Casablanca...Our Final Destination

Casablanca is a large city of around 4 million, and  very modern and lies on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. We visited the the old medina, Hassan 11 mosque and museum, and did a city tour.

 

 

If you need a fresh chicken, go no further, this is the spot. The owner will kill and defeather on the spot!

 

                                            Olives galore!

 

                         These dried flower/seed clusters are used to brush teeth.

 

                                                           Viewed a catholic church.

 

                                                Lots of stained glass inside the church.

 

                                                      The water man back in the day.

                                                Feeding pigeons

 

                                                     King Hassan 11 mosque.

 

        Kids being kids. The young teenage boys are jumping from the wall into the ocean.

                                        Boys playing soccer.
 

                    Well, that's a wrap! What an awesome trip!! We are totally exhausted and thrilled to have been able to visit this diverse country, and learn a bit about its culture.

Argon Women's Cooperative

 Argon oil has become very popular, and is considered the new olive oil, and used in hip restaurants around the world to season salads with its nutty flavour. 

The argon tree is resistant to heat, and is an essential tool in the fight against desertification in southern Morocco. It has become vital to the local economy, providing firewood, fodder for goats, and oil for humans. Berber women harvest the fruit in the spring, then feed it to the goats who digest the fruit which dissolves the tough outer coating on the shell, then is recovered from the goats' dung, and the kernels are split, lightly toasted, pulped, and pressed.

To produce one litre of oil takes 30kg of nuts and 15 hours of manual labour, done solely by women.

                                               The women are splitting the kernels.
 

                                                              The pulping process.

 

                                    And now onto sales. We bought body oil, and soap.