{"id":56,"date":"2018-11-01T16:48:01","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T20:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/patriciamaurice\/?p=56"},"modified":"2018-11-01T17:15:28","modified_gmt":"2018-11-01T21:15:28","slug":"intrepid-travel-morocco-womens-expedition-i-meet-and-greet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/patriciamaurice\/2018\/11\/01\/intrepid-travel-morocco-womens-expedition-i-meet-and-greet\/","title":{"rendered":"Intrepid Travel Morocco Women’s Expedition I: Meet and Greet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Intrepid travel Morocco Women\u2019s Expedition October 20-28, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n

Part 1: Meet the Expedition Travelers, Guides, Cooks, and Staff<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Our Intrepid expedition started out in Marrakech, where we met the evening of October 20 at the lovely Marrakech Mogador Opera Hotel, near the train and bus stations.\u00a0 I liked this part of Marrakech very much. Although it wasn\u2019t as exotic as staying at a Riad in the Medina, the area was beautiful, quiet and very safe, with \u2018tourist police\u2019 at every corner.\u00a0 It felt a lot like Palo Alto CA, with a high end shopping mall, the state theater, and beautiful wide roads with lovely parks. The camels in the parks were a bit different, though\u2026<\/p>\n

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Looking up from the lobby of the Mogador Opera Hotel Marrakesh<\/em><\/p>\n

Altogether, there were 12 women on the expedition (myself included), in addition to our guides, cooks, and other staff members who took care of us along the way.<\/p>\n

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We met our fabulous Berber Moroccan tour guide, Hafida Hdoubane<\/em>, who was the first female mountain guide ever certified by the Kingdom of Morocco. Hafida is the single mother of a teenage son, and she owns a business as a certified guide for trekking, white-water rafting, skiing, mountain climbing, etc. in Morocco and France.\u00a0 The things I will remember most about Hafida are: her warm, welcoming personality, her infectious optimism, and her magnificent joie de vive<\/em>. Hafida came from a very difficult, under-privileged background and is one of five (or six?) daughters, all of whom are stunning and have accomplished quite unique and amazing things all around the world.<\/p>\n

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Hafida Hdoubane. Berber Mountain Guide extraordinaire.<\/em><\/p>\n

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My fellow female travelers.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

What sort of woman goes on an all-female trekking expedition in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco? \u00a0We ranged in age from early 20s to nearly 70 years old and came from vastly different corners of the world. \u00a0Some had spent a life-time hiking; for others, this was the first hiking adventure. Everyone, though, had an adventurous spirit.<\/p>\n

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Hafida and Linda getting to know\u00a0each other\u00a0in the lobby of the Mogador Opera Hotel<\/i><\/p>\n

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Linda and Joellen, friends from the Portland OR area<\/em><\/p>\n

Linda<\/em>\u00a0is retired from the high tech industry in Portland, Oregon.\u00a0 Tall and straight with long blonde hair, Linda has a wry sense of humor and is an excellent dancer. She is part of a walking group in the Portland area (taking part in the Portland and coast walk relay, for example).<\/p>\n

Linda\u2019s good friend Joellen<\/em>\u00a0is owner of the Horse Brass Pub, a traditional British pub that has been a Portland institution since 1976. \u00a0At 69, Joellen was the oldest member of our group. She exuded the quiet confidence of a successful business owner along with a refreshing humility. \u00a0She has been friends with Linda for decades.<\/p>\n

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Joellen in the lobby of the Mogador Opera Hotel in Marrakesh.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Joellen and Linda together on the last day of our trek.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Heather Eagleson<\/em>from Kingston Ontario is taking a \u2018gap year\u2019 (actually, 18 months or more) from her career as a nurse\/public health expert to explore the world sometimes solo and sometimes with her civil engineer husband and teenage son. She has been on all sorts of amazing adventures in far away places like India and Nepal, and has volunteered extensively.\u00a0 Heather was the definition of \u2018be prepared\u2019 with her well-stocked medical kit, which benefitted many of us directly. She has inspired me to always bring a small roll of duct tape on future hikes\/adventures.\u00a0 \u00a0You can fix almost anything with a roll of duct tape.<\/p>\n

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Heather playing a drum and wearing a Berber headdress during our night in Agouti Village<\/em><\/p>\n

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Minoti <\/em>is an innovative, highly organized, and well respected manager in the pharmaceuticals industry in New Jersey.\u00a0She comes from India originally and is married with a son and a daughter.\u00a0 When she returns from Morocco, she will be interviewed at her company for a film clip about her group\u2019s work on flu vaccines and successful marketing and advertisement at Wallmart, etc.\u00a0 Minoti would be a great motivational speaker for young women in science, engineering, and business.<\/p>\n

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Minoti <\/em>enjoying a vegetarian lunch during our trek<\/p>\n

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Minot\u00a0<\/i>in trekking mode.<\/p>\n

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Minoti on the final day\u2019s trek back to Bou Tharar<\/em><\/p>\n

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Lindsay<\/em>\u00a0is a nursing student in Toronto who managed to squeeze in a trip to Morocco before taking some of her exams and embarking on her final difficult last year of studies. Quiet and sweet, Lindsay is setting a great example of keeping one\u2019s sense of adventure even when bogged down with hard work and pending exams.\u00a0 How many students would be brave enough to spend study week traveling thousands of miles to go on a women\u2019s expedition trekking in the Atlas Mountains? Remarkable.<\/p>\n

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Lindsay looking very serene and picturesque between stream crossings. Lindsay decided to hike with a Berber style scarf, which is very practical in the dry, hot, windy environment.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Lindsay at tea in our gite in Bou Tharar.<\/em><\/p>\n

Katherine \u201cKat\u201d <\/em>is taking a break from work in Sydney Australia to travel the world, sometimes with her boyfriend and sometimes solo. Kat is the most beautiful young woman, both inside and out. I was privileged to share a double room with her at the start and end of our trek, in a gite in Bou Tharar.\u00a0 We stayed up late talking about life\u2014past, present, and future plans and dreams.\u00a0Everyone loved Kat, from fellow travelers to our guides to little children we met along the way.<\/p>\n

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Kat in the doorway of our room at the gite in Bou Tharar<\/em><\/p>\n

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Kat showing a young boy how to use her camera, in Agouti Village<\/em><\/p>\n

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Kat serving up some of the delicious homemade doughnuts freshly made by Zara (see below)<\/em><\/p>\n

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Kat and Lindsey looking very stylish along the trail.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0Rhonda <\/em>and Vicki, Canadian friends<\/em><\/p>\n

Rhonda and Vicki<\/em>are friends from Calgary and Penticton Canada (respectively).\u00a0 We talked a lot about tar sands oil and other Canadian hot issues.\u00a0 Rhonda showed me some great mini stuff sacks that can be used to compress as many as 8 shirts into a tiny space and she was one of our more exuberant dancers.\u00a0 Vicki was very kind and polite–quintessentially Canadian. As another (retired) nurse, she helped make us all feel very safe while trekking.<\/p>\n

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Rhonda getting seriously into dancing (with Linda)<\/em><\/p>\n

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Rhonda in the doorway of our Gite in Issoumar<\/em><\/p>\n

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Vicki and Rhonda on our stream wading\/crossing day<\/em><\/p>\n

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Vicki (center) listening intently to Fatidah\u2019s telling us her life story.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Rhonda learning to weave a Berber carpet<\/em><\/p>\n

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Ellen (CA) and Fran (MD), retired US State Dept (Co)workers<\/em><\/p>\n

It was amazing to have in our midst two retired women from the US State Department, who have traveled extensively and know multiple languages.\u00a0 Ellen <\/em>worked at least for a while for Francisca<\/em>. Ellen sadly lost her teenage son to a police shooting in Taiwan years ago and currently volunteers in support of organ donations around the world.\u00a0 Fran and her husband currently live in Bethesda, and (if I remember correctly) have two grown sons.<\/p>\n

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Ellen modeling one of our Intrepid bags (she was not into traveling light on the trail).<\/em><\/p>\n

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Ellen navigating a difficult stretch of trail, carefully watched over by her guardian angel<\/em><\/p>\n

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Fran enjoying the amazing scenery en route.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Fran packing up before our morning drive across the Atlas Mountains to the start of our trek.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Fran sampling tagine at dinner one night.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Alicia (London)<\/em><\/p>\n

Alicia<\/em> works as a producer for a news show for the BBC. But little did we know\u2014until she fessed up near the end of the trek\u2014that she\u2019s also an accomplished travel journalist who actually won an award for best young travel journalist, last year.\u00a0 Oh boy, maybe we would have behaved ourselves a little better if we\u2019d known there was a spy amongst us. \ud83d\ude09 She tells us she does plan to write about our expedition.<\/p>\n

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Alicia being brave on the final day\u2019s trek back to Bou Tharar.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Alicia (far left) with Kat, Ellen, and Linda in our Gite at Bou Tharar<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Patricia Maurice (yours truly) <\/em>is a professor emerita in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences at the University of Notre Dame. She variously amused or tortured her fellow travelers with mini lessons about the local geology and joined in on conversations about our loved ones back home\u2026 in my case, husband and \u2018children.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Patricia hamming it up one evening.. the black lace on the clothesline behind her is typically worn over caftans by Berber women, even in the field (and trekking).<\/em><\/p>\n

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Patricia lagging behind to look at the geology during our first day hiking through a stunning canyon<\/em><\/p>\n

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Patricia in the double room she shared with Kat in Bou Tharar<\/em><\/p>\n

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The Gang’s all here!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The 12 women trekkers with Beia and Fatidah taking a break on our final long day of hiking.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Our fabulous Berber cooks and guides from the village of Bou Tharar:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beia<\/em>— If you ever want to meet a truly intrepid woman, it\u2019s our local guide, Beia (dubbed \u2018Mama B\u2019 by Ellen). Beia is a single mother whose son Yousef guided the mules and helped oversee operations in the kitchen, etc.\u00a0She is the grandmother of 3 lovely little children and the sister of the chieftain of the village of Bou Tharar.\u00a0We could not have done the expedition without Beia as she guided us along goat paths and down flowing river beds, through tiny villages and corn fields and places where there was no apparent path at all.\u00a0 Beia made sure that each and every one of us was safe, holding a hand across a difficult traverse, and constantly racing from the front of the trail (to show Fatidah the best route) to the back (to catch any stragglers). She even killed a giant scorpion along the way.\u00a0 Beia is a very strong woman, both physically and mentally, and we all felt extremely privileged to get to know her. Beia\u2019s chin is marked by a traditional Berber tattoo and her hands are stained red by years of hard work and henna.\u00a0 She served as an ambassador of the Moroccan Berbers to 12 \u2018western\u2019 women.\u00a0 We all love you, \u2018mama B.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Beia posing atop a mule as we all took photos on the last day (she walked the whole way\u2014no riding).<\/em><\/p>\n

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Beia showing us how local women carry heavy loads of corn at harvest time. <\/em><\/p>\n

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Beia pondering the route<\/i><\/p>\n

Zara–<\/em>learned how to ride and drive a mule just so she could go on this trip with us.\u00a0 She made the most wonderful doughnuts, taught us how to cook couscous the slow, proper way, and opened up over the course of the expedition from shy, quiet, and reserved to gracing us with her beautiful, beaming smile.\u00a0 Zara is a beautiful person who works incredibly hard but is always good natured, sweet, and kind.<\/p>\n

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Zara teaching us how to cook couscous properly<\/em><\/p>\n

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Zara leading mule, with Basu and Mohammed following behind.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mohammed and Basu<\/em>\u00a0 –\u2018tagine and couscous\u2019<\/p>\n

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Mohammed and Basu are both cooks who, along with Zara, fed us the most wonderful homemade meals and took great care of us along the way.\u00a0 Mohammed was also particularly fond of singing, dancing, and drum playing.\u00a0Both were a little standoffish at first, but as our trek wore and they got to know us, they really seemed to enjoy the whole experience.\u00a0 Every time they passed by on their mules, they\u2019d call out \u2018tagine and couscous\u2019 and gave themselves those knicknames.\u00a0 Mohammed seemed to be a bit intrigued by my blue eyes; but, many Moroccans (especially the children) were interested in my eyes.\u00a0 Both men were extremely kind and respectful of everyone in our group.\u00a0Really nice people!<\/p>\n

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Mohammed riding a mule laden with our gear through the steep canyon we hiked through our first day of trekking<\/em><\/p>\n

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Basu always seemed to get a kick out of us taking his photo<\/em><\/p>\n

Yousef<\/em>\u2014Beia\u2019s only son Yousef , always looked so dashing in his turban and robes.\u00a0 He has 3 young children and a stunning young wife.\u00a0 Yousef seemed to take charge of most of the logistics not directly related to the hike.\u00a0 Beia is justly very proud of him and of her adorable grand-children.<\/p>\n

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Youssef, Beia’s son and the nephew of the village chieftain<\/em><\/p>\n

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More to come…..<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Our route: Drive from\/back to Marrakech and approximately 35 miles of trekking over 4 days in the Atlas Mountains.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Intrepid travel Morocco Women\u2019s Expedition October 20-28, 2018 Part 1: Meet the Expedition Travelers, Guides, Cooks, and Staff   Our Intrepid expedition started out in Marrakech, where we met the evening of October 20 at the lovely Marrakech Mogador Opera Hotel, near the train and bus stations.\u00a0 I liked this part of Marrakech very much. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2760,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/patriciamaurice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/patriciamaurice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/patriciamaurice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/patriciamaurice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2760"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/patriciamaurice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/patriciamaurice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/patriciamaurice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions\/109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/patriciamaurice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/patriciamaurice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/patriciamaurice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}