The Land of the Berbers
Morocco
We spent the day walking around the medina, taking photos and shopping. Let me tell you, that it’s necessary to haggle for your merchandise. The shopkeepers will first give you a ridiculously high price. You should then offer about one-third of that and barter back and forth. The seller will give you a look like “how can you possibly offer me so little?” – but don’t pay attention to that – it’s BS. Raise your price slowly and keep in mind your limit. If you bargain well, you can get a good price.
We left the next morning for Marrakesh. We had planned to take a bus, but decided to ask for the price of a grand taxi (taxis that go from town to town). We had heard that it wasn’t that much more than a price for a bus, if you just bought a ‘seat’ in a grand taxi. These taxis are old Mercedes and they take six people. After being inside one, I can’t imagine more than four people fitting in there comfortably. I saw some other full ones and they squeeze four people in the back and two in the front (although there’s really only one seat – someone sits between the seats). Crazy. Anyway, the taxi driver said it would be quarante-cinq which is 45 dirhams. I said for all three of us and he said, yes and I repeated the price to him again in French to be sure. The bus was 30 dirhams, so we decided to take the taxi.
We arrived at his taxi and he threw out the four people in there already (they were Moroccans). We found this odd, but thought that 45 dirhams was cheap to us (around $4), so maybe he charged us more than Moroccans, but that was okay. He left with just the three of us in the taxi. He drove for about a half hour and stopped at a gas station. He then asked for some money. Janet asked, “You mean we have to pay for your gasoline too?!”
Well we discussed this and he said he wanted to be paid now. I gave him 50 dirham and said we’d give the rest when we arrived in Marrakesh. He looked at that bill like it was something strange and bizarre and said, “No, c’est quatre cent” which is 400 dirham! Now we were confused and we argued for a bit. We realized he wanted 400 dirhams, not 45 each. 400 was a ridiculous price for only a two hour drive, so we tried to get the price down. He refused and said he’d take us back to Essaouria for 200 dirham. Of course, we didn’t want that either, so finally we agreed to pay 400. We learned our lesson from that experience that we should always get the price in writing, just to make sure. I think this was a scam of his, to drive for half an hour and then change the price. This was the last time we took a grand taxi anyway.
One good thing about taking that taxi is that we arrived sooner than we would have with the bus, so we were able to get a room in the popular Hotel Ali, just a block away from the infamous djemaa el-fna plaza.
Hotel Ali is run by a wonderful woman, Illam, who speaks several languages fluently, and seems to be able to do several different things at one time and still keep her calm – all while being 9 months pregnant. She was incredible, and very helpful to us. This was our nicest room – we had a room at the top, near the roof terrace, with a balcony and for only $15/night! Hotel Ali arranges various tours from one day to four days and we signed up for a 4-day one. Our two days in Marrakesh were spent mostly walking though the medina and the souks (markets) and exploring the city in a horse carriage. At night we’d go the djemaa el-fna and take in the merriment and sometimes eat there. The djemaa el-fna is quite unusual. There are jugglers, dancers, acrobats, snake charmers, henna artists, watermen, storytellers, orange juice venders, nut venders, and restaurants in the open. These people live off tourism alone and can be quite aggressive in trying to extract money from you, asking exorbitant fees for taking a photo of them.
After two days in Marrakesh we took our 4-day trip. This was in a mini-bus with 9 people total. The others came from various countries, including England, Scotland and Germany. Our driver, Lausan, looked like Tom Selleck and was named ‘Magnum’ by a previous group of tourists. Lausan provided us with an endless (or not quite) supply of Berber music to accompany our trip.
The first day took us through the beautiful High Atlas mountains and Berber villages, to the Ait Bennadou, a famous kasbah (used for several films), and through the Draa Valley where the landscapes turn to oases towns, desert with lush palmeries in between. We ended up in Zagora where we embarked on a camel ride for 1.5 hours through the desert to a Berber tent where we camped for the evening. The desert is rocky, but near the tent, small dunes began. We sat in the Berber tent, eating and listening to our guides play Berber music with drums, flutes and singing – all by candle light.
I let Janet talk me into sleeping outside with her instead of in the tent with the others. It’s true that it was calm and beautiful outside, with a mystical starry sky above. However, the temperature soon plummeted (it was freezing) and the wind picked up. I spent the night curled up in a ball, totally underneath my blanket. I know I could have gotten up and moved into the tent, but with the wind and cold, I just didn’t want to move. Well, we survived it and were treated to a beautiful and peaceful sunrise. How amazing the desert is – how silent, how contemplative. One of the few times you can actually ‘hear’ silence.
Another night in the desert and on to Fes
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