After a long two hour flight surrounded by four crying babies and a rough landing (thanks Ryanair) we touched down in Marrakesh. The first thing I noticed when I got on the pavement was "holy sh*t it's hot!" It was around 110 degrees Fahrenheit the whole time we were there. However, when I found myself thinking about how hot it was or how I don't really think I would want to live here, Alyssa would pop into my head and I would immediately stop bitching. 2 years?! man, you are impressive... or crazy... I haven't decided yet.
We got off our plane around 8 pm local time. All 6 of us piled into a little cab to head for our hostel. Within no time you come to terms that the traffic laws are more suggestions (scratch that... ideas for consideration) than laws. It is pretty much a giant race of who can get to the open area first between cars, buses, motorcycles, bikes, donkeys, horses, and the occasional jacked Muslim women carrying her weight of some random object. The best word to describe it would be a giant clusterf**k. (pardon the poor language, but I feel the integrity of the blog requires it).
When we arrived to the hostel, it had a doorway that even my girlfriend and cousins would have to duck to get in, but it opened up into a beautifully decorated lounge area.
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| View of lounge area in hostel from the second floor |
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| Hostel wall |
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| More hostel pics |
The staff was extremely helpful getting us settled in. They gave us some delicious tea that I couldn't get enough of. Even though I may have drank a gallon of it the whole weekend I was there. It was green tea with mint and sugar in it, delicious! We then signed up for our day trip to Ourika Valley. After getting all cozy, we walked around the market and found a delicious restaurant to eat at, with a great atmosphere. I had the lamb skewers, they were so good that we went back for the next dinner and I ordered them again.
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| In the restaurant |
We had a long day ahead of us so being well rested would have been nice, however sleeping did not come easy in our oven-like room. I woke up every 30 minutes or so in a pool of sweat. So when I got up in the morning not feeling that well rested, I was forced to have my first ever cup of coffee. I can't say I enjoyed it but it most certainly did the job!
The first thing we did on our excursion was visit a little town. Right when we got there we were bombarded by people trying to sell us cheap jewelry, they were extremely persistent which got to be annoying after awhile. Everything you would to buy from the zoco (name for Muslim open markets) or these vendors you would have to barter for the price you are willing to pay. While being followed by our posse of vendors Abdul, our guide, gave us a little tour of the pueblo (which he lived in) and an interesting tour of a 15 person home. On the first floor was the water heater that heated the water by fire, and stalls for the animals. From what I was able to see there were 3 cows and a lot of chickens and rabbits. On the second floor they had the dining area and other places to sit. They made us more of the mint green tea and gave us bread with honey and butter made from their own bees and cows, a nice snack. After being asked if we were super sure that we didn't want to buy the cheap and "real" jewelry we boarded the van and headed to one of the highlights of the day... Camel Rides!!
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| Part of the second floor, the sitting area is off to the left |
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| Prepping for more tea! |
The camel ride was a blast! After getting on the sitting camel, the camel standing back up reminds me of roller coaster ride. It first gets half way up on its front legs which throws you back, then it goes all the way up on the back legs, tossing you back the other way, and then steadies itself out. We spent 30 minutes on the beast and that was plenty for me, seeing as I wasn't sure how much longer my legs could be spread that wide. Get ready for some good camel pics!
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| Notice adventure pants |
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| Just me chillin on a camel |
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| Our group (the tour guide is the guy in the middle that isn't me) the man in the pink is the driver and the man in the hat is the camel master |
After the camel rides we visited an aromatic garden. They grow all types of herbs and make this kind of natural beauty products. They gave us a presentation on all of the natural products they make and gave us this strong medicine tea that supposedly has some health benefits. All I know is it had more caffeine in it, so after all of my coffee, green tea, and medicine I had drank before noon, caffeine was coursing through my veins, it was a very weird feeling. Lots of energy! Also the medicine tea was an aphrodisiac, however no one there was all over me...I know, very surprising... the Muslims there must have very strong will power ;). Overall the garden was pretty cool but seeing as my personal hygiene isn't on the top of my priority list, I left empty handed.
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| Making some oil they are famous for |
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| Our guide for the garden |
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| Medicine tea! |
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| Aromatic garden |
The next part of our trip was lunch. We had worked up quite the appetite already, and the girls I traveled with get very cranky when hungry, so lunch came just it time. I need to create a sign like "beware of dog" but instead reads "beware when hungry." People can carry that around with them so us humans can make sure they stay well fed so we don't have to suffer the consequences. Anyways, we had a nice three course lunch and got to sit and eat with our feet in the river, which was very refreshing because of the heat.
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| Lunch entertainment |
After lunch we started our 30 minute hike up to the waterfall. It was moderately difficult, I was happy I wore my amazing adventure pants (you have seen them in the pictures of me in this blog, I'm in love with them). Once we got close you could hear the water and tell that it was a hot spot for the people to come and cool off. The water was very cold since comes from up in the mountains. On a similar note, It was very interesting the way they keep the drinks and fruit cool. They funnel the mountain water into a sprinkler-like system that sprays the cold water over everything, I found this to be really cool, especially when they presented it in clever ways. When we reached the waterfall we hopped in and swam under it to cool off, the cold water felt amazing, it was a great reward for us at the end of the day! Once we were done swimming we had to go back down the mountain, my shirt was still wet which kept me cool for the majority of the decent, my adventure pants on the other hand dried instantly!
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| Cooling system |
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| Sweet cooling system, sorry its hard to see |
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| Waterfall |
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| Random pic of the river |
We weren't exactly sure what we were going to get when we signed up for the day trip but it turned out to be awesome! Our guide was great, it was entertaining to see the random gullible woman from our tour group buy everything offered to her thinking it was real silver and jewels, and most of all, the activities we did were extremely fun and different.
When we got back we relaxed a bit in the hostel, then went shopping in the zoco and out for dinner. In the zoco the henna people and snake people are very aggressive. They have no problem grabbing your hand and starting the henna if you even show the slightest hint of interest. Also a snake dude came up to me and wrapped one around my neck despite me telling him I have no money to give him. After he finally let go of it, I was able to take it off my neck, but he wouldn't grab it back, forcing me to wrap it around his neck. It was a battle but I finally escaped. Good thing I'm not scared of snakes! (s/o to Nick). We got back to the hostel relatively early (around 10:30) to chill, I really enjoyed the environment of our hostel. It was a lot of fun to talk to all of the travelers and hear their story, there were some really interesting people. When it was finally time for bed I decided to sleep on the roof because there was no way I was going to be able to sleep in my bed again, also its pretty cool to sleep under the stars in Africa. Every couch on the roof had a person sleeping in it, so I am guessing every room was about as unbearable as ours. The roof was way cooler and I woke up the next morning feeling very well rested. Thankfully I was able to skip the coffee this morning.
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| Roof of the hostel |
We had a very short day on Saturday because we had to leave for the airport at 2:30 to make our flight back. We decided to visit this Muslim palace. It reminded me a lot of La Alhambra, which I talked about in the last blog, except dialed down a couple notches. It was still very cool though.
Then we we went to some garden of a famous fashion designer. Gardens aren't really my thing as you can tell from the very detailed description I give about it, however it was still very impressive and pretty.
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| Name and map of garden |
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| In the garden |
I absolutely loved Marrakesh, everything about it was something I hadn't experienced before. A friend of mine said something I found really interesting. In Marrakesh "the rules feel very strict however in reality there are no real rules." I am guessing this feeling comes from the fact that the culture is so new that we feel a bit of pressure to fit in and not screw up. I am not actually sure if there are no rules but this is a pretty accurate way to describe the initial feeling of the city. It was a strange vibe.
I never once felt unsafe in the city, it always felt very alive. Only once when we were walking back to our hostel around 1 a.m. in the dark I felt a little uneasy. We had to walk through this little alley to get to our hostel and we turned a dark corner and there were three Arabic women in complete head dress standing there, I could only see the whites of their eyes, that kind of creeped me out, but that is just because I am not used to that sight. It felt like a safe city to me.
The people that actually lived there wore clothes from every part of the spectrum. The young men wore clothes like I would, some older people as well. Others would fall in between that or a very traditional Muslim robe (for lack of a better word). From what I saw the average women seemed to dress more traditional then the men, there was less of a range for them. It was very interesting to see the varied clothes people wore.
One thing I find absolutely hilarious is I was traveling with myself and five American women, and many people believed that they were all my women. I could not believe that. I would get looks of amazement on the street as I was walking next to "my women." Some one would say "1 man, 5 girls, one for me?" I even had this conversation with someone,
Man approaches "You are with so many beautiful women, are they your girlfriends?"
"haha no, they are not" I responded,
"Oh I see, how is the sex?" he asked me
I was not expecting this at all so I responded with the simple "it's good" to end the conversation, but I could not stop laughing that I actually had that conversation with someone. People just couldn't believe I was hanging out with more than one woman I guess. They honestly thought I was with all five women. It is certainly a different culture. Also the poor girls I was with would get harassed, I heard a lot of "kiss, kiss... kiss, kiss" as well as "nice ass" and "nice boobs."
I would have liked to have more time in Morocco, there is still plenty I would like to do. However for the short amount of time I had, It was awesome. I am looking forward to making my way back there later in life. Now for some random Adam pics for the fam. ¡Hasta Luego!
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| Adiós Africa |
