6/26 Marrakech

We met at the CCCL at 8:30 to go to Marrakech this morning. It was a 3 hour bus ride over the country side of Africa. There was a pit stop halfway, but lunch was at the hotel so we kept trucking. As we slept and took photos the bus significantly got hotter. Apparently, Marrakech is over 100 degrees in the summer, and today was going to be about 105. Waves of heat hit us upon arrival, and the air seemed thick with sunshine. This entire trip was going through tourist territory, so prices would be up, and thieves would be everywhere.

Wallets in our front pockets and purses up close, we shuffled into the hotel and tried not passing out as our rooms were on the second floor (hot air rises, and to top it off we had to use stairs to greet our oven rooms.) It was about 2:00 when we arrived, and glorious lunch was awaiting us at the hotel. In addition to the classic beef and couscous they had spaghetti there. Dad’s (biological) warning that no one’s spaghetti is ever as good as mom’s floated to mind, but I wanted to taste how Moroccan Spaghetti was so I got it anyway. As with most pastas here, it was overcooked, but not disgustingly so. They also had deserts, flan and apple tart – not bad.

From 3-5 we had time for individual visits to museums. My group went to the palace first. The palace consisted of very decorated rooms of tile and intricate ceilings, as well as more rooms than five normal houses, but it was still somewhat less than expected. The entire complex was open to the air, and by the time we made it to the garden Naomi started feeling exhausted. We finished up taking pictures, and left at 4. Naomi wanted to see the Saudi tombs, so we all decided to go. A hustler came up and gave us bad directions hoping we’d stop by his shop (we could tell something was up by his Extreme-friendliness and fast talking, and a local helped us out by breaking his game). Unfortunately, Naomi was at her end, and we had to usher her back to the hotel after she started throwing up in the street. Everyone was tired and baking, so only Liz, Kristen and I continued to find the tombs. It took forever, but fortunately we kept getting directions from French tourists who seemed to know what they were doing. On a side note, I always asked tourists when possible to avoid future lying hustlers. We passed the place twice, and seemed to walk way out of our way, but finally a local pointed down a small crevice which was the entrance to the tombs. We paid the entrance fee, and squeezed through the rest of the passage as wide as my shoulders. It opened up into the graveyard, both smaller than expected, as well as quieter. It was very peaceful in there, and the cat family nearby seemed to agree. We finished taking photos before grabbing a cab back to the hotel for our ‘exercise’.

After museums we had a field exercise on the plaza (Djemma el Fna). Our group had to come back with noises from the plaza (I know, they ran out of ideas), so basically we got free roam. Snake charmers (snakes = Hemsh) and monkey owners galore. Sorry all those looking for pictures with me and a monkey, not only was it around $10 dollars after bargaining, the monkeys were treated severely harsh, so I didn’t want to support their owners. Both street salesman run to you to get your money if you take a picture, so the only one’s I took were from very far away. A snake charmer tried to get me to take a picture by putting one around my neck (non-poisonous water snake) and then asking me if I was scared. I said no so he put its head closer and either he or the snake hissed, in either case he wasn’t going to get my money. The plaza also has orangejuice booths up the wazoo, and for only 3DH it was hard to resist. We also wandered into the shops around the souk, I even bargained an Italy jersey down to 120 DH (Fadowa said anything below 150 was impressive for a foreigner). Prices in the entire town are inflated, due to the high tourist market, so I decided to wait to Rabat. Geoff and I wandered to the shopping side more frequented by locals, where a friendly elderly card player invited us to his house. We gratiously declined, but all over Morocco one receives these types of offers (which means something totally different for guys than girls).

After dinner at the hotel, we went out for ice cream (I just ordered whatever the locals were having – amazing), and Modolu and I went to watch the rest of the game. To find a café watching it, we had to wander slightly off the tourist streets, and just searched for a small place packed with locals all looking one direction. No one actually could give me directions to a good place to watch it (/could understand French), but eventually we found a place. It was packed to the brim, but the waiter rearranged some seats and took seats from outsides to finally get a spot. We sat next to the card players, and eventually made friends with them by rooting for the right team. After Spain won we paid for our waters and went back to the hotels to shower.

I then went back to the plaza with a small group to see what it was really like. Night on the plaza is actually a more accurate representation of the place, now also packed with small diners, each with a young man trying to get your patronage. Also, in addition to the snake charmers there were now circus performers, musicians, and belly dancers (two guys dressed as women that tried to get us to pay when we paused there for a bit). Each performance was surrounded by its own throng, but that doesn’t stop the money bouncer from finding the newcomers and picture-takers.

On a side note, I am completely sick of techno music - they play it way too much here.