Summary of Marrakech: When Work Intrudes

I rose with the sun, showered, and packed the last of my belongings. My driver collected me before breakfast and guided me through the empty alleyways to the waiting van. Speaking no English, he drove the entire time in silence, with a hood pulled up over his head, and low to his eyes. The streets […]

What I Did On My Last Day In Marrakech

I walked among the stalls, trying to decide what to eat. As I approached each stall, a vendor stepped into my line of sight, demanding that I sit and eat at his stall. Some accepted “no” right from the start. Others, however, blocked my path, and I turned my back to them. Plenty of the […]

Negotiating with Yertle the Turtle

So here’s the problem, for me at least, in a system based on haggling. Everything is available for a price, but almost nothing has a price on it, so you have to ask about anything in which you have the least amount of interest. Want to know how much that ras el hanout costs to […]

The Merest of Hikes Was Eye Opening

A hike begins with a few steps, and this was no different. Mohammed guided me up into the lower levels of the Atlas Mountains, and the going wasn’t easy, over ground that varied from hardscrabble turf, to massive boulders, to a balancing act along the edge of a concrete irrigation ditch. It was, in fact, […]

The Souks. Where “No” Is Just A “Yes” Waiting To Happen.

Frequent readers of my blog may remember my visit to Turkey, during which I conceded that I was incapable of bargaining and therefore didn’t buy a rug. In retrospect, this remains a wise decision. Today, I was incapable of not bargaining. After breakfast on the roof of our riad, I headed back into the central […]

Eating My Way Through Marrakech

The late afternoon sun glowed in a faint haze over the vast square of the Djema el Fna, and I processed a black figure out of the corner of my eye. I knew it would be coming, but I wasn’t prepared for it just yet. And I jumped away. I was probably ten feet from […]