Marrakech

As Tim would say: "Holy f*ck balls!" Marrakech is a city full of winding alleys, overconfident merchants and chaos - complete chaos. Death by vehicular manslaughter awaits you at every corner. Making eye-contact with the merchants is a bad idea because they take it as an invitation to harrass you until you buy something from them. Luckily things here are dirt cheap.

We are staying at Riad Andalla - a traditional guesthouse. The people there are amazing! Many of them speak several languages including French, English and Arabic. Upon arrival yesterday morning we were served sweet mint tea and cookies. Our room is quaint and the entire place is open air. There are no locks on the doors and there aren't even doors on the bathrooms. The building has a terrace where breakfast and dinner are served. The riad is located just near the Jemaa El Fna - the city's main square where you can find snake charmers, henna artists and monkey trainers. At night it turns into an open air market with al fresco dining. We are planning to have dinner there which will include a local specialty: snail soup!

We've visited several ruins including a few palaces and tombs. Today we took a ride in a horse-drawn carriage around the walls of The Red City (nickname for Marrakech because of the red tint the structures have). Morocco is a Muslim country and as such there are sacred mosques in most towns including the Koutoubia located at the southern edge of Marrakech. A call for prayers is heard throughout the city 5 times a day: pre-dawn, noon, late afternoon, sunset and late evening. It is only slightly annoying, but mostly intriguing. Many people will stop in the streets, crouch down on a mat facing Mecca and pray for up to an hour. It is during those times that I feel I am interrupting something sacred.

We leave on our desert tour early tomorrow morning. Eek!

On a side note - even though I am using a desktop computer, there is no hook-up for a usb cord or memory card, so I cannot share any pictures yet!