DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
User-uploaded Content
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
User-uploaded Content

The beautiful waterfalls from Zaouia D'Ifrane

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

After months of living in Morocco, there are still so many places I have yet to see and discover.

 

I visited a part of Morocco I had never been to before this weekend -- Ain Leuh, which is a small village in the Middle Atlas Mountains. I had expected Ain Leuh to be small, and somewhat poor -- and it is certainly poorer than Rabat or the other major cities I've seen such as Tangier. 

 

However, there is a calm and beautiful spirit to the town -- with fresh springs and water running down from the mountains, and dusty stairs up marking the town, dozens of steps up to the women's cloth cooperative and then down again to the town center with small stores selling dates and traditional sweets of chabakiya right on the edge of the steps -- no real "street" in between. 

 

The town has a large square plaza with a rotunda café in the center. After evening prayers, the square is flooded with men drinking tea, and kids running around playing ball. 

 

It was peaceful, if not wealthy -- Morocco is a developing country, but it is not an impoverished country, so even the poorer regions are able to have a relatively comfortable life in many ways. Families have TVs and washing machines, and yet at the same time, they can't buy a car or pay for private medical clinics if they get sick. They may or may not have real financial security. Many families may be relatively comfortable in Morocco, but may find no jobs and seek to emigrate abroad to make their fortunes and buy the things that they want for their futures. 

 

Our adventures in Ain Leuh were wonderful -- we travelled to an even smaller village knonw as Zaouia D'Ifrane, which has a gorgeous waterafall and were invited to have Futur (the break-fast meal during Ramadan) at a family's house in Zaouiya. 

 

We saw waterfalls, swam in fresh water pools, ate mulberries straight off the tree and I even saw a monkey! Apparently there are still monkeys that live in the Middle Atlas -- I had heard of this, but never seen one!

 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.