WEEKEND IN ALGARVE

A quick trip down to see the sea, eat fresh, fresh fish and enjoy the special Algarve light.

Visited Alvor and Lagos. Amazed at the teeming night life in Alvor, I really do remember it when it was a simple fishing village and it still reverts to that in the early morning with fishing boats returning. I love the sculpture by Joao Cutileiro, homage to the fisherman.
Lovely time with Lucy and Ivani.

ARA MALIKIAN AT MONTANCHEZ CASTLE- A FRAGMENT OF VIVALDI'S L'ESTATE, QUATTRO STAGIONI

Ara Malikian at Montanchez Castle last night........superb dynamic performance by the whole band but particularly Ara, all so beautifully rehearsed to look and sound spontaneous, full of surprises, a joy! So lucky to have this world class performance at our local village, part of the annual summer fiestas in August and September.
http://www.aramalikian.com/   

AUGUST MORNING RIDE

These summer mornings are exquisite for riding or walking in the sierra, has to be early before the heat of the summer sun, but what a pleasure to be off in the cool shadow of the mountain.

GOLDEN SUMMER DAY AT FINCA AL-MANZIL

MOROCCO # 2 - Soukarama

Only one day to dive into the souks before we headed South.........


.,


Well o.k. there would be another day on our way back but still, no time to waste.

The hotel provided a perfectly adequate breakfast on the roof terrace but we skipped it to follow the rat-run lanes out of the medina to our affectionately remembered little breakfast place just off the Djemma..........I had been hoping and hoping that it was still there, still unchanged......and it was! Even the same guys, a little older but still churning out delicious milkshakes from fresh, fresh fruit and my favourite almonds, perfect pan chocolat, the most crunchy, nutty freshly baked rye bread, yogurts all lined up in their glasses, chilled freshly squeezed orange juice, pancakes with honey, an array of jewel like little cakes and of course the creamy cafe au lait ........oh bliss. Any combination of this superb breakfast food would probably be about 35 dh....€3.20 for two.
We followed our tradition of ordering a few extra pan chocolat and offering them to any passing bag lady on her morning begging route. The bag ladies of Marrakech are extra baggy and it's good to see that they are still perfectly acceptable in this café. They sit down quite contentedly with a café creme and their newly acquired pan chocolat, maybe share it with an ancient djellabad old guy with the most incredible pebble lenses glasses or a scrawny kid. There they sit in a tatty synthetic silk djellaba over several layers including woolly leggings down to ankles, hennaed toenails sticking out of decrepit plastic sandals. A new trend this time seems to be the baseball cap perched jauntily on top of the djellaba hood, very fetching.

O.K. , it's about 10 a.m. now, a bit early for the souks but never mind, time to find our bearings.




We enter the souks through the part where the olive stalls are, I love this bit, there are several stalls all selling identical olives. They are arranged in mounds in front of the stall, every colour and variety ; firm shiny pale green, through to the more mature murkier green, palest lilac into purple and finally the black salt dried wrinkly ones. Some are marinaded in a spicy mixture, others in a milder herby mix. Behind the mounds are the shelves and shelves of bottled olives looking fabulous in their shiny glass jars, not just poured in but arranged in layers with slivers of garlic, herbs or spices suspended in olive oil. Here too are the jars of preserved lemons looking sharp and fresh all ready for giving an extra special taste to the tagine. Harissa paste comes in different levels of heat, all a gorgeous rich chilli red. Amongst all this splendour is the stall owner wedged in amongst his wares offering the ladle to try a taste of the different varieties. Just around the corner from the olive stalls are the basket sellers where woven straw mats embroidered with red wool are also available, very striking and last forever.
We wandered around aimlessly for about an hour, Manfred's souk threshold. He went off to the Cafe des Epices (75 Rahba Lakdima Souk des Epices Marrakech ) in the spice souk, a good place to rendezvous.

I continued but was somewhat disappointed, no new exciting inventions since our last visit 4 years ago...........this was unusual, every time we have visited Marrakech there have been new innovations........I suspect commissioned by designers and then copied relentlessly, could it be that the designers have moved on to larger profit margins, China maybe?

Still very beautiful tribal rugs and the babuche are always tempting, I only bought 3 pairs this time for around 100dh, €10 each, fantastic value as they are made of beautiful soft leather including the sole and all hand stitched in the most gorgeous colour combinations.

It seemed that more stalls were selling identical merchandise and all on the tacky side, something to do with pleasing the masses of new tourists in the easiest and cheapest manner? I found my way back to the spice souk to meet Manfred and a very appreciated mint tea, he was looking quite smug clutching a little parcel which he pushed over to me, my birthday present, oh yes, forgot to say it was my birthday and this is what was in the parcel....

A STUPENDOUS BERBER BIRTHDAY NECKLACE


An extraordinary creation with nil intrinsic value but enormous ethnic value. This necklace is of recent manufacture but made up of base metal rings, the junk jewelery of the Berber souks for the last few decades and, more fascinating, dozens of bakerlite rings which were fashioned out of imported combs in the 20s and 30s. The Berbers were always consummate re-cyclers from need but see what a little imagination can produce......... the colour variations in the rings is wonderful, from deep ruby through terracotta, amber and an indefinite lilacy beige, in combination with the "silver" it's sensational..........I love my necklace, thank you Manfred!

For more information on ethnic Berber jewelery in Morocco see the beautiful book by Angela Fisher,

AFRICA ADORNED Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (September 30, 1984)
ISBN-10: 0810918234
ISBN-13: 978-0810918238

What a happy ending to my morning in the souks, after the mint tea at Cafe des Epices it was
time for a snack at our old favourite Cafè Toubkal in the Djemma and then back to our nice cool room at the Tresor for a siesta, we are following our Spanish routine which works perfectly here, pretend one is only going to rest and read and then gently drop off into a blissful snooze until the worst heat is over and one can look forward to what ever the evening may bring.........

MOROCCO # 1 - Hello and Goodbye Marrakech

Two days in Marrakech.... quite negative feelings, it felt as if this was going to be the long goodbye to Morocco. Of course, we knew very well that Marrakech was not representative of Morocco......... even though it was known as 'Morocco' in the 19th century.

As you will see later this was an over emotional first reaction, yes things have changed but maybe at last for the benefit of the poorer Moroccans.........poorer? There were ever just 2 classes of people in Morocco the privileged wealthy with plenty of influence and power and the ones that were there for their use and convenience.........admittedly this appeared to be a mutually beneficial arrangement forging incredibly strong ties of fealty and total confidence that Allah would provide in the guise of the almost feudal system. The French colonial rule devastated this system and encouraged the bureucratic systems of Europe...giving some opportunity to a new middle class Moroccan who certainly wasn't interested in improving the lot of his lowly brothers.

Now with the young king maybe the system allowed more opportunities for sons and daughters of previously humble families to improve their professional and financial lot. Moroccans never lacked in imagination, zeal and determination, who knows what might come of the new order even if it does include a concentration on more tourism, who are we to selfishly crave for the picturesque, impoverished Morocco of the past?

The reason for our initial disillusionment started was our first experience of flying straight into Marrakech. Usually we drove to Tarifa, travelled by sea to Tanger and then on by car.

Arriving at the airport together with hundreds of other tourists made it feel like a mass invasion. Just one short period in one day, we imagined this multiplied by 1000s of people brought in by the cheap flights, for most of them Marrakech was the destination, they would not travel further. 
On the taxi ride from the airport we could see that the city had expanded in all directions since our last visit 4 years ago, the traffic was in its usual chaos at around 7.30 p.m. Glad to see djellabas still in strong evidence on the streets, billowing on bikes and scooters.

Some things that never change, photos above, Djemma el Fna , the pink walls of the city and the Koutoubia mosque.......no building in the area can ever be made taller than the height of a palm tree so the Koutoubia at 77 metres has been dominating the medina since 1199.

In the medina we were surprised to see so much improvement in even the grottiest of the small hotels, over the years we have probably stayed in all of them, gradually being able to afford better ones with better rooms.

This time we stayed in a new one, open just 2 months Hotel du Tresor http://www.hoteldutresor.com/

Owned and decorated by an Italian, it's in praise of all things post-modern ironic with some amusing visual puns, some fine copies of 20th century art, re-cycled objects from the gutted and re-decorated La Mamounia, all crammed into a small riad which now has a very bijou pool in the courtyard with a magnificent orange tree growing up to the roof terrace level where there are fine views of the Koutoubia and the roof tops of the medina. Our room was tiny but had an en-suite bathroom and was quiet and cool. I guess we are past the times when we stayed in the grottiest medina dives with one squatter loo on each floor, the constant hubbub of comings and goings, all night chatter on the rooftop with the kif smoke drifting up to the starry sky. At the Tresor it was quite a novelty to be able to enjoy a bottle of wine, relaxing under the orange tree or up on the roof after a hard day in the souks........see souk blog.

Current booze situation.......... drinking wine in Marrakech, except in exclusive restaurants or expensive hotels, meant a trek into art-deco Gueliz , the 20th century extention of the old city, to one of the small grocery stores which have stocks of Moroccan wine and hard liquor, it all felt a bit illicit under the seemingly disapproving observation of the owners who must be making a fortune from the alcohol cravings of infidels.
Still no alcohol served in any of the ordinary restaurants and cafés near the Djemaa el Fna except the un-salubrious "Grand" Hotel Tazi. Also the Hotel Foucault which is very musty and dusty, much better to sip a mint tea .....but occasionally a glass of wine is essential and Moroccan red wine from around Meknes can be very good.

After 2 days in the madness of Marrakech we hopped into our hire car, another novelty, and headed South for our appointment in Agdz, Draa Valley.

SUNSET SKULL

SOL Y SOMBRE

The beginning of June and it's getting hot; the landscape has changed, from the glories of spring wild flowers and myriad shades of green to a golden tawny background with evergreen oaks and olive trees creating the essence of an Extremadura summer, the nightingales still sing but they are accompanied by cicadas and the deep hoot of eagle owls.
We crave shade and have been busy erecting the various shade sails and parasols around the finca, especially by the pool.
So looking forward to our summer mode; cool mornings for walking and some chores, relaxed lunch on the terrace and then a delicious siesta in a cool shadowed room behind thick shutters, later on a swim and reading, possibly artistic projects if any (none at moment but something is bubbling gently and will hopefully result in something fit to be seen)
Evenings are long and sultry, late light tapas and cool wine, candles and star gazing and of course a good chat. If the moon is between waxing gibbous and full it's light enough to walk around, a magical experience to take a short walk in bright moonlight, everything transformed.
 In between all these precious lazy days there are busy busy days of organizing the houses, welcoming new clients and saying hello again to all the people who have stayed before. Summer!