Unlicked Envelope: One if by Camel, Two if by ATV

We awoke to a beautiful sunrise over the rust-colored mountains and the morning continued to get better with an incredible breakfast at Chez Pierre. If you happen to be in Middle of Nowhere, Morocco, you HAVE to stop at Chez Pierre for a meal. We had been in Middle of Nowhere for a while, though, so it was time to head back to the city. We began the longest day of driving on our trip, about 7 hours in the car. Luckily, we still like each other at the end of it.

About mid-morning, we made it to Ouazazarte, also known as Moroccan Hollywood, where over 25 movies and TV shows have been filmed, including Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator, and part of season 3 of Game of Thrones. Most importantly, though, it was where Mohamed, our driver, grew up! Apparently he was an extra in some films when he was little. One of the places where many of these movies and TV shows were filmed was at Ait Ben Haddou, a large castle dating back to the 11^th century that encloses four casbahs.

Many families used to live inside, and about 4 families still do!

Getting to Ait Ben Haddou was its own adventure. We were each fitted with a giant helmet and given an ATV.

Our lesson on how to use it took about 20 seconds, and no licenses were checked. We simply hopped on and figured it out. Our leader was a local named Mustafa.

He stood up on his ATV as he drove and confidently maneuvered it around puddles and large rocks, nonchalantly looking over his shoulder at us. I, meanwhile, was terrible at driving an ATV and kept lurching forward and barely staying on the road. Certainly not my strong suit. Mustafa must have sensed fear, because he had me move right up behind him, where he could keep an eye on me.

At last we made it to the base of Ait Ben Haddou. We parked our ATVs, forded a river using sand bag stepping stones, and started our ascent. On the way up, we stopped at a local artist’s shop to learn about a Berber art technique. First, a combination of green tea and lime is painted in a pattern on a piece of white paper. Next, the paper is held aloft over an open flame until it starts to brown. (I used to do something similar for school projects that required documents that looked old.) As the paper browns, the tea/lime design browns more quickly, making it stand out.

The result was beautiful. The shop also had posted a list of movies that had been filmed at the site and a list of the letters in the Berber alphabet.

Apparently, the letter equivalent to “z” represents freedom.

We continued our ascent, winding between earthen walls, peering through the crumbling ruins of abandoned rooms, and admiring the crafts of Berber artists (including one who called himself the “Berber Picasso”). Near the top, we saw one of the walls painted with the Berber “Z”, the symbol that means freedom, and stopped to take pictures.

Mustafa gave us an inquiring look and we pointed to the symbol. He said, “That’s my house,” and proceeded to unlock the door and take us inside. Mustafa and his brother Aziz have lived their entire lift in Ait Ben Haddou, making the castle rubble their playground. Now, they are artists and tour guides. Mustafa also showed us another Berber art technique, which also involved burning. This time, however, the source of energy was the sun. He demonstrated how to burn a city skyline into a piece of wood using only a magnifying glass and the sun.

After fully exploring Mustafa’s house, we continued our journey up, up, up the mountain into which Ait Ben Haddou had been built. At the very top was a single house, which Mustafa said was a watchkeeper’s house. At the first sign of trouble, the watchkeeper would light a fire near the top of the dwelling that the whole village would see. My sister and I dubbed this man the Moroccan Paul Revere (understanding full well that the role predated anything in U.S. history).

From the top, it was a slow, winding journey back down, with plenty of nooks and shops to poke into.

We rode our ATVs back to the site (I was a much better driver on the return trip) and bid Mustafa farewell. Then, it was a quick lunch and an afternoon of driving, but we have finally arrived in Marrakech. We can’t wait to see what this city has to offer.

Spotted: Berber identical twins. First, we met identical twins in the desert (Walid and Khalid). The next day, we met another identical twin (Mustafa, whose brother Aziz is his twin). Two sets of identical Berber twins in two days seemed like too much of a coincidence, so we asked Ahmed about it. He confirmed that Berbers seem to have a lot of identical twins. Of course, we have no idea why.

Additional photos from our day: