Monkeys

We had to be up early for our trip to Ouzoud Falls to see wild monkeys. After we had a delicious breakfast at our Riad, we started out for the place where our tour van was picking us up. Of course I got lost because I thought the tiny lanes were sidewalks, not streets. We were lucky to find a police officer who spoke English and he helped us out. There was a tour van there so we hopped on. Fortunately I asked if they were going to Ouzoud and everyone said no so we hopped back off. Soon another tour bus picked us up. I was so excited because we were the first ones on so we had our pick of seats. Unfortunately, the driver had just picked us up to be deliver to another van almost full. Oh well. Georgia and I we not able to sit together but we had individual seats.

It is a three hour drive to Ouzoud Falls from Marrakech. I saw so many interesting things and I really wished I had someone to ask questions of. What was disappointing was the amount of trash all over the place. There was even trash by restaurants and in olive groves. The last hour or so was really curvy and I started to get car sick and I rarely get carsick. I was really worried about Georgia because she often gets car sick, but she was fine.

When we got to the falls, a local Berber guide took two vans full of people through the falls. He was a 20 something local who had gone to college in England. He had a very British accent that occasionally sounded Australian. Amazingly, he spoke 9 languages. When asked about this, he said that the King insist kids learn 4 languages in primary school but must then choose a fifth language in high school. Wow! I thoroughly enjoyed hearing about the Berber life from our guide. We went into a Berber house. Here are some of the interesting things I learned. First, Berber boys never leave the house. When a male child is born, they add onto the house for his future family. Female children will go live at their husband’s family home. In addition, there are many olive trees around Ouzoud Falls and they live to about a 1000 years. Each tree is marked with colored paint and numbers. The colors correspond with families. The numbers indicate the individual people. So red 4 might be the fourth child in the red family. He said it got confusing when people got married and then there might be two colors and numbers to split individual trees.

The falls were beautiful. They somewhat had safety fencing but not like we would have. The guide says 4 or 5 tourists fall of each year but I really think he was exaggerating because he loses his license for two years if anyone dies on his tour. Anyways, we walked all the way to the bottom of the falls and then we needed to cross the river. We chose to take a boat that brings you up to the edge of the falls. This option costs 2 euros each but I think it was worth it. Kids were cliff diving and swimming next to the boats, it was really crowded and Georgia actually saw a boy get caught under a boat. The person who was paddling the boat reached down and saved the boy. Often it felt like bumper boats. After the ride, we started back up. The path down was dirt and a bit difficult to walk. The way back up was steps but it was frustrating to follow the guide who was trying to get us quickly up the steps. There were vendors all along but I never had a chance to look because we were being hurried along. After seeing the falls from many vantage points, I just wanted to see a monkey. We saw one but were told to hurry along. I was truly at my breaking point when we went to another viewpoint and I glanced over and there was a monkey. A young boy was selling cookies to give it and a man was selling peanuts. Georgia and I took turns feeding and snapping pictures. The monkey preferred the cookie but would eat the peanuts when the cookies were gone. The older gentleman asked if we wanted to have the monkey climb on our backs. I was scared but I decided to do it. It was such a strange feeling. The monkey on Georgia grabbed hold of her hair. I was so glad I had a hat on because it couldn’t grab my hair. When I ran out of food, the monkey jumped off. The whole thing was so fun. It made the trip worth it.

Once we got to the top, we were offered lunch. Georgia and I both declined. Since I had gotten a bit carsick, I was worried about eating. When lunch was done, we hopped back on the bus and headed back to Marrakech. That’s when the real fun started. I have never had such a bad case of motion sickness. I had to keep spraying myself with water and the fanning it away. That’s the only way I could feel halfway decent. I tried everything but the second I looked anywhere but straight ahead, the bus felt like it was spinning. I have to say it might have been the worst 3 hours of my life. Fortunately Georgia was okay. Once we were dropped off, she managed to find our way back to the riad. I took a shower and laid down for about 30 minutes and I started to feel better.

After relaxing a bit, we decided to eat dinner. In the reviews for our riad, I had read the food was excellent. The reviews were not wrong. We had an eggplant salad and a pastry filled with vegetables for the appetizers, a chicken and potato tangine for main course and a dessert of orange gelatin with thick cream and fruit for dessert. It all tasted so good. Georgia thought the tangine was the best food she had eaten this whole trip. I did notice that they were extremely generous with portions and I felt bad about wasting but there wasn’t way we could eat it all. After dinner we relaxed on the roof top. What a great way to end our day.Read more