Today I slipped south out of Tiznit and into ochre hills covered in bent trees spaced so far apart you’d think they don’t get along. It was my third long roadtrip in as many days. I’ve traveled south from Casablanca to Essaouria, Essaouria to Tiznit, and Tiznit to Tan Tan where I now sit. Each […]
Best Menu Mistranslation Ever?
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Hello all. The vacation is over and I am back on writer duty. I am in Essaouria now and will head south tomorrow. I will write a proper post soon, but in the meantime I want to pass along a little item from a restaurant menu here in Essaouria. Apparently, at Restaurant des Arches you […]
In Morocco with Wife
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Most of those reading this blog will know that the reason why the updates suddenly stopped about a week ago was because this was when my wife, Moonira, joined me here in Morocco. We have been on vacation, both from our respective jobs – the research for the walls book being my ‘work’ – and, […]
Algiers to Marrakesh
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Five weeks ago, when I first arrived there, I didn’t like Algiers very much. The city disappointed me because it was a place I expected to love right away and I didn’t. In my journal I wrote mainly that the coffee was good and that the men constantly spit on the sidewalk. But the last […]
Graham Greene, again
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
I’ve been thinking a lot about Graham Greene lately, and not just because of my afternoon drinking with priests. I read Monsignor Quixote on this trip, and am currently re-reading The Lawless Roads. In Roads, Greene describes the Mexican desert and says that he cannot see beauty in landscapes that are “unemployed or unemployable.” For […]
In Constantine
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
I decided to travel north instead of back south for S’bou. I have only a few days left in Algeria so I wanted to travel to places I haven’t yet been rather than return to Timimoun. So I am in the north where the orange trees are not yet in bloom but the hills are […]
Easter with the White Fathers
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
It was a scene out of a Graham Greene novel: Africans, Catholics, priests and whisky. I’d been looking forward to meeting the White Fathers in Ghardaia for some time. The Peres Blancs have been ministering to African communities for a long time now, and maintain a library of books about the cultural, religious and natural […]
Wedding Night Jitters
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Just when I thought my French was getting better… Last night I was listening to a shopkeeper across from my hotel tell me about the traditions of the Muslims in the area. He was talking in French and I was pretty proud of myself that I was understanding most of what he was saying. Then […]
The Mozabites
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
There are only a few communities ofIbadi Muslims in the world. There are Ibadis in Oman, a few in Libya and Tunisia, and a large community here in the M’zab Valley around the town of Ghardaia where I have been staying for the past few days. Ibadis are very conservative and do their best to […]
The Occidental Tourist
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Since my last post I finished a circuit of the Grand Erg Occidental which took me from Taghit to the oasis towns of Beni Abbés, Timimoun and, now, Ghardaia. It occurred to me I’ve written mostly about the landscape here and not about the people. That has been an omission. My favourite moment with the […]
