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Snake Charmers!
Sucker on the left, Cobras on the right...haha.. After spending a couple of cool days in Ouarzazate I hopped the bus to Marrakech. This leg of the journey would take me across the High Atlas Mountains, absolutely stunning. The sights were amazing and I now wish I had spent more time there... Have to give kudos to the bus driver; he was a brave man maneuvering that big rig through some pretty tight turns, passes and switchbacks! Although it is only about 200kms distance it still took us nearly five hours to get to Marrakech, should give you an idea of the trip...haha....
Arrived and with the help of the petit taxi driver (who was a HUGE Neil Young fan and kept singing "Tonight's the Night" to me as we wove in and out of traffic!) and several local kids (with some confusion) I finally made it to my first night's riad; Dar Soukaina. Beautiful place north of the souk, was hoping to stay here for the whole time I was in Marrakech but they didn't have the room (everything in Marrakech was booked for the weekend, this was the last room I could find)... At any rate I dumped my stuff and with a map and some
Pottery
Absolutely loved these (in fact brought a bunch home, all purchased from this vendor)...handmade pottery from the Safi region... directions I eventually found my way down to the main square, Djemma el Fna...
It was late afternoon, the square was filled with orange juice, date and nut vendors as well as henna painters and of course the snake charmers. Again that whole "sucker" thing must have reappeared on my forehead because within five minutes of hitting the square I had purchased a kilo of mixed nuts I really didn't want and gotten hosed by the snake charmers...very funny though! Was looking forward to seeing the snakes, the guys were maniacs and got some great pics, just need to work on my negotiating skills a little (okay a lot!).
Wandered around to get my bearings and headed back to Djemma el Fna in the evening to get something to eat and catch the nightlife... The square comes alive at dusk with hundreds of open air food stalls suddenly appearing and all of them vying for your attention, all in good fun though which was cool. Settled into one of them and had some great brochettes while watching the rest of the insanity go on... Beyond the stalls there are of course the snake charmers still going, but now
Minaret!
Minaret at the Koutoubia, a famous monument in Marrakech...dates back to the 12th century...beautiful... there are storytellers, people selling herbs and medicines to cure whatever ails you, jugglers, musicians...all very cool. The interesting part of all this is the fact that most of the acts cater to the locals and not the tourists, especially the storytellers and musicians (all in Arabic). Anyway, crazy place at night, very fun...
Had to move to another riad around the corner the following day, Riad Massoud. While not as nice as Soukaina it was still beautiful and the hosts were really nice. Checked out the Gueliz (new part of town), not much to report there. Then it was back into the souk for souvenirs as I was getting close to the end of my journey and wouldn't have to carry these as far! Haha... Again while I enjoyed the souk, as I had in Fès, I found the streets packed with people very claustrophobic and could only handle them for short periods of time...
Unfortunately for my third and fourth days the weather turned absolutely miserable; raining and cold... Got out for a bit in the souk and square to poke around and eat but they weren't the greatest conditions to be walking around sightseeing in
Platter
The craftsmanship of the artisans in Morocco is quite stunning... which was a real drag... At one point on my final day the restaurant I was in was overcome by the rain and started leaking everywhere; a French family in an alcove rescued me from the floods by inviting me to their table! We had a good laugh but no word of a lie there was probably four to six inches of water streaming down the street outside...at this point I was starting to look forward to getting out of there the following day...
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