Road Trip Through The Middle Atlas Mountains

Friday, April 26

Our original plans had us taking an overnight train from Fes to Marrakesh on Friday night.  We figured this way we could have one more day in Fes to explore and then get sleep and have the whole next day for Marrakesh.  However, at this point, we had had enough of Fes.  It was a nice enough visit, but our encounter with Mohammed had left us feeling a bit bitter about the place, and we wanted to move on to Marrakesh.

On our drive out to Volubilis the day before, we had discussed with Ibrahim the possibility of him driving us to Marrakesh.  Ibrahim had told us that the drive was very scenic and would take us through some interesting Berber villages in the Middle Atlas Mountain Range.   After consulting Google maps, we figured the driving time would be about 7-8 hours if we didn't make any stops.  Ibrahim quoted us a price of 2000 dirhams (about $230) and included stops along the way for siteseeing, shopping, and eating.  That sounded pretty reasonable to us, so we accepted.

After our encounter with Mohammed, it became very difficult to trust anyone and for a brief period, we even wondered whether we should trust Ibrahim.  But over the course of the day on our trip to Volubilis, it became pretty clear that Ibrahim was the complete opposite of Mohammed.  In addition to offering reasonable prices for all his driving, we were finding out that he had a very zen-like view on everything.

As we recounted our first few days, Mohammed's con, and how it was hard to tell what the appropriate prices were for everything, Ibrahim had an interesting perspective to offer.  He suggested that perhaps we were worrying too much about whether we could find cheaper prices elsewhere.  That we could probably always find cheaper prices, but that maybe we should just try to figure out what something was worth to us and then make that as an offer.  That way, if it's accepted, the merchant is satisfied because he accepted, and we would be satisfied because we offered a price we felt was worth it.  He then mused that while it was too bad we got conned, we learned something from it and it was a good story.  All excellent points, and it helped restore our own perspective on the first few days.  And if you think about it, it really applies to rest of life doesn't it?  The only person who can determine value, is you.

If you are planning a trip to Morocco and will be going through Fes, I HIGHLY recommend the services of Ibrahim Hammani.  His phone number is 061-832-0104 and his e-mail is tax-driver@hotmail.fr.  His prices are reasonable and his advice is priceless.

Our trip south started in a Berber village where Ibrahim took us to visit and have breakfast with an elderly couple who lived in a small cave...

We made a couple of stops for scenic viewpoints...

Azrou - Berber capital

There's an interesting little town in the Middle Atlas Mountains, called Ifrane, which is nicknamed Little Switzerland.  During the wintertime, it's a ski resort.  The French established the town in 1929 and built it up with Alpine style houses.  What's remarkable is that there is almost no evidence that you're in Morocco when you're in this town.  We only stopped for a bathroom break so here's a borrowed photo courtesy of the internet:

During the drive, Ibrahim also stopped to pray at a mosque in a small village.  We didn't mind waiting since the scenery was so nice outside...

After 12 hours (we stopped a lot), we finally arrived in Marrakesh, where we sadly had to say good-bye to Ibrahim.  Ibrahim set us up with a friend of us, Rashid who would later drive us to Ouazazarte and Essaouira.

Our zen Muslim driver, Ibrahim