Ouarzazate Day Trip and Marrakesh - Day 4

Monday, April 29

Monday morning, Rashid came to pick us up to go out to Ait Benadou and Ouarzazate, a town located southeast of Marrakesh.  The drive would take us through the High Atlas Mountains, where I was expecting some spectacular scenery.  It did not disappoint.

The drive through the Atlas Mountains was...interesting.  We now believe it is entirely possible that Rashid could have been a formula one race car drive in another lifetime.  Or a stuntman.  The road through the High Atlas was a very narrow two lane road.  It was just wide enough for two sedans to pass each other.  A truck and a sedan could also make it.  Two trucks would be highly questionable.  Add to the narrowness of the road, the fact that the road takes some seriously tortuous paths (as you can see in the 4th photo above), and you have a very difficult road to drive on.  Rashid assured us that he had done this drive many many times.  We crossed our fingers and placed our lives in his hands as he raced through the pass at speeds close to 120 kph and passing very large trucks around blind curves.  We assumed (hoped) that he had some way of knowing that there wasn't another car or truck coming the other way around these curves.  As luck would have it (and we can only assume it was luck), we survived.

As we descended the other side of the mountains, the scenery drastically changed from the greenish mountains to brown desert.  After a couple of hours of seemingly endless desert, we climbed a small hill.  At the top of the hill, Rashid pulled over and we collectively gasped at the breathtaking sight of Ait Benadou appearing very much out of the blue:

If this looks familiar to you, it should.  There have been dozens of Hollywood movies and TV shows that have been filmed here over the years.  It's such a popular location for a shoot that there are now two major film studios located in nearby Ouarzazate.  Some of the movies/shows you might have heard of or seen: The Living Daylights, The Mummy, Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, The Bible, and my favorite - Game of Thrones.

This is the young artist I bought several saffron paintings from.  He uses saffron oil to make the paintings and then  slowly runs the painting over a flame that darkens the oil.  

Climbing to the top of Ait Benadou

The view from the top

After Ait Benadou, we went on to Ouarzazate.  The big attraction there was supposed to be the Kasbah - large castle like building.  But quite frankly, after Ait Benadou, it was a bit of a letdown.  Ouarzazate is a still nice place to stop just to get a nice lunch though.  I'm sure there might have been a lot more to see, but since we were on a day trip, we really didn't have much time to spare.  So we walked through the Kasbah, and prepared ourselves for another harrowing ride back through the Atlas mountains.  We were so tired by then though, we pretty much slept for most of the ride back.

Tuesday, April 30

Our last day in Marrakesh was probably the most relaxing.  We visited the Jardin Majorelle (Majorelle Gardens) - a 12 acre botanical garden owned by Yves Saint Laurent since 1980.  Yves Saint Laurent loved Marrakesh and adopted it his home.  Reportedly, the inspiration of many of his fashions and fragrances came from Morocco.  When he passed in 2008, his ashes were scattered throughout the garden.  My shots don't do justice to the place, but it's definitely worth a visit, if you just need a breather from the hustle & bustle.  

Dante claims he didn't know what this shirt meant when he bought it.  He just liked the look of it.  *wink wink*

Across the street from the gardens is a row of stores that have items (crafts, jewelry, and clothing) of higher quality than your average Moroccan stores.  In particular 33 Rue Majorelle had some really nice items that you're unlikely to find elsewhere.  

A final note about shopping in Marrakesh:  it is worth your time to first visit the Ensemble Artisanal before you buy anything.  Please note, that it is NOT where TripAdvisor says it is.  It is a collection of shops where the prices are generally fixed (but not really - everything can be negotiated in Morocco), the craftsmanship is of high quality, and you are getting genuine items (the silver, the gemstones, and the fossils are real).  They won't be the lowest prices but you at least get an idea of what prices *should* be, and what good quality looks like, before you go running off to the souks where you have at least a 50% chance of being scammed if you don't know what to expect.