Day 8: Casablanca

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Note: To view photos as a slide show, click on the first photo, then click Slideshow on the right hand side
Casablanca started out with the personal guide we hired not showing up. We waited 2 hours for him to show but he never did. We missed the ship's scheduled tours, as they all departed while we waited 1 1/2 hours for no-show. We have yet to hear from him, but I am chalking it up to a miscommunication, scheduling conflict, or something similar. I refuse to believe I was ripped off. (Update: Hassane, our guide, emailed me on April 28 - he had been in an accident on April 15 and was just out of the hospital. We wish him a speedy recovery.)

By 10:30, we decided to take the shuttle bus into town on our own - what other choice did we have? And to top it off, we had not done a lot of planning for Casablanca, as we were relying on the guide to show us around. Armed with a crude map from the ship, we got off the shuttle bus, memorized the pick-up point, and set off for the Hobous, the "new" Medina or market area.

Morocco is truly a city of contrasts. We started out in the city center - very modern big city with lots of traffic. As we walked we got into the smaller neighborhoods, and ended up in a rather run down area. There were people in modern Western dress, women in full Burkas and everything in between. The only commonality is that every one was modestly dressed. arms and legs covered, no cleavage - although there were lots of young gals in very tight jeans. But definitely no low-cut tops and no short skirts. Skin seemed to be taboo. Some of the tourists disembarked the ship in shorts or short skirts - a little surprising.

The Habous was very interesting. The barkers were very aggressive and always wanted you to come inside, even though what you wanted was right there by the sidewalk. It was a way to confuse and intimidate you, I suppose. The first place we paused was a jewelry booth. "Come inside, my friend!" And we did. He was a very chatty friendly fellow with one eye (I could not help but wonder what happened to the other one) and spoke in French-Arabic-English. He told us the singer Rhianna had been to his shop and showed us the necklace she bought.

He also showed us many things made of camel hoof-or-bone-not-sure-which and was in genereal entertaining and friendly. I found an amber and silver necklace that I liked and he said 20, I said 10, he said 15, so I bought it for 15 Euro, which was fine by me, but I really wonder how much lower we could have gone. The DMI (local currency) was about 1 -to-10 on the Euro so I think he did pretty well on us, although I consider 15 E a decent deal and I love the necklace.

We were not so lucky at the next place we tried to bargain - I found a beautiful ceramic plate that I would have paid 40 E for. I asked how much, he paused, cocked his head slightly, and replied confidently, "100 Euro!" "No, too much". (I put the plate down. walk away) "wait, wait my friend - what will you offer me?" I said, "40 Euro". " 40 Euro - no, no, no, I give to you for 80 E!" "No - too much" We left, and surprisingly, they did not follow us out. Hmm. I expected a little more bargaining mojo. As we made our way back to the city, we stopped at a co-op (again aimed at tourists) and found a similar plate for 8 Euro , as well as a silk rug for 120 Euro. And then wondered about the markup on those items! I would have been wiling to go as high as 40 Euro on the other plate. The things we got here were really beautiful - not cheap tourist knock-offs.

A few blocks further we were debating the best way to get to the Hassan II Mosque. A taxi driver approached us and said he'd take us for 10 Euro, and we agreed. The petite red taxi is just that - red and petite - and poor Bruce was scrunched in the backseat with his head at a right angle, but luckily it was not that far. As we arrived, the driver said he would wait for us to take some photos at the Mosque and then take us to Rick's Cafe for another 10E. All things considered, a pretty good deal...for both us and the driver!

The mosque was just amazing - I am still searching for words to describe the feeling of the experience. The main tower is 600 feet high. The mosque itself is the second largest in the world. We happened to be there when the call for prayer was issued (again, a blend of the ancient and modern, as it was cast over loud speakers). I found it mesmerizing. First of all, the place is just stunning. As you approach the mosque across the plaza of white and cream-colored marble, you feel awed and very small. That 's the point I imagine. But then you get closer and notice the details: patterns in the marble plaza, painted tiles, carved wood and stone. It is amazingly intricate. Apparently 6,000 artisans and craftsmen worked on the decorative aspects alone. You can see photos of the inside (which we did not get to see) and read more about the mosque here.


I watched as the faithful streamed into the mosque, and as many people as there were, the crowd seemed dwarfed by the structure itself. The mosque is situated on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean and we were there on a bluebird day. The blue sky, the sea, the Moroccan tiles and carved marble, the faithful, ....I was very moved. And reluctant to leave.

However - a little conflict here - as amazing as this structure is, even if you are in the city for just a short while, you will see abject poverty, beggars in the street with deformed limbs, crappy housing. I struggle to make this make sense. Could the 800 million dollars spent on this mosque have been put to better use? But this is my personal opinion. I don't know how the people of Casablanca feel about this.

We returned to the taxi and our gregarious driver, who offered to take our photo in front of the mosque. And then we were off to Rick's Cafe. Turns out Rick's Cafe, cheesy as it sounds, is quite a lovely little oasis in the heart of Casablanca. We had a very fine meal with local wine and beer in a comfortable (and safe, (bacterially speaking)!) environment. The food was very, very good and the cafe was elegant, yet casual, as 90% of the patrons were tourists. We finished our meal and left to walk back into town to catch the shuttle. We wandered through the Medina along the way and saw all sorts of items for sale - T-shorts, electronics, tourist crap, and tables full of houka pipes.

A fascinating place, but I would not go back. It was certainly the land of have and have nots, and not much in between. We saw poverty, richness, excess and deprivation. And I don't think I have seen to many satellite dishes in one city! We never felt threatened or unsafe, no one outside the market approached us or harassed us. We even saw an ice-cream man in front of a school when class was dismissed. How universal is that?

We boarded the shuttle bus and headed back to the ship, where we sat in the sun and stared in the distance as Casablanca and the mosque disappeared into the sunset. A flock of birds flew skyward before us.

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Photos

A mural in the Medina
The Medina is the old market and it's pretty run down. This colorful painting was such a contrast to it's surroundings