Marrakech
The "haunted" hotel, as I call it. We arrived during Ramadan, so we were pretty much the only ones here!
Market scenes
Notice how many of these pictures have people on bikes or motorcycles? You always have to be looking over your shoulder as every 2 minutes one of these daredevils will come screaming through the crowd.
By nightfall, this square will be jam-packed with people and food vendors and drum circles. Notice the Koutoubia Mosque minaret that overlooks the square.
Around the town.
Some images of the Cyberpark. At first we wondered if "cyber" meant something different around here, but no, it turns out there is a big computer center in the middle of the park!
The green, green grass of.... Marrakech?
The old city walls are still standing, but intermingled in the old is plenty of new architecture.
More wildlife.
These camels are pretty much just here so tourists can take pictures with them. Nobody actually rides camels in town.
The remains of the original Koutoubia Mosque. It had to be rebuilt after it was discovered that it wasn't correctly aligned with Mecca. I wonder if some heads rolled over that one... ?
The Kasbah Mosque.
Well I couldn't help myself.
There are clouds here. Just... not very often.
The Saadian tombs
Food!
(not food... but tried to help himself to mine).
The Marrakech Museum
Some 200km away in the Atlas Mountains is the town of Ouzoud. Previously known for agriculture and the cultivation of olive trees, they have since used the waterfalls to open up the tourism trade.
A Berber house. These walls are 400 years old.
These trees, on the other hand, are almost a thousand years old. The Berbers avoided conflicts over land by decreeing that all land is community owned, but trees belong to whichever family planted them.
They lived in caves such as these when the country was occupied during Arab and French invasions.
Casablanca - weirdest drinking fountain I've ever seen.
Markets here are noticably different from Marrakech. And I don't just mean the chicks. And yes, those are real chicks. No, I don't know why they did that.
Some of the local wildlife.
Around town
The Park of the Arab League.
It was somewhere around here that I learned that when someone talks to you in Casablanca, no matter how cultured, urbane, and avuncular they may seem, even if they just ask for the time... eventually they're going to hit you up for money.
This is not Moroccan food. We ate at this Middle Eastern place several times. On the right is their version of Baba Ghanouj.
The Hassan II Mosque. Built at a cost of around $800 million, it has drawn some criticism as it stands in the midst of some very poor neighborhoods.
But it is, nevertheless, quite impressive.
And with that, we are on our way.