Maze of Scarves

On the way to the camel ride we stopped off at a scarf store so that everyone could get a scarf. I already had one but Mommy, Daddy, Ashlynn, Max, and Uncle Tony needed to buy ones. At the back of the store were scarves hanging up from the roof. Daddy invented a game that us kids played while the parents were picking out scarves. We had to try and get to the other side of the 'scarf maze' without touching any of the scarves. 

Kasbah Time Lapse

Early the next morning Daddy and I went out to take photos of the sunrise over the kasbah. It was pretty chilly, and I was tired, but it was fun and we got good results. 

Here's the time lapse that we made. Click here to see the video big. 

Taking pictures of the kasbah.

The bridge of sand bags that we needed to cross to get to the kasbah. When we were taking pictures we saw stray dogs crossing the bridge. They came up to greet us and one stayed with us for awhile, getting in some of the photos, but being very cute. 

Mountain Biking

The following day our adventure was mountain biking, well, it wasn't really mountain biking, more like rock/sand/rock biking. I didn't get any photos that day (because I was on my bike) but Daddy took videos with the go-pro and I put them together to make this video. 

After the bike ride we went to a Movie Studios where many different films were made, including Prince of Persia. It was very interesting to see the different sets and how the buildings in the movies are really just facades. It was also fun posing with the sets. :)

Click here to see the video big. 

Rock the Kasbah

Our next stop was at our hotel in the next city. It is the home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Ait Ben Haddou Kasbah.  

Here's a movie that I made with clips from both of the kasbahs.

To see it big click here.

 

We saw a film crew and cast filming a scene from a TV show. It was pretty cool to see how everything worked. 

Our hotel room. A relief after the night before. 

The Hike

The next day's activity was the hike back down to where we picked up the mules. We walked past little streams, big rocks, and trees on the side of hills. Here are a few photos from the hike:

The cousins

Ashlynn & Max

Ariana & Me

Mommy got a bit stuck while trying to cross this river...the guides decided to move a few rocks to make a path for her. After that, Daddy just walked straight through the water. 

What a beautiful view

5* Hotels - or not

When we got to the final destination, we took our luggage from the van that had brought it up and went into our hotel. I think we were a little surprised to see that our first hotel room was just four mattresses on the ground. We were also a little bit surprised that the whole hotel was FREEZING! We ate a very nice dinner cooked by our personal chef and then we played cards in our room (the four kids shared a room) before going to sleep in sleeping bags with as many blankets as we could find on top of us. 

Donkey Ride!

Our first activity was the donkey ride. Okay, actually it was a mule ride, but donkey ride sounds so much cooler... We got dropped off by the car and had to separate out the things that we needed for that night. Then we were lead to our mules who would carry us on an hour and a half walk to the town in the mountains where we would stay the night.

My mule and his owner. 

My mule was the only one who's oner was female. She looked like she could be my age. I tried speaking to her in French and then she must have thought I understood her because she started speaking rapidly in some language, I'm guessing it was French, and I couldn't understand her.  Oops. 

Telouet

Our second proper stop after lunch was at the Telouet Kasbah. In it's years of grandeur, it was where the house of government would of been. We got shown around the ruins and marveled at the incredible views and mosaics in the higher floors.  

More stork nests were on the top of the kasbah...

Ashlynn, Ariana & Max

And we're on the road..

The Agrios family arrived late that night after a bunch of plane trouble and then the next day we were off. We had to cross a mountian range to get to the desert where we'd be spending some time. As we drove to the summit on many windy roads....

...it began to snow! We stopped at the summit so that we could catch some snowflakes on our tongues. Turns out that Ariana had never seen it snow before. 

There were a few stray dogs living at the summit and it was very cute as their fur got covered in little snow flakes!

More Photos from the Souk

Here's a few more photos from the Souk

Scarves

Carpets

Shoes from above

Teapots

Bike parts

Souk-y Animals

The streets of Marrakech were filled with animals, majorly cats and kittens. They were so cute! In one of the squares of the Souk, there were men selling small turtles and chameleons. We talked to one man who told us that the turtles were bought for good luck, and the chameleons were bought to catch flies in the house. He let us hold one of the chameleons and we watched as it changed colour on our skin. Very cool.  

Lights in the Souk

We walked from our hotel into the center of town to go to the famous Souk - a absolutely massive market. As we got there, a man offered to give us a free tour around the Souk, and we accepted. He led us into many different places that we wouldn't have seen, the leather works, where they dyed the scarves, where they shaped the iron and an antique area, just to name a few. Here's a few photos from a few stores selling lamps. 

Marrakech

We had to get up real early to get on our flight to Marrakech, but luckily we made it there within the day, unlike Ariana and Max. Their planes kept getting canceled and I'm pretty sure they flew all over Europe before they finally made it to our hotel at around midnight. 

Our bedroom 

The hotel had two covered courtyards, lucky because it started pouring while we were there... 

Pretty bedcovers 

From the roof of the hotel we could see the old city's walls. All along the wall were storks nests. And we thought they were special to Holland...