I love experiencing the beauty and wonder of the transformation from night to day.  We set our alarm for 6:00, got dressed and climbed the stairs to the rooftop patio of our Riad in darkness, feeling the chilly mountain air wrap around us.  We watched as daylight slowly emanated over the mountains.  The road gradually appeared from the shadows while listening to my favorite symphony, the cacophony of birds singing joyously to welcome a new day.  Each rooster across the valley was declaring its territory.  The sky and clouds turned to pink as the sun moved closer to the horizon, then the hues shifted to light yellow.  Wispy clouds floated above us.  Since the mountains blocked the horizon, we could only see the shimmering light of the sun as it rose at 6:41. The smell of mules, farm life, and animals wafted through the air, bringing back fond childhood memories of our family farm.  Not another person seen or heard, just the love of the rest of my life next to me.  It was the best birthday morning I could have wished for in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco! 

At 6:54 we observed the area waking up – someone driving towards town in their car, a person jogging up our road, the resident cat with her two kittens looking for breakfast, a man with his packed mule sauntering down the road, and our host gathering his clothes off the line.  We stayed on the roof patio until the sun rays hit the faces of the mountains to the west.  We went to our room to change clothes at 7:41; when we returned to the roof patio at 8:15, Ms. Sun was smiling at us over one of the easterly mountains.

We headed up the mountain, past the next small village of Tamatert, for our morning workout.  Several people on mules and motorbikes passed us going down towards Imlil.  It was peaceful, perfect weather for hiking, and absolutely incredible scenery!  We think we gained about 900 feet in elevation during our hike, putting us at around 7,000 feet.  We want to get acclimated for our 13,000+ ft hike on Thursday.  After living at sea level, in Florida, we can certainly tell we are on higher ground with thinner air. 

Hassan, our host, presented us with a delicious breakfast of corn pancakes, homemade bread (with butter and four different spreads), cheese, olives, omelets, coffee, black tea, and mint tea.  After eating, we hung out reading for a couple of hours in the breakfast room.  Then we moved to the roof top patio.  We could hear something being projected from what sounded like a speaker system in the distance.  The sound was gradually moving closer to us. We heard the noise coming from a truck that had the bed filled with eggs and what looked like garlic cloves.  The man drove up the road past us and people would come out to buy their eggs from him.  We waited all day for the ice cream truck, but it didn’t come.  ^😀

I was in the mood to celebrate my birthday with a glass (or two) of beer or wine.  I researched the area on the internet and was only able to find one place in the two adjoining villages that served beer and wine.  Google indicated it was a 2-minute walk.  I was so excited!  It was a guest house, Doura Sarma.  We took our chances that they would be “open” to non-guests, and we could toast my next trip around the sun.  We thought it was the property up the road from ours, however upon arriving we quickly learned it was not.  We walked the opposite direction and didn’t see it.  One of the local boys told us it was further up the road.  We re-traced part of our morning workout up the mountain.  We weren’t dressed for hiking; it was the hottest time of the day, and the sun was warm.  I wasn’t sure I wanted to walk very far in the sun and heat, but I also really wanted a beer!  Mike remembered seeing a sign for the property during our walk this morning.  The sign pointed down natural made steps to the neighboring village. We knew the property we were going to was next to Kasbah Imlil, which had signs along the way.  After about 15 minutes of walking, we arrived at Doura Sarma.  However, the two entrance doors were closed.  We walked around the back and found a woman (Caroline) sweeping the stone patio in the garden area.  We told her we were hoping to get a drink and a snack.  She told us to meet her at the door so she could let us in.  She was so welcoming!  We learned she is a friend of the owner, and she is visiting from France for a month.  She offered us multiple lovely places to sit outside.  We chose the gardens surrounded by trees. We later met the owner, Jacqueline, who is from Switzerland.  She shared that she built the property 20 years ago.  She suggested we come for dinner.  We made reservations with Mohammad for Friday night.  Mohammad showed us a short cut down the mountain to our lodge (which still took longer than 2 minutes – what’s up Google?).  For the mountain Berber people, we are confident the short cut is considered an extremely nice sidewalk.  It was certainly walkable and easy to navigate….although we laughed that it would have been easier if we were mountain goats. 

Our host, Hassan, served us Moroccan salad, chicken and vegetable Tajine, bread and mint tea for dinner around 7:30 pm.  He knew it was my birthday and he took extra care to make our table nice by adding several flower decorations.  He sat with us and chatted while we ate.  We learned a bit about his family.  Several of our conversations got lost in translation as his first languages are Berber and Arabic.  He went to the kitchen and came back singing a birthday song in Berber.  He had a tray filled with a homemade cake, cookies, lemon muffins, candies, and votive candles.  It was so sweet.  The cake was delicious and such a wonderful surprise (initiated by my amazing husband!).  He joined us for cake and took pieces to the rest of the staff.  We went for a short walk outside and looked at the stars from the rooftop before going to our room.  There isn’t a TV anywhere at the lodge and we don’t have WIFI in our room, so it is easy to focus on reading our books. Having birthdays are fun when you get to make all of the decisions. I’m happy with all of today’s decisions.