This is our first, full day in Morocco.  After breakfast at 8, we were picked up by our driver to whisk us off on a 5-night, 6-day journey through the southern part of the country.  His name is Khalid and his English is better than my Moroccan Arabic (called Darija).  Khalid is a Berber from a small town in the Sahara and does this tours up to 4x in a month during the busy season.  During the summer, when no-one wants to be here because of the heat, he heads home to relax before things pick back up again in the fall.

Brenda and I do not need to share the ride with anyone else.. we have our own Toyota Land Cruiser 4×4 and can come/go/stop to suit our interests.

This morning we left the big city of Marrakech and headed into the Atlas Mountains.
Temperatures:  Lows are in the 40s, which is why we started the trip in coats.. it kept pretty cool throughout the day in the high elevations.. we stripped down to our shirtsleeves by mid afternoon when we were climbing up and down village stairs.

A surreal landscape stop along the way.. showing off the salt and other minerals deposited by water that bubbles up from deep below the surface.

Touring some ruins of an old Kasbah (fort).

Khalid giving Brenda some history lessons about the Berber tribes that live high up in the mountains in these little villages.

Kasbah Telouet.  This was built in the 1800s but is degrading.  This area was hit by the big earthquake last September that killed almost 3000 people.  We saw a lot of remaining evidence of the quake, rock slides along the roads, building damaged & etc.
The pass through the Atlas mountains here is the highest point in Northern Africa.. just over 7,200 feet above sea level.

A view of one of the valleys.  Where there is water, there is green.  One can zoom into this photo and find little houses built along the river and into the rock sides.  The principal crops below are Almonds and Saffron.

Brenda getting a lunch at a buffet restaurant near our final destination.  There were a lot of tourists in the town to see the famous Äit Benhaddou ksar (fortified village).  Most of the tourists here are French or German.  French is the second language of Morocco and one can get around pretty good if you happen to know more than about 40 words of French (I don’t…).

Sunday is laundry day in the rapids of the river.

The narrow streets of Äit Benhaddou, full of vendors hawking their wares.  Brenda did not leave empty handed.

Shot of the village itself.  It is a World Unesco site that was built sometime in the 1100s as a trade stopping spot between the Sahara and Marrakech.  Most of what you see now is from the 1700s and 1800s.

This town has been used as a backdrop in more than 50 movies and TV shows, including Lawrence of Arabia, Cleopatra, The Mummy, Gladiator and Game of Thrones.

View from our hotel room, looking over to one range of the Atlas mountains.  Where we are staying tonight is about 4500’ up.

Lots of animals to see here.. On the first day alone, Brenda has been able to play with puppies, cats, goats & sheep.

At our hotel.. as is customary, we are welcomed with Moroccan tea and snacks.

View of our next door neighbors from the rooftop of our hotel.