Morocco: Exploring his homeland

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By Diane Daniel, Globe Correspondent, 05/26/02

Seeing Morocco is nothing new to Redwan Rouzky, but seeing it through his wife's eyes was.

Rouzky, an engineer at Lucent Technologies and co-owner, with his two brothers, of the new Cambridge restaurant Argana, grew up in Casablanca.

Myriam Rouzky, an assistant vice president at State Street Bank, grew up in New York, the daughter of Dominican parents. After five years of marriage, she figured it was time to visit Morocco.

She made the arrangements, using the Internet to do "everything. She even gave me phone numbers to call and make reservations," Redwan said. The Stoneham couple went last July, starting in Casablanca at the house of Redwan's mother, Malika.

"I was kind of nervous and wanted to make sure everything went smooth," he said, though the women knew each other well from his mother's many trips to visit her three sons in the States.

"When I go for myself, I take a nap when I get there. But Myriam wanted to go out for sightseeing. I took her to the old part of Casablanca, a bazaar where they sell silver and carpets. Then we went to the spice markets. She loved it," Redwan said.

That night, his sister made a dish for Myriam of filo dough stuffed with chicken, almond, eggs, onion, and spices, baked and topped with powdered sugar and cinnamon. "She'd had it at the restaurant here, but she loved much more the one my sister made for her," he said. (Argana's fare is Moroccan and Mediterranean.)

Their first side trip was to Ouarzazate, "the door of the desert" and one of Morocco's most southern cities. "I've never been to the desert before, but she wanted to do it. I wouldn't have thought of it," Redwan said.

"Ouarzazate prides itself on being the movie center, for movies like `Cleopatra,' `Gladiator,' `The Jewel of the Nile.' It's a beautiful town."

The next day two guides took them into the desert by Range Rover. They'd requested a guide who spoke English, but got one who spoke very little, which was no problem for Rouzky, who spoke the same Moroccan Arabic as the guide. Myriam had to wait for the translation.

Redwan said the temperature must have been at least 100 degrees during their visit. After Myriam went swimming one day, "It took five minutes for her hair to dry," he said.

They drove south to Zagora, and then to M'hammid, on the Sahara. Guides were waiting with cold water and camels, which they all rode to reach the camp. "If you're on flat ground, no problem," Redwan said, "but if not, you feel like you're going to lose it."

While riding the camels, "all of a sudden we had a sandstorm. We covered everything. I had a cap and I used a T-shirt to cover my face, and my wife had a shawl. We weren't prepared for a sandstorm," Redwan said, laughing. That night, they slept in tents, enjoyed cold water supplied by the guides, and watched the stars. In the morning, they walked the dunes.

From back in Casablanca, they took a train to Tangiers, then a ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar to Marbella on the south coast of Spain. "My wife wanted to revenge me and speak Spanish," he said.

They visited the Alhambra, a majestic Moorish palace in Granada. Rouzky was amazed at how fast Spaniards drive and how late they eat. "We were having dinner one night and the restaurant was so crowded, with families and kids. And it was midnight."

Before leaving Morocco, they had visited Marrakesh, where they stayed at the luxurious Hotel La Mamounia, a popular spot for celebrities. "It's one of the best hotels in the world, and used to be Winston Churchill's vacation house," Redwan Rouzky said. Myriam was smitten. "Now she wants to go back for a week of golf at Mamounia."

Send suggestions to ddaniel@globe.com.