Mountain Passes, Hot Chocolate and Pigeon Pie

Trying to negotiate a taxi to go a very specific route across a mountain pass is not easy. For a start, literacy is very low so writing Taroudannt » Tizi N Test » Marrakech, 1 pax, 9h30 isnt as clear as you may hope or think. Also once you finally get the message across not many drivers are willing to take it, so there is not much room for establishing a fair price. No busses run the route, so there are no real alternatives. I eventually got a driver to agree to do the route, and while im sure I paid over the odds it was still a dirt cheap trip in terms of experience, and in terms of what the journey would have cost me back home.

The Tiz N Test is a mountain pass across the Atlas mountains. NO long distance busses cross it as the round is narrow, has many hairpins and blind corners hemmed in by dramatic and terrifying drops. The summit of the pass is at 2100m, a long way above the altitude of either my start point in taroudannt or the end of my journey in marrakech. The views were stunning, the road going from long, straight and wide to twisting, turning and exposed almost immediately. There was so much to take in in terms of the views, forboding roadside cairns and the emptiness of the roads. It felt like a real adventure, and not a journey to get from A to B but a journey for the journeys sake. We did stop off en route, once at the summit of the route where there is a very basic hotel, and once on the far side at an abandoned mosque which was simply stunning in its intricate architecture. Anyone who needs to get from the sous valley to marrakech should dispense with busses going the longer way round and splash out on a taxi going this way. Even though the road is dramatic north of agadir it just doesnt compare.

Finally I arrived in Marrakech after about 5 hours on the road, got somewhere to sleep and realised I still had a number of delicacies I needed to try. Pastilla seemed like a sensible option, and when there is a choice of pigeon or chicken theres only one way im going to go. Pastilla is an odd sweet pastry with a meat filling (in this case pigeon). It is dusted with cinammon and sugar, and for me it just didnt work. It was horrible, and if i had no choice id eat it again but it just didnt get me going.

I went for a walk in the Jewish quarter in the afternoon, sharing banter with spice sellers and getting really quite fed up with everyone basically trying to sell you something. 'Look is for free' is thrown around so often, but there are only so many hours in the day. I find that 'Yes, but my time isn't' confuses them sufficiently to allow for an escape.

In the evening I met up with John and Liz for some food in Djeema El Fna. Brochettes, sausages and snails were all had and that was enough to fill us all up. We walked past one of the restaurants in the square and as I looked up I saw that there were beer bottles on the balcony.. and was that wine too... and heaters. It looked like a little balcony of heaven. We got up there only to be told:
'We dont serve wine, but we do serve beer'.
'Ok, 3 beers then please'.
'Its alcohol free beer'.
'3 hot chocolates then please'.

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