Morocco - The Marrekech Express!

So I had a few weeks to kill in late April and early May, and my daughter decided she'd quite like to see Spain... Deal, says I.  So I booked us flights in and out of Paris and onto Morocco with a plan of working our way north from Marrekech through Spain and back to Paris, which is exactly what we did.

 

 

We spent two days and nights in Paris (after losing my brand new I-Phone on a connecting flight in Amsterdam) and then hopped a flight to Marrekech.

 

 

 

 

 

Morocco is not a destination for intrepid tourists or scantilly clad women.  Sky showed up in spaghetti straps and left bundled up.  We were told that the only exposure Moroccan men have to western women is through pornography on the internet and tourists and all too often they confuse the two.  It started out with lots of attention for Sky which she liked but then men started following us, walking beside us jeering and whistling and hanging around us.  In addition to that harassment, the beggers and self-appointed guides were very annoying and we couldnt leave our hotels or explore in public without being harassed.  And no matter what amount of money I gave them from my pocket or wallet, it was never enough and we were spit at, called names and insulted. It was difficult to shop as everyone had a hand out for commissions before we had even decided on what to eat or buy.  In the end, we fled from Marrekech to Fez and onto Tangiers until we were safe on the Spanish side of the Straight (Gibraltar), where we spent money that we would have preferred to spend in Morocco.

Despite all that, we did enjoy exploring the Souks (markets) and a tannery and Sky passed her 19th birthday in the luxury of an Arabian Palace in Marrekech.

 

 

Paris 2013

ne·glect (n-glkt)

tr.v. ne·glect·ed, ne·glect·ing, ne·glects

1. To pay little or no attention to; fail to heed; disregard: neglected their warnings.

2. To fail to care for or attend to properly: neglects her appearance.

3. To fail to do or carry out, as through carelessness or oversight: neglected to return the call.

n.

1. The act or an instance of neglecting something.

2. The state of being neglected.

3. Habitual lack of care.

 

guilt·y (glt)

adj. guilt·i·er, guilt·i·est

1.

a. Responsible for a reprehensible act; culpable.

b. Law Found to have violated a criminal law by a jury or judge.

c. Deserving blame, as for an error: guilty of misjudgment.

2. Suffering from or prompted by a sense of guilt: a guilty conscience.

3. Suggesting or entailing guilt: a guilty smirk; a guilty secret. See Synonyms at blameworthy.

 

 

Both of the above, and my apologies to my faithful followers for neglecting my blog.  I will try harder...

 

I spent the better part of March, April and May going back and forth to Europe (France, Spain, Morocco) and ended up back in Mexico.  One must pay the bills.  I will be working in Mexico the rest of the year, though I get to go home and work on my boat for a few weeks in July.  That said, here are some pictorial highlights of the last three months:

The Eiffel Tower as seen from the Trocadero

Yes, I returned to the City of Lights a second and again a third time and again a fourth time.  Its just that great!  I made the effort to learn the metro system and practice my French.  I frequented the Louvre several times and toured all of the great galleries and museums. Having spent nearly a month there, I have my top ten list of Must-Dos and also one Don't-Dos:

Top Ten Must Dos (In no particular order!):

Buy a bottle of wine (Don't forget your swiss army cork screw!), a baguette, some fresh salmon and some cream cheese, a red onion and a bottle of capers... and then go have a picnic on the banks of the River Seine. Unforgettable!  I prefer the left bank but the right bank or the point of land at the down river end of the Isle (Parc de Pont Neuf) is just as good.  If you go at sundown or later, expect scores of university age kids to be drinking champagne, beer or wine, playing guitars, drums and/or saxophones and dancing in groups. If you are lucky, one of the french girls will ask you to use your cork screw.

The Louvre:  Definitely one of my top threes.  No sane person tries to see all of the Louvre in one day.  Good thing I'm not sane!  I have tried this on at least three occasions and failed miserably, though I think I have seen it all now. My favourites:  Italian Sculptures, though the paintings are growing on me.

Midnight and you can't sleep what with all the lights still on, countless people making noise out on the street and the jet lag (which lasts for 3 - 4 nights!)... get up, get dressed and take a taxi to the Trocadéro. (See above pic).  From there, walk straight towards the unmissable Eiffel Tower past the gardens and fountains, and across the Pont D'lena and right to the tower.  This is also a great time to pull out a bottle of wine and sit on the lawn around the tower.  (You'll likely be accompanied by groups sitting around playing guitars, singing and dancing!)

Visit Montmarte:  Take the Metro to Blanche or Pigalle and walk up to Sacre Coeur. Enjoy the artists drawing the tourists (Its very very difficult not to get your portrait done by the pushy artists walking around with pads and pencils!)  Enjoy a walk through Sacre Coeur and especially the view from the highest hill in Paris!

Sacre Coeur on top of the hill

If you take a little stroll across the Pont Neuf you are bound to have a good wander among the Flower Market (Bird Market on Sundays only!), Shakespeare and Company Bookstore and among many other things, Notre Dame, not only the most beautiful gothic cathedral in the world, but the setting of Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame... One almost expects to see Quasimodo scale one of the towers, forefinger to brow as he looks for the beautiful dancing Gypsy girl Esmeralda.

 

Notre Dame

Marché aux Fleurs

You don't have to google very far and you will discover lists of Markets throughout Paris.  It is worth a day to hop on and off the metro (I buy 7 day passes) and discover the best of antiques, flowers, and my personal favourite: Food! My top two recommendations are Place de Monge  and Marche Moufetard.  The former is a fresh fish and produce market located at the top of the Monge metro (Open on Wednesdays amd Sundays only!). The latter is a street which runs for 6 or 7 blocks (yea like the French know what a block is... think odd geometry like rectangular triangles!) but it is a smorgasboard of seafood, baguettes, wines, cheeses,  patés and patisseries. Definitely a must see!

Place Monge

Rue d'Mouffetard

One doesn't have to walk to far a field to end up at Luxembourg Gardens, a large green expance with a round pond surrounded by kids pushing off their toy sailboats.  Royal sculptures abound along with several fountains.  My favourite by far (only second to the incredible ones in Rome!) is the Medici Fountain.



Fountain of the Observatory (Luxembourg)

The original Statue of Liberty

The Medici Fountain
The one-eyed giant Polyphemus Surprising the Lovers Acis and Galatea, by sculptor Auguste Ottin

The Sights...  Ah yes.. places to go, things to see... 24 hour action and no time to sleep!  I will list the top attractions, though my faithful readers need only go to Google or Wikipedia to find out more.  The thing is, yes you must see the sights... go to the Pantheon (Yes do!), walk through the Louvre,  see the Theremes de Cluny (Roman Baths - now renamed Musée national du Moyen Âge; so-so), La Musee Rodin (Yes!), Musee d'Orsay (Yes! Some of the best of Monet, Renoir and Van Gogh!) and of course Les Invalides (Absolutely!)...  and see the sights you will.  But the beauty of Paris is not contained in the walls of it's sights...  Every path you take, you will stumble across beautiful sights that Google will never understand: Beautiful French women in their long stockinged legs, matching heels, purse, belt, choker, and red berets (And always a cigarette at hand!), The men with thir jeans, T-shirt and dinner blazers, Lovers walking hand in hand, Kissers doing what they do best at street corners (Kiss!), Groups of people babbling at sidewalk cafes, Buskers singing American tunes, Hawkers trying to sell you junk you don't need, taxis, crowds, boutiques, eateries and on and on and on it goes...

 

 

Tower of St. Jaques

...And then there is the food. Tis true.  One can not wander the streets of Paris for long without coming face to face with the food. It's literally on the streets and sidewalks so enjoy a fresh steaming hot crepe, sit down at the sidewalk cafes, and enjoy. Life is not long enough to try all the delights of Paris but do your best!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I can not write an Ode to Paris without mentioning the shopping.  One has only to walk in any direction to come across endless specialty boutiques filled to the rafters with fashion, fashion and more fashion. I'm not even a woman and I came away with colourful lycra tops with wild designs and sequins.  Allow at least a month to see it all! 

 Oh and of course there are the big high end department stores on Blvd Hausman:

 

 

Galeries Lafayette and Pritemps are a smorgasboard of VERY expensive high high high end name brand stores. Expect to find jewellery, perfumes, purses, and clothing, clothing, clothing.  Oh and of course chocolate too.  Good restaurants at both and if you go to Pritemps, make sure you bring your camera and catch the view from the roof.

 

And for those of modest means (Don't go to Paris!), there is always Les Halles, an underground mall where the great unwashed masses buy their jeans and hair dye. (And if it's a K-Mart you are looking for, find the old Hotel D'Ville, which is basically a Walmart type store... great for bargains!)

My one Don't Do:  Versailles. In my humble opinion, it is over crowded, grossly overpriced and though probably worth doing once in your life just to see (Marie Antoinette's little farm and village was my only highlight)... you would be better off to google it up, learn all about it and then spend a day in Paris spoiling yourself lavishly with all the money you save by not going to the royal palace.

 

And to conclude my loving Ode to Paris, I will mention the lovelocks covering many of the bridges across the Seine.  Tradition has it that if you bring your sweetheart, you must bring a padlock with your names engraved on it, lock it on a bridge and throw the key in the river... Apparently it guarantees your love forever, and I for one, believe it. 

 

Join in next week when I tell you about Morocco!

PS.  For the record:  Next trip to Paris; Tour Notre Dame, Visit the Catacombs, Place des Vosges, Père Lachaise Cemetery and Quai de Valmy.  :)

Mexicana De Cobre

January 16, 2013

I took to the skies again yesterday and arrived in Hermosillo, Sonora in northern Mexico along with an entourage of smelter men from Canada, Australia and Finland.  We rented four vehicles and drove north for about four hours through the cities of Moctezuma and Nocazari de Garcia to the little town of Esqueda, near a copper smelter called Mexicana De Cobre (La Caridad mine) where I will be spending the next month planning a major shutdown in September, October and November.

For the first hundred miles or so, Highway 14 north of Hermosillo threads its way through a wide desert valley bottom.  You can see distant mountain ranges as they gradually close in on you and by the time you get to Moctezuma, you start threading your way higher and higher up the rollercoaster highways into the mountains.  As you go up, the temperature comes down and where I am is about 1400 metres above sea level.(Castlegar BC is only 450 metres, Calgary is 1048 metres!)  The temperature was a nasty -6C when we got in  last night and it was -11C when we got up. Brrrrrr! And here I stand in my speedos and a beach towel!  I only brought a few long sleeved shirts, jeans and a hoodie and the room I am staying in, as well as the office trailer I am to work out of each have paper thin walls... and the town is sold out of heaters.
I am staying in a company owned town in a compound guarded by hooded men with machine guns. They control access to and from the plant at checkpoints and stand in watch towers strategically placed around the perimeter of the plant.
Dinner last night consisted of tortillas con carne with a healthy side of beans and rice. Breakfast was eggs and beans and dinner tonight was tortillas with pork, and a healthy scoop of beans and rice. We will be eating lunch at the plant every day and today we had stewed chicken with a healthy scoop of beans and rice. So far so good but the beans and rice may get old, especially after three months of the same in Brazil!
At any rate, I will send updates when inspiration hits. For the most part, I will be busy enough writing safe work plans and trying to stay warm for the next few weeks. Have a great day!

Welcome to Esqueda!

Evenings find me walking the main drag looking for food. Here is where I buy my corn on the cob.

Corn on the cob, soft butter painted on with a brush and rolled in grated asiago cheese.

Most evenings I stop at this ol cowboy's eatery and order una tortilla con asada por favor.

My nightly tortilla

The best "Super Mercado" in town.

Here is where I stock up on my daily fruit n veggies.

On weekends, when our cafeteria is closed, we eat at the "Correcaminos" cafe (Roadrunner). As a special treat, we are sometimes entertained by this woman (who happens to be a very good cook) who sings for us.

Here is the Mexicana De Cobre smelter.

Yours truly, all dressed up and no where to go...

Yours truly in my new office

La Train, la Train!

Our humble accomodations... all of which are inside an armed compound protected my armed men circling us on quads...

Me, playing basketball with Jesus...

Jesus...

El Centro in the town south of us, Nocozari de Garcia.

Who knew?

Its fine to make your house in a box car...

But make sure you use the rails for street lamp poles!

All it needs is a battery!