Marrakech -- Day Two

After our late night the night before, day two of Marrakech got off to a late beginning. Like I said, we would happily have stayed holed up in that beautiful apartment watching TV for three days solid were it not for the fact we were in Marrakech and couldn't in good conscience do that.

So.... after a lie in and some breakfast we headed to the Acima supermarket to pick up rations for the next couple of days. Didn't want to break the bank before even getting to Casa. More taxi man problems, and ended up back in the apartment watching movies 'til about 6, when we decided to venture out for some sunset photos.

We had examined the map pretty closely and figured it would take us about 20 minutes to walk to the nearest bit of the ramparts, for which Marrakech is famous. It has the best preserved ramparts in Morocco. Inside these ramparts lies the medina, or the really old part of the city. Crossing through the ramparts, the day-and-night differences of Ville Nouvelle and the old medina are immediately apparent.

The new part of the city is like a ghost town in comparison to all the hustle and bustle in the medina. People in cars and on motorbikes blare their horns through the busy, narrow pedestrianised alleys, which are lined on either side by all manner of shops and cafes. Butchers, fish mongers, clothing stores, jewelers, and so on and so forth, all clamoring for your attention, each shop owner trying to entice you inside as you walk past. Men sit outside in closely clustered groups, leisurely drinking mint tea and discussing the latest gossip. Women try on djellebas and jewelry or quickly usher their children home for supper.

We met a young man calledYoussef who wanted to practice his English and helped us practice our Tashelhit. He's young, perhaps 19 or 20. He gets up early each morning to travel to his job working in a garden 20 km outside of the city. At night he entertains in a posh touristy restaurant. He's a fire eater, the first I've ever met. He directed us through the maze of alleyways and showed us how to get to the "Big Square," as it's called -- Place Jemaa El Fna. We hadn't imagined that we could walk there from our hotel, but all told it only took us about an hour to get there, and that was at a slow meander.

Once we got back into the square, we had a look at a few of the musicians and other entertainers before catching a taxi back to the hotel. It was only about 8 when we got back, and I can't remember exactly, but I think I went to bed fairly early that night. We had decided we would have an early morning the next day, in hopes of seeing the Jardin Majorelle, the souk, and the tombs, all before having to meet our boss at 3:00 in the afternoon.