Marrakech

Thanksgiving weekend I flew to Marrakech with four of my girlfriends. It was a lovely trip full of exotic sights, good food, and shopping. Haggling in the markets was surprisingly fun and I came home with some gorgeous jewelry. As a sucker for anything pretty, I was constantly agape at all the beautiful colors and patterns. The toothless old men in the souks loved me and made it difficult to leave their stall without purchasing something. I was the quintessential tourist.

Five white women walking through the streets of Marrakech is not such a rare sight. This city gets a great deal of tourism and so I felt quite comfortable most of the time. However, there was quite a bit of cat-calling. Some of my favorites included, "Nice ass! Sex for you!", "Fish and cheeeeps!", "Are you two sisters? No? Beautiful, beautiful. Smooch, smooch" (that one by a ten year old boy), "Guapa! No? Beautiful! No? Guapa!" Most of them couldn't tell if we were British or Spanish. I suppose they don't get as many Americans in Morocco.

My first foray into a third world country was sobering. Yes, Marrakech is full of happy tourism, catcalls and bargaining, but there were moments of acute sadness as well. Toward the end, I was buying presents and jewelry with very little haggling--just enough to make the men feel like they'd gotten a good deal. I felt like a jerk with my fancy clothes, healthy teeth, and pampered skin. The toothless old women begging for food or money broke my heart. The children swarming for bonbons and selling us our tea reminded me how fortunate my pijo students really are. I want to go back to Morocco, I want to learn more about the customs, the generosity, and its nature. Like many places in our world, it's a country in crisis and I want to help in some way.

The interior of Yakshi's riad.

The main Place, or Plaza. This man is towing a cart behind him. In the background is one of the horse drawn carriages that are all over the city--towing tourists.

The last voyage of my red Chucks. They stayed in Marrakech, hopefully to adorn some lucky kid's feet.

The view of the Mosque in the sunset from Cafe Arabe.

The same.

Lights above one of the souk in the main place.

Susan gets some henna done. The woman told her, "mucho amor, mucho sexo!" Susan is still waiting for that to pan out....

Animal innards. Buckets of animal innards were left around the city. Not sure why, but the feral cats sure loved that habit.

Botanical garden.

Baby palm tree struggling against ancient tiles.

Slave boy tea cozy. Very politically correct. *cough*

Not much graphitti in Marrakech, but in the botanical gardens any cactus or bamboo close to the railing was covered in names and professions of love.

These flowers were all over the city in oranges, reds, and pinks. So beautiful!

Yakshi in her riad. Ours was not nearly so beautiful, though just as cozy and clean.

Typical tea service in Morocco. The mint tea was incredible.

The main Mosque.

I don't want to know what this cat is eating, nor do I want to know what turned him magenta.

In the market. Our riad used this style of pottery for our breakfast dishes. Fiestaware has new competition in my book!

Jen and Yakshi walking through the market. It was very polluted and often they burned fires in the street to roast sheep heads or some other more tasty fare.

Part of the pollution problem comes from the wide use of bikes. There are some bicycles, but most people ride these little motor bikes. They burn fuel very inefficiently. Our noses and eyes burned most days. I won't go into the color of my snot, but it was appalling.

Our riad.

Breakfast at our riad.

Jen and Susan at the night market. The food was disappointing, but maybe we didn't pick the right stall.

I didn't scrounge up enough courage to try the snails.

Night Market.

Jen loves Morocco, but not enough to stay in her headdress for long. This guy was very stubborn and wouldn't let her buy the scarf for less than 250 durum. However, he let me buy the same exact scarf for 150 durum saying, "I like your smile. I like your eyes. You get special democratic price." Yeah, whatever dude.