Middle Atlas = Love

Well this weekend I made the rounds to a couple of the small towns/cities in the Middle Atlas region (the Middle Atlas mountains are the mid-range mountains in Morocco, the High Atlas are as would seem to be obvious, at a higher altitude) and decidedly fell in love with the region! The Middle Atlas is a pocket of mountains (perhaps large hills really) followed by valley after valley full of a wide variety of trees and crops and then more mountains (and repeated again and again). It's great. :-)

Anyway, my Middle Atlas tour started off on Saturday, when my friend Cassie and I set off for Imouzzer, a small town about 20 minutes away from Ifrane. It was a bit intimidating at first because its not one of those towns that gets a lot of tourists clearly and there were a lot of people out and about, and two foreign girls do get attention by virtue of being 1) female without male escort, 2) looking foreign, and 3) obviously being tourists walking around with little aim but to see what we could see. But we soon got into the scheme of things and enjoyed walking around Imouzzer. The town sits in the mountains on the road leading towards Fez and looks out over a valley towards more mountains, so we had a great time searching for the best views and got to poke around the town while we were at it. [See mosque on left.] After our brief exploration of Imouzzer, we climbed in another taxi and after gaining a couple more passengers we headed off towards Sefrou.

I didn't know much about Sefrou before we went, just what my pastor and guidebook had told me, but it turned out to be great! It has an old medina like that of Fez, but its much more relaxed and less crowded, and also both in and outside the old city is cleaner and seems to be a bit like a mountain oasis.

View of Sefrou from the edge of town.

Cassie and I had a great time exploring inside Sefrou's city walls. It has many of the same stone-lined walkways that wind throughout the city like Fez, except with less people and a bit less craziness. It very much feels like an ordinary city that people live/work/play in...yet still has a certain character that makes it very Moroccan/Middle Eastern-North African/and a bit otherworldly to the American eye. Cassie and I basically had fun getting lost; we would walk for awhile and then look around and realize that we were back where we started, so then start again and take a different turn. We got some wierd looks, met a few fun little kids, got some great harsha and bread for lunch, ended up finding some fun nooks and crannies where it felt a bit like an ultimate game of hide-and-go-seek and saw some amazing architecture. Sefrou, like Fez varies at every bend, you turn one corner and find yourself amidst small shops stock full with shoes, designer clothes from the US, scarves and material, and other odds and ends. But a minute later, you find yourself seeing welders and woodworkers making doors or gates or various other products, and then after another bend your nose is assaulted with the smell of fresh bread, spices, and the bright colors of fruits and veggies.

Unsurprisingly, we found our way out of the city gates accidentally and found ourselves in a more modern part of the city with a bit more space between shops, modern-looking buildings, and some beautiful park spaces with fountains, trees and cafes. There was definitely quite a bit of upscale housing in Sefrou, intermixed with the more-common 2-3 story buildings that were built on top of one another over the years and look a bit dilapatated.

However, we didn't have to walk too far before we came to this temporary marketplace full of fruits and vegetables for rows and rows and rows...it was just set up in the middle of a field and smelled more or rotten/spoiled produce until you stepped under the tent covers. We didn't end up buying anything, but walked around some more before getting back into the grand taxi and heading home for the day.

On Sunday, after a lovely morning of sleeping in, a couple of the girls and I headed to Azrou which is only about 15 minutes away from Azrou and has amazing views along the way. We were blessed with AMAZING weather this weekend - i didn't wear a coat for like the first time since I've been here! So, it was a great ride along the way. Sadly, we didn't get to see a whole lot in Azrou because some of the shops were closed and we didn't have directions as to what to check out, but it was fun to walk around and get a sense of the town if nothing else.

A view of Azrou.

So that was my weekend, pretty lowkey but certainly fun to see a bit more of the area around where I'm living for the semester. Now another week of academics coming up and the beginning of volunteering at the local Ifrane high school. Should be fun!