I firmly believe things happen for a reason. We weren’t supposed to spend New Year’s Eve in Morocco, but it was the only way we could get a flight home without a 9 hour layover. Making  the most of our extra day in Marrakech,

Our final day touring Morocco as a group took us literally off the road! We had a caravan of 4x4s, driving through the foothills of the Atlas Mountains.

We ventured outside the city of Marrakech today into the Ourika Valley of the Atlas Mountains to learn more about the Berbers - the indigenous people of North Africa.

We had a later start today, 10 am, but the streets of Marrakech were still filled with the hustle and bustle of traffic, vendors and tourists as we made our way to the Bahia Palace in the medina (old city).

Destination - Marrakech, by way of the Atlas Mountains. We left Fes early, since this would be a more than 300 mile, 6 hour+ drive and we wanted to get to Marrakech in time for Shabbat services at Beth-El Synagogue.