Marrakech Day 1

Today was the first full day in Marrakech, Morocco. The day started with a delicious breakfast and then it was on to the first tour of the day: the impoverished neighborhoods. I have to say, I had my eyes open quite wide as I walked down the streets full of water, sewage smells, and so many homeless people I could not believe my eyes. Coupled with that, I felt kind of uncomfortable walking down these narrow, impoverished streets with a group of 29 people and two tour guides. Honestly, I felt like I was in the zoo and that I was intruding onto these people’s way of life. We past this one guy’s establishment where he handmade giant padlocks. I have never seen so many unique and decorated padlocks. I did not get many pictures because no one wanted their picture taken.

Oh! Did I mention it was 119 degrees? 119 DEGREES! AHH! So, the next stop (before anyone passed out from heat exhaustion) was one of the local palaces. It consisted of beautifully decorated tiles that covered the walls, ceilings, and floors and all together gave it a very busy feel. It was very interesting to see because there were tons of nooks and crannies all over the place for who knows what. After the palace we transitioned on to seeing some old grave sites. One of the ones that we saw had ceramic huts to house the dead bodies which I thought was pretty cool.

Then it was onto lunch. One of the challenging things about Morocco thus far is that the amount of food that is vegetarian is limited. Chicken and pork seem to be pretty much endless in this country. But, I managed to have some funny tasting rice, bread, and some cooked carrots for lunch. Lunch lasted about an hour because it was so hot outside that no one wanted to go back into such an intense heat. Did I mention 119 degrees? J

The next place that our lovely guide, Abdule, took us was an indoor Moroccan market (air conditioned.) it was fun to look around and I was endlessly amazed at the amount (and size) of the jewelry. All of the jewelry that I have seen in both Morocco and Turkey has been huge, gaudie, and the locals are never wearing it. This market also had a surplus of wooden boxes and trinkets.

Then it was a look at the outside at one of the local mosques (we could not go inside because I am not Muslim) and onto a look at the Marrakech irrigation system. The water was absolutely disgusting (brown with small minnow-like fish in it) and I could understand why everyone says don’t drink the water in Africa.

I have pretty much detailed this day as it was, there was not much excitement or much very intense to report. I think most of the reason is because the heat was pretty much the most exciting part of the day. By exciting I mean most time consuming because it took so much water and so much rest to not pass out from heat exhaustion.  I still cannot get over how the native Islamic people survive during Ramadan when they cannot eat or drink from 4 am until about 8:30 pm.

But, after 8:30 pm, when the heat goes down a little, and the sun disappears, the entire city of Marrakech comes alive. The shops reopen up, ready for haggling, and the main square becomes alive with storytellers, snake charmers, and people with monkeys. In addition, all of the food vendors set up their tables and serve all different types of local food. The orange juice vendors make the most wonderful fresh squeezed orange juice. J