Morocco

Morocco… something between the quick version and the long version…

Its funny when you’re in a new country. You don’t know how trusting or suspicious or afraid or calm to be. Who knows how dangerous it is to walk with your suitcases, majorly looking like a tourist, down the street looking for your hotel? Just about exactly what we were doing after getting off the airport shuttle bus at about 8:45 on Wednesday evening. I was actually the more nervous one, Jen was pretty relaxed.

So we asked a few tourists, who said it was right around the corner, there it was, we checked in, dropped off our luggage, and came down to have our first Moroccan meal. We ate all our dinners at the hotel, it was good food, traditional Moroccan, I think, and great to have that waiting, especially the first night.

Marrekesh. The books will tell you to enjoy the souks (shops), and to have a good look around the Jemaa el Fna square. They also suggest some palace or gardens or something, we didn’t make it quite that far. We certainly got a feel for the souks. The whole area is very driven by tourism, and they’ve got some neat things to sell (always better displayed at home with the line “I got it in Morocco…”) so we were good little tourists and emptied our pockets that way.

Jemaa el Fna square was really something. Women sitting everywhere trying to talk you into having henna painted on your hand for a price, snake charmers (don’t think I’ve ever seen one of those before,) lots of fresh juice stands, and we saw a couple traditional storytellers. Except for the storytellers a lot of it is aimed at the tourists, but the storytellers are telling stories in Arabic- like a story out of the Arabian nights or something- so the people around looked pretty local to me. It is a huge square, really crazy and intense but fascinating to walk around.

We spent most of Thursday and Saturday in that general area. It is a huge area- makes up a good part of the medina (old city). And speaking of old cities- the inside of the souk area could just as easily have been Jerusalem to me, for the way it looked, covered little walkways, shops on either side, etc.

Friday we decided would be our day to get out of the city. We hired a shared taxi out to the Ourika valley- to a little town called Setti Fatma nestled in the High Atlas mountains. The views were amazing and gorgeous- layers of snowcapped peaks around us, and little rippling stream through it all, lots of restaurants offering creekside dining experiences. It was good to see at least a little bit out of town- I commented that it felt much more third world out of the tourist hub of Marrekesh, and Jen agreed, saying she felt like she was driving out to Babogaya or something.

We decided to give ourselves a hammam treatment, that was interesting, and must be told, I suppose, in person. Interesting!!

Amazing, I didn’t talk to any other American. The place is full of tourists- as full as any touristy place is- all European, lots of Dutch, plenty of English. The shopkeepers ask “Where are you from?” trying to make conversation, but they didn’t know what “US” mean, only “America.” One man told us, “You are my first American customers.” Funny. I suppose I had never heard of Marrekesh before Jen booked the package!

So we arrived back here late last night, it was a smooth trip in the end and had a great time experiencing an exotic new place.

I am excited to see my family soon! Amazing to think where I was a week ago (Toulouse), and where I will be in a week (San Jose!)