Someone had told me about a nice place to stay while up in the mountains, a villa-type place called Ain Sahla. They said it was on the edge of the National Park and that we would enjoy it there. A friend helped me make the reservations because the woman who answers the phone doesn't speak English.
Now there is something that one learns almost immediately about Moroccans, and that is they don't give very good directions. They always seem to assume you know where you are going to begin with! then they just throw in the little details like "Next to the mosque" or "behind the fruit stand". Never mind that there are mosques and fruit stands on every corner in the city!! It was kind of that way when we got directions to Ain Sahla - they assumed we understood their starting point of reference! Of course, we had several strikes against us to begin with since they sent us the directions in FRENCH!! We only hoped that our little translator program on the computer understood it right! And the more we tried to follow the very scant, possibly poorly translated directions, the more concerned I got. We got off the main highway at a point where we drove through what basically looked like a dirt parking lot that had a small road leading back under the highway and out the other side. Once we passed under the highway, though, at least the road was paved again. And this road was taking us up, which was the right direction. As we went up, though, the road continually narrowed and began to wind around. Soon we lost any other cars that had been with us, and villages or signs of civilization decreased with each passing kilometer. And there were way more kilometers passing than I had thought there should be. The scenery, though, was really great! We drove through a kind of gorge in the mountains.
About this time I thought we were heading the wrong way and should turn back. I had little hope that our nice hotel was out here in the middle of no where, when around that one last curve we saw a little village and there, at maybe the only intersection in the whole place was a hand painted sign that said turn here for Ain Sahla in 6 kilometers. OK. So we WERE on the right road. But could it still be the right road when it became just a small dirt road?
Or how about once it became more of a dirt track through the olive groves?
All of a sudden the road came to an end at a big wall and behind the doors stood paradise! It was sooo peaceful and quiet! All we could hear was the soft-playing classical style music and birds in the trees. Oh, and the occasional rooster or the donkey braying!
There was a crystal clear tile swimming pool, and our room had its own little courtyard where we could sit out under a walnut tree! Omar, the owner, who spoke fairly good English, took very good care of us. They fixed us wonderful food, mostly grown right there on the property, including their own olive grove! They had their own olive press as well!
It was a beautiful place to spend a few days, and by the time we left, I truly felt the "baraka" or blessings of the place!
But we also experienced the jinns - mischievous and sometimes evil spirits that can live in a house. Moroccan culture contains a good deal of such superstitions. In fact, many Moroccans will not drain their pasta directly into the sink because jinns often live in the plumbing, and they don't want to anger the jinns by scalding them with boiling water! The jinns at Ain Sahla were actually not nearly so troublesome. In fact, they were a bit helpful even if they didn't mean to be! To begin, I must tell you that after guests return to their rooms in the evenings, all the lights in the courtyard and outside area are turned off, so it becomes extremely dark! When we were ready for bed and turned our lights off, I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face (Why would I want to, right?). But then, just as I started to doze off, a light flashed. I couldn't figure out what it was, but I waited - and waited. And I woke Don up! After a few minutes the light flashed again! Low and behold, it was the light on the wall above our bed! The jinns must have been playing a trick on us! But we fixed them - Don just took the light bulb out! Later that night, though, they thought they could get ahead of us again. I woke in the middle of the night and there was the faintest glow coming from the bathroom, a room that had absolutely no access to the outside. It had been completely dark in there when we went to bed. I wasn't "scared" really, but I figured the faint light made it easier for me to see around me and chose to ignore it and just stay out of the bathroom til morning! The next night the same thing happened. This time, though, I wasn't going to let those mischievous jinns get the better of me, so I went in there to see what is was that was causing the glow. One end of the short fluorescent tube had begun to glow during the night. Of course Don rationalized it by spouting some theory about the wiring being hooked up backward so that some electricity flowed into it when it was turned off and eventually would build up enough to glow a bit. But I knew better - the jinns were having a bit of fun with me!
If you want to learn more about jinns and baraka in Morocco, you might want to read a book called The Caliph's House by Tahir Shah. Mr. Shah and his wife bought a huge old estate in Casablanca that at one point had belonged to a Caliph. they spent a year making livable and have some funny stories to share about the experience!
Now there is something that one learns almost immediately about Moroccans, and that is they don't give very good directions. They always seem to assume you know where you are going to begin with! then they just throw in the little details like "Next to the mosque" or "behind the fruit stand". Never mind that there are mosques and fruit stands on every corner in the city!! It was kind of that way when we got directions to Ain Sahla - they assumed we understood their starting point of reference! Of course, we had several strikes against us to begin with since they sent us the directions in FRENCH!! We only hoped that our little translator program on the computer understood it right! And the more we tried to follow the very scant, possibly poorly translated directions, the more concerned I got. We got off the main highway at a point where we drove through what basically looked like a dirt parking lot that had a small road leading back under the highway and out the other side. Once we passed under the highway, though, at least the road was paved again. And this road was taking us up, which was the right direction. As we went up, though, the road continually narrowed and began to wind around. Soon we lost any other cars that had been with us, and villages or signs of civilization decreased with each passing kilometer. And there were way more kilometers passing than I had thought there should be. The scenery, though, was really great! We drove through a kind of gorge in the mountains.
About this time I thought we were heading the wrong way and should turn back. I had little hope that our nice hotel was out here in the middle of no where, when around that one last curve we saw a little village and there, at maybe the only intersection in the whole place was a hand painted sign that said turn here for Ain Sahla in 6 kilometers. OK. So we WERE on the right road. But could it still be the right road when it became just a small dirt road?
Or how about once it became more of a dirt track through the olive groves?
All of a sudden the road came to an end at a big wall and behind the doors stood paradise! It was sooo peaceful and quiet! All we could hear was the soft-playing classical style music and birds in the trees. Oh, and the occasional rooster or the donkey braying!
There was a crystal clear tile swimming pool, and our room had its own little courtyard where we could sit out under a walnut tree! Omar, the owner, who spoke fairly good English, took very good care of us. They fixed us wonderful food, mostly grown right there on the property, including their own olive grove! They had their own olive press as well!
It was a beautiful place to spend a few days, and by the time we left, I truly felt the "baraka" or blessings of the place!
But we also experienced the jinns - mischievous and sometimes evil spirits that can live in a house. Moroccan culture contains a good deal of such superstitions. In fact, many Moroccans will not drain their pasta directly into the sink because jinns often live in the plumbing, and they don't want to anger the jinns by scalding them with boiling water! The jinns at Ain Sahla were actually not nearly so troublesome. In fact, they were a bit helpful even if they didn't mean to be! To begin, I must tell you that after guests return to their rooms in the evenings, all the lights in the courtyard and outside area are turned off, so it becomes extremely dark! When we were ready for bed and turned our lights off, I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face (Why would I want to, right?). But then, just as I started to doze off, a light flashed. I couldn't figure out what it was, but I waited - and waited. And I woke Don up! After a few minutes the light flashed again! Low and behold, it was the light on the wall above our bed! The jinns must have been playing a trick on us! But we fixed them - Don just took the light bulb out! Later that night, though, they thought they could get ahead of us again. I woke in the middle of the night and there was the faintest glow coming from the bathroom, a room that had absolutely no access to the outside. It had been completely dark in there when we went to bed. I wasn't "scared" really, but I figured the faint light made it easier for me to see around me and chose to ignore it and just stay out of the bathroom til morning! The next night the same thing happened. This time, though, I wasn't going to let those mischievous jinns get the better of me, so I went in there to see what is was that was causing the glow. One end of the short fluorescent tube had begun to glow during the night. Of course Don rationalized it by spouting some theory about the wiring being hooked up backward so that some electricity flowed into it when it was turned off and eventually would build up enough to glow a bit. But I knew better - the jinns were having a bit of fun with me!
If you want to learn more about jinns and baraka in Morocco, you might want to read a book called The Caliph's House by Tahir Shah. Mr. Shah and his wife bought a huge old estate in Casablanca that at one point had belonged to a Caliph. they spent a year making livable and have some funny stories to share about the experience!
