyage #instavoyage #voyageuses (en Telouet Kasbah)

[leveretcroft]

We stopped in Ouazazate and spot a shop with a carpet hanging on the wall outside. The proprietor in a gentle low-key way explained how a "marriage carpet" was made. The bargaining went back and forth and once we had agreed he said, you bargain like a Berber, which was untrue, but flattering.⠀ ⠀ To read why Morocco is such a great travel destination download free copy of our journal at http://leveretcroft.com/morocco/ ⠀ #Morocco, #Fez, #Marrakesh, #Atlas. #Sahara, #desert, #camel (at Ouarzazat, Ouarzazate, Morocco)

[piesalmundo]

Ait Ben Haddou

Ouazazate, Morocco

[dybdahltravels]

Salaam from Ouazazate

Bonjour and Salaam,

The name of the city we are in today is prounced "Whaza-zot” and I confess that i just love saying it. Ouazazate is the Hollywood of Morocco. By that I mean this place is filled with movie studios - and not just Moroccan movie studios, but studios from America and Europe in addition to the Moroccan studios.  It is a super modern city - where you can still see a donkey cart - or a person riding a donkey.  Many famous movies have been made in this city for years.  Almost without fail, if the movie is about Ancient Rome, Troy, Greece or Biblical lands - it is made in this city.  Many Science Fiction and Fantasy movies are also filmed here and we met many people who have jobs as “extras” in movies or security or something to do with the movie industry.  At one time it was estimated that more than 50% of the town people have worked as extras.  Movies include Ben Hur, Game of Thrones (Season 3), Prince of Persia and a whole lot more. This city has been a movie studio center since the 1920 and many city people have had many jobs - BUT in the last 18 years most of the significant jobs for men involve playing terrorists and really bad people.  That made me sad and disappointed.  If people have never met people from Morocco and only know them as villains in movies - soon they will think of Moroccans as being bad people and believe me they are not!  We have found Moroccans to be kind, friendly, generous and welcoming.

This picture below is the city square of Ouazazate.  We have seen many city squares or neighborhood parks with these cute little electric cars.  They are a hit!

We had a little adventure getting to Ouazazate because our bus decided it needed a little rest.  On our way to the Sahara we had had a little bus problem when suddenly our bus didn’t want to go.  We pulled over that after revving the engine - it final began to move.   Mark said “dirty fuel.”  But we got to our drop-off place and while we transferred to our 4-wheelers, our bus went for some maintenance.  Filters got changed and some other stuff as well - so when were reunited with our bus - the bus was given a clean bill of health.  Mark said “ still has dirty fuel.”

Just outside of Tinghir - about half was to Ouazazate-- our bus slowed down and then just stopped. (Dirty fuel)

Our guide jumped off the bus and hailed a taxi while our bus driver and his assistant began working on the bus.  Tinghir has yellow taxies,  FYI.  The taxi left and returned with 3 other taxies and Zouhair sent us a couple of miles up the road to a coffee/tea shop in the center of Tinghir.  It was a sweet place - right on the main road - but before we got our drinks - Zouhair whispered to me that our bus was fixed and on its way.

We enjoyed our beverages and being in the middle of town - and surely the talk of the town.  Then we walked about a block to our bus.  We got on the bus and continued on our way to Ouazazate.

The land between our desert camp and Tinghir was very dry and we passed many, many small villages made of adobe bricks.   The bricks are made with soil, straw and animal dung (poop).  This is all mixed up with with and put in a mold.  The mold is removed and the bricks dry in the sun for a couple of weeks.    Below, our friend is getting instruction on how to make bricks from the brick maker, Mohammed and his son.  Look behind Mohammed to see a wall made of brick and behind our friend to see a pile of bricks,

Then they are used to build walls.  Once the walls are tall enough palm wood is played across the roof.  

The roof is covered with plastic and then more adobe.  This works great - because this area is very, very dry and gets very, very hot in the summer.  The walls are thick and that means it keeps the houses cool.  The houses do need some repair every few of years - especially if the area gets a heavy rain - but that WAS rare.  Because of climate change, it is no longer rare and the houses are having to change since the rains are causing major damage.   The people who can afford it are now buying cement blocks and making a house of concrete.  This is great because concrete will not fall apart when it gets wet BUT this area is super hot in the summer, 45- 47 degrees C.  (113-116 degrees F)  The adobe houses stay cool but the concrete houses do not  - easily reaching 100 degrees inside.  There is no air-conditioning and most people do not even have electric fans nor could they afford the electricity to run it.  You can see that this will be a big problem for the villages.

Below is a community built with bigger bricks - but it still mud based.  They were repairing the wall.

We had 2 wonderful events while staying in Ouzazote and both involved the people of the area.

On our second morning we boarded our bus (still doing just fine - thank you!) and headed to a nearby village.   On our way we saw this very beautiful little village that has turned into a tourist stop.  The Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou is an example of a traditional pre-Saharan habitat in southern Morocco, surrounded by high walls and reinforced with corner towers.  I get it - because it is beautiful, and I would have liked to visit - but we passed it by and headed to a tiny village a few miles away.  Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou is a UNESCO site after all. 

We were going there to meet a family that would share their world with us for the entire day.  More about that next.

Loving the people of Morocco!

Stay tuned!