Well I made it to Morocco just fine. Flight Sunday night was on time. Met a Moroccan from Alabama at baggage claim that was doing the train from Casablanca to Marrakech like I was. So his Arabic got us thru buying the tickets and getting on the right train. Four hours later, noon local time, Hassan picked me up at Marrakech train station to drive me to the "medina" area of Marrakech. The King of Morocco is in town for some reason so it took a while to get thru all the checkpoints. The medina area is the ancient walled city with no streets that can be accessed by cars. So Hassan got as close as he could and then told some kid with a push cart to take me and my luggage to the "raid" where I would spend the night. I was too tired from the over night trip and train ride to argue, so I just followed the kid. We walked for about ten minutes down narrow alley ways and he stopped at an unmarked door that turned out to be Riad Berbere where I had a reservation. The manager was a nice lady from Belgium, Ingrid. My room was nice and she said it was typical of Moroccan riads. Because I don't have much time in Marrakech, I asked Ingrid to help me figure out how to walk around the medina and get back to Berbere without getting lost. She laughed and said everyone stays lost in the medina, which turned out to be true. But she walked me about a half mile towards the main square and thru the "souks". Every turn in the passageway she would stop and say things like......see that purple sign? Take a left at it when you are on the way back. So one purple sign and two green ones later, I acted like I grasped things and told her thanks. She left me to fend for myself. If you are interested, Google souks in Marrakech. Damnedest operation ever. Selling everything from trinkets to whole butchered cows that hang unrefrigerated in the stalls.
I had read about the snake charmers in the main square of the medina before coming so I wanted to see that. What I hadn't read about was that the charmer himself could get very angry if you tried to take a picture of him and his cobras without paying him. Well one of these dudes came storming at me when he saw me raising my camera. I quickly put the camera down mostly because he had some smaller snake, not a cobra, draped around his neck. I managed to back away without further incident, but it definitely shook me up. I decided that I had had enough for one day. It only took me about an hour to find my way back to the Berbere and the purple and green signs where the key just as Ingrid had said
Slept 10 hours. Woke up and had a decent breakfast of some strange fruit and a coissant of sorts. Then my driver for the week called and told Ingrid where he was parked. Ingrid called a kid with a cart and away we went to find Yahja, the driver. Definitely a little different than checking in and out of a Hampton Inn. My transportation is a brand new Toyota Land Cruiser with huge tires on it for when we get to the Sahara later this week and the roads end. It took us about 6.5 hours today to drive from Marrakech over the High Atlas mountains to Ouarzazate. The terrain is very much like the desert and mountains in Vegas or Phoenix. There was some snow at the pass when got to the top of the mountain, about 6000 ft of elevation. Stopped at the most famous "kasbah" in Morocco, but I can't remember the name. Several movies have been filmed there including the made for tv, The Bible. This place is a historic tourist destination, but some families still live inside. The whole thing is about the size of an NFL stadium. It's about 300 years old they think. The Chapel Hill historic types should move here
Yahja just dropped me off at my hotel for the night, Dar Chamaa. Seems nice and has wifi that even I could figure out. Wonderful swimming pool out back. Dinner is served in about an hour and is included in the price. So they decide what is served. My digestive system is excited. More to come when I can and have wifi.
