Atlast we made it to the Atlas!

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  Atlas Mountains, Fès-Boulemane, Morocco
Sunday, February 27, 2011

We woke bright and early ready for our day of sight seeing in the mountains. We left the hotel and were picked up by our driver from the day before. We drove a short distance out of Fez, passing olive trees along the way, until we arrived at a small village. The driver explained that many of the houses were carved into the stone and he would be taking us to see one. It was owned by a little old lady in her 80s who is kind enough to open her home up to tourists. She and her daughter offered us tea and Moroccan bread so we could try some of their homemade olive oil. The woman then explained that her family had been there for over a hundred years and they were the ones that had carved the cave out of the mountain side to make the home. After looking through some of her pictures she showed us how she can still carry an entire bucket filled with water on her head, no hands! We finished our tea, said goodbye and headed back to the car to head to our next stop. We reached another village and our driver pulled over saying we should take 30 minutes to walk around and see the market. We got out of the car, looked at our surroundings and thought, this is something we need to see? We walked around the market which was filled with food, old electronics and piles of used clothing. The village was less than charming and not at all what we had been expecting.

After we walked through the market we got back into the car and headed to our next destination. We arrived at a small lake. There were lots of Moroccans around enjoying the sun, boating on the lake and riding horses. We took some pictures and got back into the car. We had previously mentioned that we wanted to hike for a couple hours if possible. So our next stop was a parking lot on the side of a hill. After we arrived the driver told us this was a good place to "hike". He then left us on the side of a hill where there was no trail and no where to go but up. So we started walking and about 20 minutes later we were at the top of the hill. It wasn't exactly what we had in mind when we said we wanted to hike but the view was still nice. We could see snow capped mountains and a small area that they use for skiing. After spending some time there we decided to walk back down and see what else there was to see. We got back in the car and continued on our way. As we were driving away we saw a small snow covered slope next to the road. It was covered with Moroccans who were sledding on the small amount of snow that was there.

As we continued our driver took us past the small hill they ski on. There were only 2 trails and it didn't look like it was used very often. At the bottom were some men renting out skis that looked like they were straight from the '80s. We drove a little bit further until we had reached a small wooded area with picnic tables and MONKEYS!!!! Adam was very excited because he had never seen one before in the wild. He quickly made friends with them and was led to the liar where they tried to hold him prisoner... but that's a story for a different blog. After playing with the monkeys our driver insisted on showing us the tallest tree in Morocco. It was dead but still a sight to see. From there we ventured on to another small village where we ate a delicious lunch of grilled meat, french fries, and rice.

After lunch we started on the journey back to Fes. On the way we stopped to see a spring where the locals come to get water. It was literally a pipe coming out of the mountain that was constantly spewing out water. Our driver used some of the water to clean his windshield and we continued on our way. Once we were back in Fes we asked to see one last thing before going to our hotel. We wanted to see the Merinid Tombs. They're on the top of a small hill and you get a great view of all of Fes from there. We watched the sun start to set and then headed home for the day.

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