Today we felt as though we were filling in for Anthony Bourdain on the set of No Reservations: Morocco. We started pleasantly with a short tour of Marrakech, strolled through a couple old palaces and then swung by the airport to pick up our lost luggage from yesterday.

After the airport we headed straight toward the mountains to Couleurs Berbers, to meet with the owner Salah for lunch. Couleurs Berbers is a luxury camping or “glamping” retreat resort outside Marrakech. The 7 acre property frames the majestic Atlas Mountains on the horizon.

Salah had set up a private table for us and had his staff serve a delicious traditional Moroccan tangine with chicken, cinnamon and prunes. Olives are served before almost every meal here, along with a hearty piece of fresh bread to eat with the shared tangine. Next to Salah’s property was a big field of olive trees. The food was great, and the company was too.

The weather has been unseasonably beautiful since we have arrived here, pure sun everyday. Today was no exception, we enjoyed good conversation under the Moroccan sun. It is low season here so the property was not reserved and our time there was totally private. Salah shared with us his passion for the beautiful property he has built, his life as a Moroccan, his travels and ideals. Sarah and I have brought lots of people on trips and often go through the most popular spots that sometimes are over run with visitors and solicitation. When we travel on our own we are constantly looking to connect with the locals like this and experience what they see and do.

We ended our day following Salah back in to Marrakech for coffee. On the way we stopped at a riad (boutique Hotel/restaurant) that his family owns. The sun was starting to set and the property is situated right on a small reservoir lake, it was stunning-if we do come back to Morocco again this is where I would like to stay for a few nights.

When we returned back to Marrakech he showed us one of his favorite rooftop terraces above another riad, Sarah nicknamed him the Mayor because he seems to know everyone and was greeted with affection everywhere he took us – and no one seemed to mind that his little pregnant dog Lexi shadowed him everywhere he goes.

We ended our day with a feeling of immense fulfillment from connecting with new interesting people in new beautiful places.

Visit http://www.couleursberbers.com to see Salah’s property and everything there is to do there.

Here we are! 1st Travel trip of 2019! Morocco bound. This was a place chosen based on logistics. We never thought Teagan’s job would take us here on our regular group travel trips and we had some points to spend, so we found the most interesting place to spend them!!

Morocco, here we come!

N.Africa- a continent we have yet to travel and a culture completely foreign to us! It’s been fun learning about in anticipation of going!

A mix of French and Arabic cultures. Hard to conceptualize. But before I try to tell you what to expect, I’ll fill you in on the travel getting there.. so far, not very fun. We saved a buttload flying out of Toronto, so we drove up and left the car in the airport. $140 for the week or so.. Teagan definitely freaks out upon anything associated with time so you can imagine her anxiety when prepping me to be ready to leave the house. Multiply her anxiety by every leg…drive the 3-1/2 hours to Toronto, cross the border, park the car, and finagle security- In her head, everything will take an extra hour than it does so we sat in the Toronto airport for 3 days.. just kidding, it felt like days, but we were 3-1/2 hours early. Actually this is why I started this blog. All my customer service people went home for the workday so I couldn’t bug anyone at work anymore, so I started blogging👍😬

Just found out flight delayed 25mins due to late departure.. is this really the case or the long drawn out excuse before it cancels.. ugh..

tbd…🤞

So the flight carried on successfully after pigging out on a Smash Burger and a couple local IPA’s.;) We were fed and ready for AirFrance. This initial flight was great. It was a Boeing 747 and one of the big ones; 3 rows of seating 3-4-3. It had all I ever want on a flight.. WiFi, an On board movie selection, blankets, pillows, eye masks for shut eye;), alcohol at no charge!!, and meals( not really edible food but at least the option is there).

This flight left late and we only had an hour layover in Paris France.. made for quite a track and field event to get to our departing connection.

We made it at last boarding call!

This flight however was completely different flying in to Marrakech. It was still Air France and like a 2-1/2 hr flight. A much smaller plane, zero amenities and the flight attendants not NEARLY as cool or friendly. My seat was disgustingly dirty and It down right changed my initial opinion of Air France. Humphrey;(

Either way, we got to Morocco safe and sound but then stood waiting for our baggage.. and waited, and waited..we looked on our Air France app to see that it wasn’t on our flight. We then went to baggage claim and they confirmed our baggage would arrive the next day on the same flight. It only goes once a day. What a nightmare.

Without a long drawn-out story, we sucked it up for the night, the next day and then finally got it a few hours after they said we would back at the airport—oh yeah and Air France ended up making us travel back to airport to interrupt more of our vacation. HUMPHRY again!😖

Day 2- morning without luggage but first homemade Moroccan Meal!

Introduction to Sam.. Teagan met this man at a Work conference she attended. We had already booked this trip using some hotel points we had earned .. however, Sam has business Interests in getting more Americans to Morocco! He is Moroccan born and raised but has lived in DC for most his life. He currently has his own business mostly focused on group tours in the DC and in Morocco. Morocco destinations Management. He speaks fluent Arabic, French, and English. He offered to write us up an itinerary and meet us in Morocco to guide much of the trip. We were grateful for all his guidance in return that we visit a few places he has relations with. It’s was with our pleasure, we obliged.

The first stop Sam took us was a nice personal touch. He doesn’t normally bring groups or people to his families home, but his Niece Hannan offered to make us a nice Moroccan meal from her home. It was such a pleasant experience meeting her three boys between 8, 14, 17 years or so old. All very welcoming and pleasant. The Moroccan way is to greet with a cheek on each side;) The middle school boy had already learned English in school so he got the opportunity to translate and communicate with us better than the rest (besides Sam of course).

Some awesome things we noticed about her home is that there is always sooo much seating- sectional type seating is a must because family gatherings are priority and everyone can be comfortable, they refer to this as a salon.

Where we like the “Open concept” in the States, they have their living roomssss and dining area in that way but have an actual door to the kitchen..( not sure if this is an upper class thing or not because this family had a maid who prepared the meal).

Most Moroccan meals are served Family style. There are always greens or salad served first-it helps with digestion;) then came the Tangine. This plating allows the juices and spices to marinate in a way that you can’t pass up the bread. You MUST dip it and scape it along the tangines bottom to get the good stuff;) They gave us a side plate but also welcomed us to eat right from the main dish. Bon appetite!

We finally then went to see our Hotel at the RIU Takida Garden’s. Sam warned us it was a little far from the Jamaa el Fna Square. We have so much planned that this won’t turn out to be a problem.;)

We settled into the Hotel for the night- not happy with this Hotel but we can get in to that another time..

Today we felt as though we were filling in for Anthony Bourdain on the set of No Reservations: Morocco. We started pleasantly with a short tour of Marrakech, strolled through a couple old palaces and then swung by the airport to pick up our lost luggage from yesterday.

After the airport we headed straight toward the mountains to Couleurs Berbers, to meet with the owner Salah for lunch. Couleurs Berbers is a luxury camping or “glamping” retreat resort outside Marrakech. The 7 acre property frames the majestic Atlas Mountains on the horizon. Salah had set up a private table for us and had his staff serve a delicious traditional Moroccan tangine with chicken, cinnamon and prunes. Olives are served before almost every meal here, along with a hearty piece of fresh bread to eat with the shared tangine. Next to Salah’s property was a big field of olive trees. The food was great, and the company was too.

The weather has been unseasonably beautiful since we have arrived here, pure sun everyday. Today was no exception, we enjoyed good conversation under the Moroccan sun. It is low season here so the property was not reserved and our time there was totally private. Salah shared with us his passion for the beautiful property he has built, his life as a Moroccan, his travels and ideals. Sarah and I have brought lots of people on trips and often go through the most popular spots that sometimes are over run with visitors and solicitation. When we travel on our own we are constantly looking to connect with the locals like this and experience what they see and do.

We ended our day following Salah back in to Marrakech for coffee. On the way we stopped at a riad (boutique Hotel/restaurant) that his family owns. The sun was starting to set and the property is situated right on a small reservoir lake, it was stunning-if we do come back to Morocco again this is where I would like to stay for a few nights.

When we returned back to Marrakech he showed us one of his favorite rooftop terraces above another riad, Sarah nicknamed him the Mayor because he seems to know everyone and was greeted with affection everywhere he took us – and no one seemed to mind that his little pregnant dog Lexi shadowed him everywhere he goes.

We ended our day with a feeling of immense fulfillment from connecting with new interesting people in new beautiful places.

Visit http://www.couleursberbers.com to see Salah’s property and everything there is to do there.

Hello Fellas,

It’s been a bit of time since we have been motivated to blog. Not for lack of adventures, but for lack of time and effort in keeping up with all we get to do.

We are on a cruise with a chartered group that started in Miami and traveled to Belize and then Cozumel. Teagan and I were on this same cruise last year and although the Belize portion sounds great, the port isn’t quite established and the surrounding area lacks adventures. Last year we opted to take a Cave Tube adventure, and although entertaining, it wasn’t the adventure we were looking for. So this year it became a goal to see what else Belize has to offer. The commercials about how exotic and surreal Belize is must surely have some sort of ground. Teagan went to the internet and found a YouTube video of a cruiser who took a domestic puddle jumper plane across to another island in under 15 mins. The cost wasn’t too bad either. We were able to negotiate a bit at the cruise port and secure a flight out on the hour with a return flight just in time (with a bit of spare time just in case) to return to the cruise port upon departure! The domestic flight was a small 13 seater that allowed us to see great views of the area and explore San Pedro Island. (Yep like the Madonna song San Pedro).

So I’m running out of time to complete this blog right now.. until later

Teagan here- we got to San Pedro after an amazing little plane ride. Walked off the plane and headed down to walk the beach. The beach of San Pedro is lined with little beach bars, coffee shops and restaurants. We picked up a cold brew and stroller around, appreciating this adorable little island and all it had to offer. We chatted with our local barista and inquired about the best place the locals like to eat. She let us know about El Fagon a authentic Belizean restaurant a few blocks away. After our beach walk we casually made our way there. We sat at a table for 2 in the tiny restaurant with a sand floor and a large fire pit hearth with fresh stews roasting. I choose the seafood creole on the servers recommendation, SD opted for the special fried chicken. Haha. Holy shit-both were unreal and unBelizably affordable. We were feeling full and happy and decided to continue our beach stroll. As we made our way from the restaurant we heard the local school bell ring and tons of adorably happy little Belizean children in school uniforms ran from the docks, streets and beach to end their school day. It was the cutest thing and brought a smile to our face as they ran by us waving and giving peace signs.

After another beach stroll we headed back to the tiny San Pedro airport to catch our flight back to the mainland. Our flight back was just as beautiful as the way there. We boarded our ship feeling as though we had cracked the Belizean cruise code: Do not stay on the mainland while cruising to Belize….go catch a quick flight to San Pedro via Mayan Island Air or similar. It costs around $75 and is better than any excursion you can book through the cruise line. We can’t wait to go back.

Photos coming soon…