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And tomorrow our long flight home from Heathrow. Yipeee!

The Morrocan hammam is a multi step steam, bath, body scrub and massage. The steam room looks like a large grand movie set with enormous marble pillars, ornate high ceiling and walls. I had the room to my self. After the sitting in eucalyptus steam the attendant rubs black Morrocan exfoliating, rejuvenating, skin softening soap all over, then you lie on a hot marble slab for a while before the attendant then uses a coarse glove to give the most vigorous rub I've ever had and voila! you are left with pink raw new baby skin! Showers come after each step to wash away the dead black skin. The black soap is specific for this treatment. Later you get escorted into a massage room for a deep overall body massage. I felt like a limp noodle afterwards and could do very lttle for the rest of the day. I booked Allan for this experiience. The first picture shows women in a hill town working at a co-operative making Argan oil which they grind by hand from a locally grown nut. Argan oil is use...

Today we went up into the Atlas Mountains and then down into a pre-dessert like area where I said I would NOT go for a camel ride. My choice was being left inside the camel pen alone with other camels or climbing on. Camels are descended from a species 7 million years old. What awkward, strange, prehistoric creatures, and apparantly bad tempered too. The guides dressed us up as Berber (the local indigenous people of Morroco) nomads, then walked us all around on top of the camels for too long. This is the second time they have dressed us in their outfits. I still don't know why. What a truly beautiful country is Morroco.

I'm not sure if the man in the first picture actually sold any on these dentures or whether he was just putting on a show for tourists, but the dentures were real as were the pile of rotten bleached teeth. The snakes and snakes charmers were for real and I can't figure out why the snakes just stay peacefully coiled on the cement in the market square. This was the start of our venture into the narrow streets of the souk or marketplace. Thankgoodness we had a local guide as we would have been lost in the maze.

The Jardin Majorelle, other wise known as the Blue house is a restored property, garden, Berber musuem and house that has the most specatcular cacti garden I have ever seen. Yves Saint Laurent and his partner were the owners and designers. Here are a few cacti pictures from the Blue House. The Berber museum picture that I was reprimanded for taking

A lot of surprises spring up because people here don't mean what they say and don't say what they mean. Prices are never displayed, destinations change because the taxi drivers want to take you to their own special places whether you ask them or not. Vigilance and awareness are important. I almost lost my back pack with eveything I need the most. Today our cab driver, on his own volition, took us to a authentic tannery and the adjoining shop where we were expected to buy. We didn't, only because they did not ahve my slipper size. He also took us to an authentic Moroccan restaurant where the food was delicious. Afer we were seated, the waitress took the women diners individually by the hand, led us to the front of the restraunt and asked us to choose a tradional robe to wear just while we ate - the first picture. (Not quite sure why) Doors and doorways are grand! The outdoor leather production.

You can fly any where from London in a short time. So now we are in Marrakesh Morrocco after a short flight-first time on the African continent. We have just started our trip but here are a few of our hotel pictures. Orange trees grow in our inner courtyard and every unassuming old door opens into a surprise. Sounds, Smells, Sights, Tastes are exotic and tommorrow I will be itching to touch all kinds of fabrics in the marketplace. Our local Mosque visible from our hotel rooftop garden.

In the 16th century the Nuns on this island escaped maruading pirates and fled to the interior, where they lived subsiding on the land for 2 centuries. They grew bananas, sweet potatoes, chestnuts, had a few goats and I guess prayed a lot. All garden lots are terraced on the mountain sides. Nuns Valley is Grandcanyon-like deep rugged jungle terrain with winding roads that gave me car sickness as we drove there. Here are some landscapes from the trip today. Lunch in a picturesque fishing village, where Winston Churchill came to paint.

Today we walked 5 Km for two hours traversing the hillside on narrow footpaths next to a Levada. Levadas were first built in the 15 century. Madeira has 200 levadas and 1900 miles of these irrigation channels that supply water to the terrassed fields everywhere on the side of the mountains. Farming is hard work on this mountainous island. Our guide, Selina pointed out the flora and fauna on this jungle like walk. There are few bugs and the most dangerous animal is a goat. The sea is visible everywhere. At the end we stopped in a small mountain village and had a slice of thier homemade ginger spice cake and a taste of thier local aperitif called Poncha. You can see the levada behind Allan in the first picture. Most of us used the walking sticks that were available so as not to fall off the edge of the path. This is a Belladonna flower that just grows next to the path on the moutain side. Belladonna was used as a poison in medieval times. Macbeth used Belladonn to poison the dr...

Today we took a ski-like gondola to the top of a mountain in Funchel the capital city, to a most beautiful botanical garden with 700 species from other continents. The first species that met us right off the gondola was a one thousand year old gnarly olive tree. The entire island of Madeira is like a garden but the actual botanical garden is very lush, tropical and jungle like. Other wise the island seems like a tropical Switzerland, well run beautiful and removed from the cares of the world. Perfect perfect dry temperature year round at around 22-24C degrees. And this falcon and trainer bumped into me getting off the elevator as I was on my way down to outdoor pool. Our hotel is high on cliff top so there is an outdoor elevator shaft along the cliff side.

This week we are in Madeira Poratugal which is approximately 550 miles off the coast of Morrocco Africa. The flight from London was an easy 3 and half hours. The landing seemed like the plane would hit in the ocean as we coud not see land. Afterwards, Allan told me this is the most dangerous airport in the world! Because of high winds we were told. We are back to summer in a beautful flowering oasis. The first odd sight from our hotel balcony was this old fashioned pirate ship which probably is a tourist attraction. Yes, the boat is a replica of a Caravel from the 1800's. Our salt water pools. Plus people are swimming in the ocean.