Marrakesh, Snakes, Monkeys, bartering,… OH my

Dumb me has no idea the hotel I selected is located on a small alleyway in a completely pedestrian area several blocks from the closest street with cars. On the way to drop me off he picks up another local passenger and a couple blocks later he pulls off the side of the road has me get out and points in the general direction of the hotel. At first I was raging pissed, I had a deal with this guy and now he’s dumping me, won’t even drive me to my hotel due to a local and I agreed to his inflated price.  I’m glad I didn’t go off on him and instead walked off miffed. It quickly became obvious why he’d dropped me off where he did and I felt relieved I didn’t react how I initially felt. Good lesson for me to remember and keep practicing.

Marrakesh, what a difference from Casablanca. Very touristy for one, the traffic while crazy is not the same frogger game, however there are numerous pedestrian only streets that tons of powered bicycles use. Ie scooters that have peddles when they run out of petrol. If you don’t watch out you’ll get one right up your ass as they zig zag in and out of hoards of people walking.

The main market square here, Djemaael-Fna, reminds me of Mallory Square in Key West. During the day all sorts of street performers doing acts, snake charmers playing with Cobras, monkey handlers, women giving henna tattoos, carts selling freshly squeezed OJ and dried fruits, etc. Be careful how close you walk by or take a look at any one vendor or you’ll end up with a snake around your neck or a monkey in your arms. And then they’ll do the negotiating of how much you owe them.

 Not the way I play the game, but oh, they are sooo good and it’s hysterical to sit a good distance away and watch them work. Don’t even bother taking your camera out or consider getting a picture without some sort of compensation negotiation taking place. As mentioned above, once the deal was done they’ve been friends each time I’ve walked by. While the place is busy all day at sunset the seams break loose and local food vendors bring tables, carts, propane tanks and carts of food along with mobs of people. More locals than tourist, is surprising. The area is pretty high energy and there is extreme competition between all the vendors wooing you to eat whatever they have to offer. My eyes got set on the snail soup I’d seen before and OH boy am I glad I dug right in. These are nothing like escargot I’ve had before. A street cart with a huge pot of steaming snails in the shell. Pull up a bar stool and for a buck get a bowl full of shells and a toothpick. Pull the snail out slurp it down toss the shell in an empty bowl and when finished drink the wonderful broth left in the bowl. Nothing like I’ve ever had before. Not chewy or rubbery like I had imagined, instead super tender and ohhhh so delicious from all the aromatic spices within. I’ve been back 3 times now.

There is a souq, labyrinth street shopping area here, as well, only far larger than in Casablanca. Again not my taste, however there are several other sites to see, Mosques on what seems like ever other corner. (non-Muslim’s are not allowed to enter and it makes me wonder why they are listed as tourist sites) A Palace in restoration from the 1800’s of a past ruler. Incredible how architecture is so much more elaborate in the past. We don’t see buildings being built with such intricate floor to ceiling decorations. As well as several other site’s which either didn’t interest me or lacked time to go see

Today, I took a day trip to a Berber village (where they make hand made rugs) in the Atlas mountains with a couple British girls, one of whom had done a solo around the world trip 9 years ago. Anyway, Imlil is a small village nestled into the base of the Atlas mountains and is a starting off point for trekking the peaks. I’m I glad I took this trip. While I’ve liked what I’d seen thus far, getting off the beaten path has opened Morocco much more and convinced me I want to spend more time in some other small places, even though my itinerary has a couple other larger cities in it.

We did a 4 hour hike into the mountains to have a delicious home cooked lunch in a mountain side village with a local Berber family. The scenery beautiful, but the lifestyle even more amazing. Here in a village with 200 homes where 2000 people live cramped into small concrete buildings haphazardly built on the side of the mountain, they seem so distant from reality yet embrace some technology. The lifestyle is spartan but fulfilling. No home has shower facilities, toilets are squat loos in the floor, yet each home had power, a satellite dish, and cell phones. The industry is agriculture, making silver jewelry, and/or making hand weaved rugs, one of which will proudly be placed at the foot of my entryway.

To answer the question of showering, each village has a hammam. A hammam is a local bathing house where one goes to get clean. An experience I intend to discover before I leave Morocco.

Another interesting fact about Moroccans is a high percent know at least 3 languages and most know 5 or more. Far more than the average European which tend to know at least a few. Abdul my guide for the day new six, Arabic, Berber, French, Spanish, English, and Italian. The thought makes my mind shrink in embarrassment over my struggle to learn Spanish.

Well, I’m off to go get more snail soup and tomorrow taking a 6 hour train to Maknes.