So, for work I had to visit a few prisoners in Marrakesh and Beni Mellal. Rather than making two separate trips, I thought that it would make sense to combine them into one. The last time I went to Beni Mellal as I was looking for hotels I found Riad Cascades D’Ouzoud (http://www.ouzoud.com/en/). There is a hotel Ouzoud in Beni Mellal, but the riad mentioned above was a different place. The website looked really interesting, and I thought that it might be good to see the waterfalls on my next trip.
The riad was great, and I had the chance to meet a fun couple from London and Ireland. I would definitely recommend the place again, although I’m not sure that it is worth the 2.5 hour drive to get to the falls. I spent about 10.5 hours in the car over the course of a day and a half, which was quite a bit. The waterfalls are also very removed from the main highways, and there were lots of winding roads. That being said, it was really interesting seeing a totally different part of Morocco. The tall mountains and gorges reminded me somewhat of Yellowstone. It only took about 20 minutes to hike from the top to the bottom of the falls.
For family home evening I decided to make some cardboard armor and enact the story of David and Goliath. It was a hit with the kids, and for the next week Erik would get dressed up and have Joseph hit him with a foam ball (better than river stones) so he could fall over dead. Having more organized FHE has been a struggle to maintain, but I know that we are happier as a family when we hold it regularly.
Yesterday we decided to drive south along the coast for about 1.5 hours to the town of El Jadida. It too has a world heritage site, the Portugese Cistern (see below), which the kids enjoyed seeing. After touring an interesting old Portugese fort, checking out an art exhibit, and grabbing a bite to eat, we changed into our swimsuits and hit the beach.
This is our first time going swimming in Morocco. While the water is not nearly as warm as El Salvador, the temperature was okay after a few minutes of adjusting. Joseph didn’t stay in the ocean for very long – he started shivering pretty quickly. However, Erik enjoyed running in the waves and swimming with his dad for as long as possible. We of course made a sand castle, which a big wave promptly knocked over. We only stayed at the beach for about an hour and a half, but the kids were pretty tired after seeing the fort before.
Overall, this was a great day trip, and the architecture, history, and welcoming water would make this a great visit to do again.
The underground cistern. The bottom image is actually a reflection in the water.
Erik sitting on top of one of the fort’s high points
Ready, set, aim, fire!!
Erik running in the waves
Building sand castles
