Explore Agadir, the Souss and Anti-Atlas
Tafraoute is worth all the effort and time it takes to reach, approached by scenic roads through the Anti-Atlas from Tiznit or Agadir – both are beautiful, but the Tiznit approach has the edge, winding through a succession of gorges and a grand mountain valley. With your own transport, you can also get here from Ifrane de l’Anti-Atlas, Igherm or (with 4WD) Aït Herbil. Tafraoute is a centre for villages built among a wind-eroded, jagged panorama of granite tors – “like the badlands of South Dakota”, as Paul Bowles put it, “writ on a grand scale”. The best time to visit is early spring, when the almond trees are in full blossom, or in autumn, after the intense heat has subdued; in midsummer, it can be debilitatingly hot.
Created as an administrative centre by the French, and little expanded since, Tafraoute is one of the most relaxed destinations in Morocco, though a few faux guides may still make a nuisance of themselves, claiming to be the guides mentioned in this and other books, and spinning all sorts of yarns to coax the unwary into carpet shops where they can be subjected to the old hard-sell routine.
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Ground squirrels
Ground squirrels
Along the road from Tiznit to Tafraoute, you may occasionally see children holding little furry animals for sale – live, on a piece of string – by the roadside. These are ground squirrels, which are known locally as anzid or sibsib, and are destined for the tajine dish, in which they are considered quite a delicacy, their flesh being sweet since they subsist mainly on a diet of almonds and argan nuts. Recognizable by the prominent stripes down their backs, and by their long tails, ground squirrels are common in the tropics, and have long been ascribed medicinal properties in Morocco. You will not get anzid tajine in any restaurant, however, unless perhaps you provide the squirrels yourself.
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Tafraoute: village economics
Tafraoute: village economics
Among Tafraoute villagers, emigration to work in the grocery and hotel trade – all over Morocco and France – is a determining aspect of life. The men return home to retire, however, building European-looking villas amid the rocks, and most of the younger ones manage to come back for a month’s holiday each year – whether it be from Casablanca, Tangier, Paris or Marseille.
But for much of the year, it is the women who run things in the valley, and the only men to be found are the old, the family-supported or the affluent. It is a system that seems to work well enough: enormously industrious, and very community-minded, the Tafraoutis have managed to maintain their villages in spite of adverse economic conditions, importing all their foodstuffs except for a little barley, the famed Tafraoute almonds and the sweet oil of the argan tree.
