Marrakech Dec 6,08

Saturday, December 6th, 2008

Today dawned bright and sunny with a light breeze from the NE.

I went ashore with the first skiff run at 8:00 and headed to what is becoming the official Picton Castle
hotel here,the Dar Naciria.

Once I had a hotel room, John, WT, Gary and I got a Taxi and headed to the fabled city of Marrakech.

The trip took 3 hours by taxi. The driver was very pleasant and his Mercedes cab handled the sometimes
rough road without any complaints.

Driving once we got into Marrakech is a nightmare. Nearly every road is two lanes wide but has 3 or more
lanes of traffic on it. I don’t think I’ve ever been in so many near miss collisions in my life!

Our driver dropped us off just outside the main market square and in we went to take a look at one of the
most famous markets in the world.

The main square was busy with a lot of tourists so we went to a restaurant for a “quick” lunch that took
an hour and a half then dived into the narrow crowded lanes that make up the market area of Marrakech.
Frankly I was not impressed, the vendors mostly had the same kind of stuff as at Essaouira just more of it
and it was not only more expensive but the vendors themselves were much pushier and less willing to
bargain.

The streets are even narrower than Essaouira and in addition to large amounts of people there are mopeds,
scooters, donkey carts and even the odd delivery vehicle all charging along at relatively high and smoky
speeds. Blah. The air is full of smoke from all the vehicles and the braziers cooking bits of meat etc. I’m
still coughing and it’s 12 hours later!

We spent about 5 hours in that maze which was plenty.

We then called our cabbie and headed back to the now familiar and friendly Essaouira.

Tomorrow I’m going to take it easy and just wander around and relax.

The pics of my road trip to Marrakech are here.

Thanks for reading.
KJ

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