I survived Day 2 in Morocco. Whew!
Soon after I arrived here yesterday, I made a firm goal to watch where I was standing, especially when I was taking a photo. Not getting run over by something is harder than it sounds! Between the donkeys, pushcarts, mopeds, horses, bicycles, wheelbarrows, vehicles, and people, it’s a wonder my feet are still intact. As chaotic as it looks to a Westerner, there is an order to this chaos — even though I saw 4,592 near-collisions between animal/motorised vehicle/human, there was not one actual casualty. Which is amazing because the lanes in the souks are sometimes two metres wide or less with wares on each side, and somehow the bicycles and mopeds squeeze through at normal cruising speed. I tell you, it is a sight to behold!
I opted not to rent a car to explore the Atlas Mountains today and instead will save this for another trip. I met two Moroccan university students last night who offered to take me around the Berber villages (one student is Berber), but I really needed another tourist with me to make it economical and safer (with special emphasis on “safer”).
I would’ve asked around for a second or third tourist, too, but instead I took some time this morning to switch hotels to the one I originally wanted to stay in, which was full last night. It also doesn’t have any ensuite bathrooms, which is fine for today but last night I wanted to wash some clothes in the sink and didn’t want to hold up a shared bathroom. I only ever take three days’ worth of clothing on trips like this, which makes it much easier to backpack around but it means frequent washing. It worked well in Cuba, which is less developed.
Today I chose to sightsee around the medina and walked my feet off. Some highlights:
- Ali ben Youssef Medersa
- Koutoubia Mosque (only the exterior; non-Muslims may not enter)
- Musee de Marrakech
- Quobba Almoravid (check out this site’s other photos, too)
- La Bahia Palace
I watched some cobras and snake charmers… from AFAR, thank you very much. (I think I’ve mentioned how I feel about snakes before in this space.) Garden snakes are one thing, but there’s something quite intimidating about a cobra head, poison or no poison.
I had a massive meal of mixed brochettes, salad, olives, grilled aubergines, peppers, and other vegetables and frites in the Djemaa el Fna this evening. It was delicious but it was my first sit-down meal after a full day of walking, and it’s sending me into a food coma. Speaking of food, I’ve been in food heaven here: I love aubergines, and I’ve also been snacking on fresh pineapple, pieces of coconut, pastries, nuts, and yesterday I had the first glass of freshly-squeezed sugar cane juice since I was in the Philippines in 1984!
I did manage to find the Cyber Parc today and got a strong signal, but I think their server’s down because it’s only showing the router and not grabbing any webpages. Oh well! I found an even cheaper internet cafe (less than $1 an hour) and set the keyboard to English so I could type faster.
My plan is to push off for the capital, Rabat, tomorrow by train. There are trains all day long, so I shouldn’t have any trouble getting a seat without a reservation.