Woke at 5 a.m., not an awful night, and after a couple of cups of coffee headed out at 7:30 a.m. to check out the fishport activity thinking there would be lots of unloading going on. I passed a large part of our crew sitting in front of a cafe in the main square drinking coffee and socializing – the group has been really cohesive with no clashes and a vast depth of travel experiences to compare notes as we went along. Some really interesting travel tales…
Most of the boats weren’t back in the harbour and the only unloading was of sardines. Some others appeared to have already offloaded and the salting and icing was in progress. There was a really slick system for the sardines; the back 1/3 of the boat was filled with water and sardines, a wicker basket full was scooped out of the water and tossed to person 2 who flipped it up to person 3 on the pier. An empty basket simultaneously was tossed to person 1 for another scoop and on it went, in perfect unison. Alas, this website doesn’t allow me to post video.
I joined the coffee team for a somewhat expensive “ness ness” (20 dirham, nearly $3) – tourist town…. then headed back for final packing. The mist was hanging around and had made the seats on the terrace wet but still an interesting view. Breakfast a repeat of yesterday’s and drinkable coffee!
morning mist provided a limited view from the laundry drying area at the very top but you can see that most buildings are about the same height – no high rises here
Because of the stairs we had been offered luggage towage down with our pieces but when it came down to it there was only one staff present at reception and he looked very dubious when asked so we all helped each other down the tortuous staircase. Then the baggage went onto carts (4 in total) and were wheeled through the streets to the waiting buses. Our same driver and van were there, and I asked if it had been fixed – I was assured that it was, that the fuel filter had been changed (!). So luggage loaded and people stowed in their places and we headed for Marrekesh, about a three hour drive away.
In the hotel room
We had barely gotten out of town when the engine hiccuping started up again, resulting in the van pulling over to the shoulder with no power. It restarted readily, but went for shorter and shorter distances and it was pretty evident that it was going to be a long way to Marrakesh today. No ac to save engine so the windows were opened and it was akin to parachuting at times with the force of the wind blasting the face. The downside to being windowside! We had one long stretch on the flat after limping up a hill but as soon as the engine went under any kind of stress it caved. There was much discussion on the phone and after about 2 hours of this we limped into a roadside rest stop and disembarked. The other van was there, and apparently hadn’t been there too long; we were told another van would meet us there and we could change over.
And it duly arrived, after about 1/2 hour; transfer occurred and we set off again, arriving in the outskirts of Marrakesh in another 1 1/2 hrs. Traffic was very dense and it was hot. There was a zone of fairly intense housing construction and modern buildings as you moved closer to the centre, the medina, which is of course the oldest part of the city.
A “high rise” here is four stories, like in Agadir, both for cultural reasons and earthquakes.
We wove our way through traffic, and construction zones towards the medina and finally got to areas recognizable from my treks to Maroc Telecom. We managed to pull our luggage through tourist groups into the medina and our Riad which was also busy with piles of luggage and milling tourists. The inevitable welcome tea later, we were assigned rooms and thankfully this time I’m away from the main foyer – up two floors via a convoluted route that appears to use the servants’ staircase… it will be a two trip extravaganza to get down tomorrow. The 3 hour trip took 5 altogether.
Having not seen the bazaar before, I headed out as soon as I could, with the Victoria group who had spent a couple of days there before the trip started. Noisy, crowded chaos with throngs of pedestrians – both tourists and locals – and weaving through them, giving little in the way of speed are motorbikes and frequent mini front loaders that occupied the whole alley. They too were unyielding – they would happily run over your toes if you don’t scoot out of the way.
almost everything imagineable was for sale, and then some
There are multiple main passageways winding to the central square, then it’s into the souk which has more utilitarian goods as well as tourist and decorative items. There are some expensive “stores” and some exotic hotels leading off as well. In the back alleys you can find many of the goods being made by crafters. The Victoria group were good guides as they had taken a tour when they first arrived.
a quiet side alley
beautiful displays of fruits, nuts, legumes, produce, spices….
for tourist goods, the prices were sometimes higher, and sometimes lower than those in Essaouira and Taroudant but of course bargaining was the name of the game.
We made our way into the central square, which was overlooked by several hotels with rooftop bars, and populated by a traditional piper (you could imagine the cobra swaying to the music!), quite a few beggars, artists with displays, and just noise in general. There were rows of fruit stalls ready to juice and we got some pomegranate juice to wash down the multiple nougat samples that the Victoria crew had generated as they bought some bars. That was lunch! The pomegranite juice was delicious; pure juice, squeezed in front of you.
main square
We headed down one alley and walked for what seemed like miles, then turned back – it is an ENORMOUS complex and would be easy to spend a couple of days wandering around. Much of course is cheap glittery stuff that would come apart quickly, but if you want souvenirs you could carefully choose some interesting things.
Back to the hotel for a quick happy hour before dinner, after acquiring bottled water – great to put the feet up and enjoy the ac. The Victoria crew had acquired some Moroccan wine in Essaouira that wasn’t bad – hard to get alcohol in Marrekesh, apart from the odd rooftop bar in the central square. Dinner was on the rooftop terrace of the hotel and had tasty salads as starters, the usual tagine without protein for vegetarians although at least couscous this time, and a lovely fruit salad and custard for dessert. Redouanne had arrived for dinner, Yousef had been leading a one-day bike tour today and had left early in the morning with Kamm who caught a plane to Portugal to meet up with a friend. We gave Robin, the tour organizer, a gift and thank you card, and then dispersed – some are staying another day, others leave tomorrow at 2:30 a.m. (the Edmonton group) and others to London (I am catching a ride to the airport with them). I’ve already received a notice from Ryanair to expect long lines in Madrid at the airport due to the new EU security system – hoping that having done it once I can enter the shorter lineup but not holding my breath. Travelling from A to B sucks. And so to the final packing, hopefully will meet Ryanair’s regulations!
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