Morocco
Lured by extremely cheap flights and the prospect of some sun in the middle of the British winter we headed out for a trip to Morocco last week. We flew into Marakesh and actually spent most of our time in that city, but also did a couple of day trips out to the mountains and the coast.
Jan got started with hard bargaining right away with the taxi drivers outside the airport. She’d got them down to 80 Dirhams (£7.50) but wouldn’t accept anything more than the 70 quoted by the Lonely planet … so we caught the bus .. which was very convenient anyway. This theme continued throughout the holiday and for the most part (except for a couple of slip ups by me) we avoided contributing to tourist induced inflation 🙂
Out hotel was amazing. Actually we can wholeheartedly recommend it (Hotel Sherazade). It was right in the heart of the old city and built around a beautiful courtyard with a rooftop where you could sit and play scrabble while watching the sun set over the city. Marrakesh is a pretty religious city and you are never far from a mosque .. and as it happened our hotel was next door to one .. so every morning at 5am we got a nice little wake-up :)!.
Playing Scrabble in the courtyard
Sunset from the roof
Right near our hotel was the market square, the big Mosque and the maze of market stalls called the souks. Every morning we were able to walk out of our hotel and grab breakfast from a lady who makes amazing flat breads that are like a cross between pancakes and flaky pastry. We got addicted to these .. and then head off to some other part of the city, or to a day trip. The souks are really something else … you can get seriously lost in them, and it seems like each stall is like an Aladdin’s cave of amazing stuff. Somewhat disturbingly though, they only stopped selling slaves here in the early 20th century.
Perhaps the most amazing thing we saw in the holiday was the market square in Marrakesh. It’s a huge open square, and during the day it is filled with orange juice sellers, snake charmers and a few apothecaries selling truly weird stuff to cure impotency. At night though the music starts up and a huge bunch of food stalls rolls in. Our favourite was a guy selling incredible sausages for almost no money whose barbeque smoke could be seen from miles away. We called him “Mr Sossie” and he was pretty much the owner of the square after dusk. All sorts of buskers also filled the square but sadly we couldn’t appreciate them much because alot of them were storytellers (in arabic) and the acrobats had such huge crowds that it was pretty much impossible to see. It was a very cool atmosphere though anyway.
Of course, it’s impossible to capture the essence of a market like this, but we took a rooftop photo anyway…
Mr Sossie is identifiable in the center by his smoke in this photo. And in front of him the guys in white are a dancing group.
Ira overlooking the market square on our last night. We ate a lovely tajine each for dinner on this terrace.
A dried fruit seller in the market. We bought some yummy dates from him.
We also did two nice day trips. One was to a town called Setti Fatma in the Ourika valley. It was a lovely spot but unfortunately, as tourists we got quite a bit of hassle from “faux guides” wanting to show us the way to a nearby waterfall. After trying to find the official bureau of guides (which the LP said was in this town) but failing, we eventually found our own way to the waterfall.
Ira in front of the waterfall.
The other really awesome day trip we took was to Essouira, a town on the coast. We took a bus there early in the morning and arrived about lunch time. It’s not a big place so we walked down to the waterfront, where there is a working dock where all the fishing boats bring in their catch. The fishermen there use beautiful wooden dories, and even their trawlers are made from wood, so the boats themselves were really quite something to admire.
Boats at Essouira
After visiting this place we went around the corner where a bunch of little open-air fish restaurants are set up. These are really cool because you can just choose your fish from the fish on ice out the front and they cook it up for you while you wait. I think I had the most delicious squid ever from here!
Then we went for a bit of a beach stroll and found some nice bits of flotsam. We also made friends with a Camel driver and a dope dealer despite not actually buying something from them :). Actually by this stage Jan had made a fine art of turning the harassing sales pitch into a friendly conversation and eventually parting ways without any ill feeling. I think this is a key to happiness if you go to Morocco because every 2 minutes you will get a brilliantly crafted sales pitch. Sometimes in the market you can just walk on and say no thanks .. but when you are cornered, skills like Jan’s come in very handy.
On the beach at Essouira
There are lots of other things to tell about our Morocco trip, but this post is already starting to get super long. We had a really nice time. It’s a pretty cool country, and even though we didn’t speak any French or Arabic we still had one or two really nice chats with locals (apart from the many many sales pitches). If we go back we would probably venture further afield, but for a first taste it was excellent .. and we’ve come back feeling much refreshed and even with a bit of sun on the skin.
