Morocco, Part 1

Casablanca: the flight
We're off again, this time it's to Morocco. Neither Shell or I have been to Africa before so it's difficult to know what to expect. Having said that I am expecting that more things work first time than in the UK. I know that sounds a bit harsh but taking a evidence based approach it's accurate. Again the UK did what it does best and got it wrong, we arrived at the hotel, they thought the room was ready, we walked in and they hadn't even started. We got a free drink out of that one but really, talk about elementary error.
We started our journey as we always do at Manchester airport. We're getting better at getting through the intrusive security and entertaining ourselves pre departure. We had a split journey as we needed to go through Portugal with a stop over. We got to Portugal with no unusual incidents but our trip from Portugal to Morocco was a bit different. For starters there were very few of our fellow passengers at the gate. Second we couldn't see our plane at the gate which was a bit odd. When we started to board we were made to line up before getting on a bus to take us to the plane. The official was taking a intense interest in our carry on bags. Seeing ours he asked both shell and I to take them off our backs so he could tag them. Naturally, I asked why, apparently, they were too big for the cabin and we would have to store them in the hold. Now, I am wondering just how small this plane is.
Departing on the bus we passed all the big planes, we kept going, passed the main sites and out to the far side of the airport. I got excited at one point because it looked as though we were heading to one of the private Lear jets. Alas, this was not meant to be, we passed those too. We eventually stopped at a turbo prop plane which held about 50 people which was a relief because I expected something a lot smaller. The flight was good and a lot quieter than the huge jets.

Casablanca
The name Casablanca evokes thoughts of the famous movie so I had a romanticised image of the city in my head. The trip to the airport was through some very dry and dusty land, typical of those with a hot climate. In fact the temperature was expected to be somewhere into the 40s during the week. When we arrived in the city it was very quiet. Most things seemed to be shut which was not a surprise because we had arrived at the end of Ramadan. We tried really hard to avoid being in an Islamic country during Ramadan but because of the flights we were to experience the last couple of days. We arrived at the hotel without incident and set about the task of finding something to eat.
This was easier said than done because nothing was open. We found a cafe a couple of streets away which enticed us in with the promise of pizza. It's important to note at this point that the sun had just set which marked the end of fasting time. As we walked into the cafe we could see a lot of local Moroccans hunched over their meals throwing down food and gulping down water. We immediately asked ourselves “are we intruding”? Unfortunately, we didn't have much of a choice as it was this or nothing. We tried for a pizza but came up against our first hurdle, language. The two official languages of Morocco are Arabic and French so no English in this local cafe. We resorted to pointing at the plate of the person next to us and asking for 2. What we ordered was essentially a Ramadan fast breaker. It consisted of a soup with spaghetti, croissant, dates, pastry and a boiled egg. It was amazing how filling it was. We managed to navigate payment and left a big tip to smooth over any cultural faux pas. We think it was ok.

Mosque on the water
We returned to the hotel and had a good night’s sleep. Next day we decided to visit the mosque in Casablanca. The mosque is the third biggest mosque in the world and is built over the water allowing the faithful to see the ocean when they pray. Exiting the hotel we discovered there was a lot more life than the previous night. We approached the main road to flag down a taxi to find it was chaotic. Shops were selling their wares, street beggars were looking for charity, cars, bikes and buses were flying left, right and centre, crowds of people were bustling along the street which all adding to the general chaos. Talking out life in our hands we leaped out from behind parked cars and did our dash across the road to catch a taxi. After negotiating a fair price we were transported across the city to the mosque.
The first thing we notice about this religious structure is the vast expanse of the courtyard. We estimated it was about five hundred metres in length. We later learnt that this courtyard could hold 80000 people.
When we reached the mosque we were greeted with a wonderfully cooling sea breeze coming off the ocean. From the outside the mosque looked enormous , the doors had very ornate and had intricate carvings. The minaret towered high into the sky and made it very grandiose. To see the inside of the mosque we had to join a tour which is exactly what we did.
The scale of the mosque is best expressed in statistics, it is 65 metres in height, 200 metres in width and 300 metres in length. It can fit 20000 people inside, 5000 women on the balcony and 15000 on the ground. The roof is retractable (which is how the pigeons got in) to cool the place down when it is hot and with that amount of people it would get very hot. The window frames were made out of titanium (very expensive) to help avoid any corrosion from the sea air and the columns are marble. It took six years to build with teams working 24/7 round the clock and fully engaged a substantial number of local artisans. It had a French architect. It is one of those things that has to be seen to appreciate. Some of the little things that were memorable were the glass floors which allowed viewing into the ablution rooms below and the cleverly disguised speakers that were integrated into the structure. Painted white to match the colours of the pillars they were nearly unrecognisable. The tour took an hour or more I think and cover the mosque, the ablution room and the adjoining Hamman. Although the Hamman was meant for public use it is still empty with the promise of next year, next year. The mosque was by far and wide the best feature of our stay in Casablanca. We returned to the hotel where we enjoyed a chilled out afternoon and had some sneaky food out of the sight of the starving locals.

Where is everybody?
The time was about 19:45 when we heard a siren go off. It was exactly the same noise as one of the World War Two sirens; it was loud, piercing and unusual. We kinda guessed it was for the end of Ramadan but had no real way of confirming it. As it was about dinner time we proceeded downstairs. In the lobby the receptionist was tucking into food with much haste. We confirmed that the air siren was for the end of Ramadan and left him to it. What happened next was surreal. We went to the same road we went to early in the day, the one that was packed and got the shock of our lives. The place was deserted, absolutely and totally empty. This same busy road had nothing, no people, no cars, the shops were boarded up with metal shutters, the restaurants were closed, even the parked cars were gone, nothing, everything completely gone. I was able to stand in the middle of the road in complete safety. If we didn't know what the air siren stood for it might very been frightening. The desertion was apocalyptic, it was as if everybody and everything had been scooped up and removed from Casablanca.
We eventually found a restaurant that was open, but empty and sat down for our first real dinner in Morocco. Shell ordered a tarjine, the local cuisine of chicken and vegetables cooked in a cone shaped pot. We were served quickly and I got the impression they were glad to see us given how quiet it was. Returning to the hotel we crossed our deserted road which had got a little bit busier and retired for the evening.

Casablanca beach and the start of Morocco encompassed
We had a full day as our first group meeting didn't start until 6. We decided to have a look round Casablanca and head down to the beach. Everything in Casablanca is pretty rundown with the exception being the tram system. The tram system is brand new and very modern. Luckily for us it ran from close to our hotel right down to the beach. On our trip down we passed a mosque and we encountered what it meant to be in Morocco for Friday prayers. This mosque was packed, heaving in fact, definitely hundreds of people all turning up for worship. It was a sea of people moving towards a central building. Curious thing was there was a high security presence, lots of men with machine guns, all of them looking, not towards the mosque with the people but out to the horizon.
We made it to the beach and spent about an hour walking up and down. The area was a real mix of standards. Some parts were well maintained, bright and clean, other were full of rubbish and dirty. There were local restaurants standing next to MacDonalds and Burger King, a real mix. All in all though it wasn't that impressive.
Our return to the city was delayed because the tram shut down for Friday prayers. We had a very interesting "conversation" with the tram man when he tried to explain why the tram wasn't operating. He didn't speak any English but we managed to understand each other. So, what should have been a 30 minute journey turned into an hour and a half. By the time we got to the hotel we very tired and cranky. Cranky because we hadn't eaten or drunk anything for most of the day partly out of respect for the locals who were observing Ramadan. We quickly became Ramadan dropouts once we were in the safe confines of our hotel room. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and chilling out. We met our group and went out for our first group dinner. We were off on our Moroccan adventure.

North Morocco group
There were 12 people on our north Morocco group. 10 Australians and 2 Americans from the state of Indiana. Of the 12 there were 3 boys and 9 girls. There were three couples (one of which was us), the 2 girls from the U.S knew each other, three girls who knew each other and a girl who traveled on her own. Each and everyone was lovely. Really interesting, good conversationalists, fun and made the group work as a whole. They were a delight to be around. We were really sad to leave them at the end of our trip.

Rabat
The morning was a bit of a debacle. We set our alarms for 7:00am departure for an 8:30am departure in the morning. Shell's alarm went off and woke us from our slumber. I felt something was wrong because it seemed a bit dark for 7 in the morning. The other thing was I didn't recall my alarm going off which is strange because I normally only properly wake with the two. Still we got up, dressed and made our way to the breakfast table. Reaching the dining area we were surprised to see the door closed which was odd because by our watches it was 7:50am and breakfast started at 7. We were then reliably informed that it was 6:50am and breakfast would open in 10 minutes. What had happened is that we had failed to change all our clocks to the correct local time. What usually happens is that the time is automatically updated when the phones /tablets Etc connect to the nearest network tower but in this case Casablanca didn't work. We weren't the only ones either, out of 12 people only 3 had the correct time ( one of them being mine but we responded to shell's iPad, so that didn't count). It turned out to be a bit of an ice breaker as we all tried to work out the correct time. I also had to deal with my alarm going off an hour later than intended. Luckily for us we were an hour earlier than expected which is better than an hour late so we had a easy start to the morning.
Setting out on our new adventure we headed towards the train station. Again, the station was bright modern and clean. The train was on time as far as I knew; I had taken my brain out of gear the moment we had met our local guide. This is what we had paid for, to wander around in a blissful travel bubble and let someone else deal with all the hassle. Arriving in Rabat I was pleasantly surprised to see that it wasn't as rundown as Casablanca. It was also a beautiful sunny day which is always appreciated. We began our orientation tour of the city, we were pointed in the direction of the medina, the casbah and the Hussan tower.
We then spent a very pleasant afternoon touring the area. Walking rough the city walls we navigated through narrow streets to an open courtyard area where we had a great view of the Atlantic Ocean. We finished up at the unfinished Hussan tower and mosque.

Moulay Idriss
We boarded the train the very same day and continued our journey. We were upgraded to first class to ensure that we got a seat in this busy holiday period. Our group got to occupy a whole carriage so we spent a very pleasant afternoon chatting to and getting to know our fellow travellers. Arriving at our local destination we were greeted by our next mode of transport the local taxi. These local taxis were Mercedes cars that would have been incredibly stylish in the 80s. Today they looked like they had seen better day. Outside they were battered and dented, inside they were lined with plastic leopard skinned plastic interiors with the handle missing. Air con consisted of opening the windows using a handle provided by the driver. We were later to find out that the handles were taken off to allow four people to squeeze onto the back seat without skewering themselves on the handles. Our massive bags were just about secured into the boot and we were heading into the countryside. There was a great deal of mirth from our fellow passengers about our transport as we headed to our destination.

Cultural Donkey
We took in the countryside as we wound our way into the hills. I said a herd of camels grazing by the roadside; they didn't look very happy because they all had the hump. Arriving at our accommodation we were confronted with an interesting cultural situation. Our hotel was a little way up the hill and to transport our bags the hotel owner had hired a donkey. I think it would be fair to say that most of us don't know that much about donkeys but we do know a lot about carting heavy bags around with us. I know we certainly feel a little embarrassed about the size of our bag and we definitely don't want to load it up on a small horse. We weren't the only ones,pretty much the whole group is questioning themselves about putting massive suitcases on this small animal's back. Somehow this donkey managed to carry 3 large suitcases in one trip which added to our guilt. The locals really didn't get what our problem was, to them it was a very sensible mode of transportation and didn't understand the over sensitivity of these foreigners to animal welfare. The reality of the situation was that each bag probably weighed about 25 kilos (luggage limit of checked baggage), three of them would have been 75 kilos ( the weight of a man ), a load which is probably manageable. Plus, it was providing an income for the old man who was guiding the donkey, a donkey which would probably would not have a life if it wasn't doing something useful. One of our group asked our tour guide if we could give it a carrot as a treat, I don't believe the answer he gave was the correct one. He said "why would we give the donkey a carrot? He eats hay", I feel what he should have said was "this donkey is the best treated donkey in Morocco, after a hard day transporting over pampered western tourists massive bags he returns to a palace for a stable, the best food a donkey can eat, multiple stable boys to brush him down and a special lady donkey for a companion".

Homestay: guest house
Anyway, arriving at our destination was a real treat. Our guesthouse was fantastic, it was with a local family who cooked us a Moroccan feast of meatballs with eggs and tarjine with chicken and vegetables. The house was our first experience of Moroccan architecture, the dining area was on the ground floor and when one looked up two floors were in clear view. Historically there it was an open roof but this had been covered up with a glass skylight. The rooms were big with an ensuite bathroom and located on each floor overlooking the courtyard/dining area. The walls were tiled with mosaics which provided real cultural depth for us.
On the roof was a terrace where we could see the whole village and the surrounding area. As we were all standing there admiring the area someone saw a rock move. Ohh, a tortoise, this wasn't a rock but a shelled creature plodding its way across the tiles. The owner said that it was one of four which immediately sent us into tortoise hunting mode. We found two and called it quits.
We had a great dinner and a great stay.

It'll wash off
Usually, shell is on the ball, it is very rare that she misses the point. It may be the heat or the fact that we are in holiday mode, or that she is very relaxed but for what ever reason she missed the point. Shell was talking to one of our travel companions, who had recently visited Croatia and Greece. The conversation went like this.
Shell: You are looking brown, you really seems that you have caught the sun.
Response: yeah it's from Greece.
Shell: oh is it, maybe it'll wash off when you have a shower.
I had to whisper it was Greece the country, not grease.

Volubilis
Awaking in the morning we were treated to pancakes for breakfast with either jam or honey. With a full stomach we were off adventuring. Our luxury taxis from the day before had returned to take us to Volubilis one of the Roman Empire's remotest bases. Our journey allowed us to take in some great scenery from the countryside.
Arriving at the site we were greeted by our site guide who was going to fill us in about the ruins. He was a very interesting character who had a very calm demeanour about him. I was actually looking forward to seeing and comparing these ruins to those we saw in Turkey at empheses. A lot of the main buildings are still intact but the site was damaged by an earthquake back in the 18th century. This site isn't as big as Empheses but there is still a lot to be excavated. Our guide was telling us that the colosseum has yet to be found and it would be highly unusual if it wasn't there. We spent over an hour wandering through the ruins. The stand out area of this site in relation to what we saw at Empheses was the following.
1. The mosaics. Here they were more complete and detailed than anything we had previously seen. They depicted important scenes from mythology and everyday life.
2. The arc with its inscriptions. It was big bold and imposing.
3. The Main Street leading to the arc. This was where street vendors would line up to sell their wares in front of a pillar. What was interesting about this was each pillar had stone table with an engraving showing their profession or trade e.g a carving of a fish for a fishmonger.
4. The brothel. In part of the ruins was a brothel and this was revealed to us in an hilarious manner. Our guide had advanced to the brothel way before us and placed his hat on what looked like a stone table. Up to this point we had no idea what this area was. He asked a male member of our group, rob, to straddle the table in front of his hat. Reluctantly he did. The guide said that he had magic powers that could petrify him. We were all intrigued. Removing the hat rob found that he was sitting in front of a large stone carving of a penis. Very funny. I couldn't resist getting a photo with this feature; so somewhere shell has a picture of me with a rock hard cock. Ha ha. Anyway, our guide explained that the way to the brothels were marked with phallic carvings and the walls were decorated with mosaics of sexual imaginary. Unfortunately, these images had long since disappeared.

Meknes
We finished our tour of the roman ruins and proceeded to Meknes. Meknes was once the imperial city of Morocco. The sultan Moulay set out to build the Moroccan version of the palace of Versailles constructed with gates, walls with over 50 palaces. It was the home for 25000 slaves and 12000 horses and in its time it must have been stunning. We were given a local guide who guided us round the city walls to the sultan's mausoleum. Before we entering the mausoleum we crossed a courtyard, on the wall was a sundial. I couldn't help remembering our problems with our phones etc the day before and thinking it was probably the most accurate time piece we had. Particularly as the guide had got confused with the change in daylight savings time. Entering the mosque/mausoleum we were treated to more mosaics. This time they were capturing all the religious symbols of the abrahamic religious, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Bees and Smithing
Exiting from the mausoleum we were led out of the medina to the largest city gate. This huge city gate towered above us and was quite a site to behold. The horseshoe stone enclosing a cedar door looked to be very impressive craftsmanship.
Outside the city gate was the market place, luckily for us it was inside so it was an opportunity to escape from the mid day sun. Our guide asked us if we were frightened of bees. I thought was a very peculiar question until I stuck my head into the entrance to the marketplace. Inside a great hall where all the stalls were set out were hundreds of bees. Swarms and swarms of them. They were settling on the dates and the pastries, basically anything that had sugar on or in it. The locals were doing a really good job of ignoring them. I guess they didn't have much choice because these little flying insects were everywhere. We took a side entrance in and bypassed them.
The market was a treasure trove of sights, sounds and smells. Shell got a really impressive picture of an olive seller's stall with its kaleidoscope of colours. In terms of smells we did undergo a nasal bombardment walking past the butchers stall. Dead animals, multiple limbs and pools of blood and water all mixed together to form a pungent odour that brought water to the eyes.
Winding through the narrow streets we were introduced to a silversmith who demonstrated the application of silver on ironwork. They basically hammer the silver into the iron which is a fairly painstaking process. It was interesting to see the workmanship involved and there were some beautiful finished pieces on display.

what's on the menu?
It was getting close to lunchtime so our guide took us to one of the local fast food vendors on the street. Approaching our chosen vendor we were greeted with billowing smoke and the smell of barbecued meat. We were invited to sit down at our tables which were located in two small alcoves in the side of the wall. It would have been cosy for two people so it was definitely snug/cramped for six of us. The first alcove we went into, we had to retreat from because all the smoke from the grill was blowing back into it. This was definitely not a place for an asthmatic so we settled in the other one. There is no quicker way to break down barriers than to squeeze next to your fellow travel companions in a very small alcove in 35 degree heat.
By this time I was hungry enough to eat a camel. Which was a good job really because it was camel burgers for lunch. Yep, that's correct we were about to scoff down some of our dromedary friends. It didn't take long before our delectable feast emerged. We were presented with a plate of large bread rolls, cut in half and filled with red meat. Tentatively we all took one and bit in. The meat had been rolled into meat balls, covered in a tomatoey sauce and accompanied by tomatoes. It was very tasty and because we had spent most of the morning walking it was appreciated. Funny thing was that the meat tasted almost the same as the normal meatballs we had a couple of days before. Either camel tastes like normal meatballs or we were not eating camel. Thing is how would I know? As I have never tasted camel or have no way of verifying the authenticity of the meat we had to take this experience on a little faith.

The Weather
If someone from a Scandinavian country like Norway complains of the heat that's one thing but when the Aussies start complaining you know it's hot. Our tour group consists of 10 Aussies and 2 Americans for Indiana and everyone is finding the heat a bit full on. The sun is shinning and producing a temperature between 33 and 40 degrees. Some days it got up to 47 degrees . Personally, I am ok up to about 33 and then I start to struggle. Everyone is seeking the shade whenever we are out, drinking water all the time and staying out of the mid day sun whenever possible. It's when you are considering of getting in a sauna to cool down that you know that it is hot.

Fez
Upon fuelling up the food tank we made our way to the train station once more. After a relatively short journey to Fez by train, which flew past because of friendly, interesting, co passengers.
One of the big highlights of trip was our guided tour in Fez. This is incredibly interesting for me to say because we spent most of our time at the shops. One of the big plus points was our tour guide who was lovely, friendly and humorous. Our tour started, as many tours start in Morocco, next to a palace gate. The doors and gate had a special decoration, multiple sculptures of a football to represent the Moroccan football team.
Our first stop was a ceramics factory. This was to be the beginning of a entire day of craft based shopping opportunities. I knew this so I had mental prepared by drawing on my experiences of endurance activities I had located in my memory. Arriving at our destination we were shown the water pits where the clay was softened for crafting. Proceeding to the working area we were shown how the ceramics are made. A young man in his early twenties was sitting at a pottery wheel and moulding the clay with his hands. The speed of the wheel was controlled by the man's feet as he kicked it into a constant motion. In about ten minutes he had made a tarjine ( clay cooking pot) and a candlestick. It was really cool to see how the clay could be shaped with speed and precision. We were then escorted to the area where the wares were decorated. Inside the women were painstakingly drawing patterns onto the ceramics. A metre long pot was in the process of being painted by a lady who had intense concentration etched on her face. She had an array of paints by her side and a very fine brush that she was using to apply the colour.
Next stop was the kilns. Thankfully these massive ovens weren't turned on, the temperature was already in the 30s and nobody wanted to get cooked by any residual heat. Finally we came to the ceramics guide's favourite part of the tour the gift shop. There was row upon row of ceramics of all shapes and sizes from pots to door numbers. Shell took a shine to the big fountains and lamented on the fact that they would have looked nice on the balcony, if indeed we had a balcony to put it on. Many of our fellow passengers made purchases and we were on our way.

Balik, Balik
For this next part of our trip we had been taught a new Arabic word. We were venturing into the labyrinthine alleyways of the Medina. Preserved by the French for its historical value it has been described as setting back into the Middle Ages. Of key importance for a injury free journey was the word Balik. The corridors within the medina are really narrow, just wide enough for two people to cross at some points. Definitely, too small for a fully loaded donkey and a person to pass each other. We were taught that if we heard the words Balik, Balik we were to quickly move to the side of the street. Literally translated it meant "move aside", practically translated it meant "get out of the way or you are going to get squashed". This knowledge came in handy more than once.

The labyrinthine
Growing up in countries that afford an individual a reasonable amount of personally space the medina of Fez was definitively a different experience. As previously mentioned the alleyways were incredibly narrow, but they were also busy with shops and people. One of the great things about their proximity was the shade. The buildings were tall enough that the sun never reached ground level which meant it was a lot cooler than being in the unshaded open.
The other thing was that incredibly difficult to navigate. Even the locals can get lost in the maze of streets with their twists and turns. Personally, I was so grateful the we had two guides keeping an eye on us, one at the front of our group and one at the back. My mind was easily able to create a scenario where we would have to use a flare to call the Westpac helicopter to pull us out. What also added to the mystery was the big ornate closed doors which appeared at regular intervals. Some may have been shops or restaurants or houses it was just impossible to tell which left the imagination to fill in the gaps.
Our intrepid guide also had an amazing trick of appearing out of thin air. We would regularly lose sight of him only to discover that he was in front of us or just off in a side alley. I like to think that he was a ninja running across the rooftops ensuring all danger was thwarted before our arrival.

The Tannery
Briefly exiting the medina (not sure how we got out but we did) we made our way to the river. Entering into a building we were given a piece of mint on our arrival. The tea here has a lot of mint in it but I was sure that it wasn't for drinking purposes. As it turned out it was to stick under our nose if the smell get too much. Nice.
We climbed about three or four flights of stairs to reach the roof. Looking out onto the tannery I was amazed to see the tannery pits. There were over 100 pits either square or round in shape covering what looked to be the roof tops. The pits were approximately two metres square and contained water. I would guess that the water was about waist high because there was one man standing in one of them dunking the hides into the pit and slapping the it out on the side.
If you ever wanted to know what hard work looks like watch these guys. They were under the intense mid day sun with no shade, carrying heavy leathers, and washing these leathers in the pits. This involved a lot of bending, squatting, lifting and swinging. We were told that the men were paid by piece and not by hour which would explain the the fast pace that they were working. We were given a description of the process which involves skinning the animal, washing the hides and crafting the leather. Very interesting. Yes, we did need the mint because the smell at some points was very strong.

A lesson in salesmanship
Again we ended up with the guide's favourite part of the tour, the gift shop. Now, normally, I would be stabbing my legs with a fork just to take my mind off the fact that we were shopping but this scenario was brought alive by some serious people watching, namely the salesman.
The shop itself was big, spread over three floors there were wall to wall everything. Bags, handbags, wallets, jackets, puffs, (leg stands), belts, shoes and more. Everywhere you looked there were leather products in multiple colours, shapes and sizes. I was an impressive display of leather goods. Although, I’m have to say it would take an amazing salesman to sell you a leather jacket in forty degree heat. Someone who was able able to sell ice to Eskimos. Multiple groups were arriving in a steady stream so these guys had plenty of people to persuade.
What was interesting was that they had strategy and technique. Firstly, present the product to define authenticity and value. One of the salesman, (of who the were many) defined what real leather should be like by pouring water and trying to set fire to a jacket. The argument being that real leather should be waterproof and fireproof. It was a strong visual demonstration. Then the usual spiel about quality.
Secondly, about three salesmen went through the group to evaluate interest. Very quickly he determined that rob and I weren't interested. After that they left us on our own and didn't bother us again. What they did do, after that was focus on those that had a lot of interest and marginal interest. Thirdly, they separated those that were interested from the main group. The shop was so big they were able to move people away to start their sales patter and price setting. Fourthly, they were friendly but never really pushy, using positive affirmation again and again on product and person to build confidence in the good they were trying to sell. Fifthly, they were robust in their price negotiation. Sixthly, they did their best to overcome the obstacles placed in front of them, "I don't want to carry it", "no problem, we'll get it sent straight to hotel", " I don't have enough money on me", "no problem", give it to your tour guide and he'll give it to us","it's not my size", "no problem, we'll get it made to your size and you'll have it within the day". Finally, on the conclusion of the sale they would say "you deserve it", thereby eliminating any doubt.
All in all it looked to me that the people involved were having a very intense experience, friendly but intense. One of our group managed to get under half the starting price which I thought was good. The only other thing that stuck In my memory was the goods transportation system. As the shop was on three floors there was a 'hole' in the centre of the floor probably about a metre square where I could see up or down to other floors. Every now and again I would hear a shout and one of the salesmen would appear and drop a bag or a jacket through the hole for the requester to catch. Eventually, it was time to leave, everyone had done well, our group got some nice gifts and the salesmen managed to get some sales.

Aladdin's cave
We left the tannery and headed back in the medina. We made our way through one of the 'secret' doors in the wall of the medina where in had lunch in a big restaurant. After lunch we went to a jewellery shop to see a gold engraving demonstration. Stepping into the shop it was wall to wall shiny things, plates, teapots and jewellery. We had a how and tell session about the goods on offer and a worrying repetition of why their goods are slightly more expensive than others. I am a bit nervous about this stop because Michelle has a passion for silver bracelets. Sure enough, Shell found the silver bracelets and immediately a salesman was on her. This is another episode of why I am so proud of my wife. The silver bracelet on offer was vastly overpriced and Shell not only knew it but she was prepared to tell him so. Shell knows her silver and she knows what she likes and it wasn't what he was trying to sell. Every attempt to create a perceived value was refuted and even when he put his hand on her shoulder to try and exert some dominance Shell just wrapped her arm around his shoulder and said "no chance mate". He wanted $300, she offered $30, nobody got anything.
This was the general vibe from our group was that everything was overpriced. I don't think anybody bought anything. Next stop fabrics.

A lesson in salesmanship part 2: Fabric
Same pattern as before but this time we saw a loom in action. Two of our group were dressed in headscarves and looked like extras out of Lawrence of Arabia. Again, wall to wall fabrics with table cloths, dresses, headscarves and the like. There was a wide variety of colours and the fibre used was from a cactus plant.
What I noticed this time round was that the salesman rarely broke eye contact with the customer and he would regularly be in their personal space. Deals were brokered and purchases made.

the end of the day
It was the end of the day and everyone was shopped out. I was delighted because neither Shell or I had bought anything. On our way out of the medina we were shown and Islamic school that had been recently renovated. It was nicely decorated with a fountain in the middle. What I remember most about it was the temperature. For some reason, maybe because it was open to the sky it seemed to be concentrating the heat and turning the whole place into an oven. Interestingly, the moment we re entered the shaded medina the temperature dropped considerably. We were returned to our hotel where we gratefully embraced the air con and shower facilities.

Trip to chez
We were advised to go to the local market to grab some snacks for the upcoming journey. At the entrance to the market there was a huge blackboard. On the blackboard was a list of goods with their minimum and maximum price. I thought is was incredibly useful to know from a consumer protection standpoint but did wonder how this worked in practice. Wouldn't everybody just demand the lowest price?
We also got a lesson in where your food comes from. While the girls were buying fruit I went and had a look at the butchers stall. For some reason he had a caged kestrel in front of his stall, I'm not sure why. What did distract me from the kestrel was a flapping and squawking chicken being forced into a basket. The basket was on a pair of weighting scales and after the briefest of introductions between the chicken and the basket the chicken was taken out. There was a thud, no more squawking and a pretty good idea what someone was having for dinner that night. We left the market, boarded our bus and started on the next leg of our journey.

The Weather
If someone from a Scandinavian country like Norway complains of the heat that's one thing but when the Aussies start complaining you know it's hot. Our tour group consists of 10 Aussies and 2 Americans for Indiana and everyone is finding the heat a bit full on. The sun is shinning and producing a temperature between 30 and 40 degrees. Personally, I am ok up to about 33 and then I start to struggle. Everyone is seeking the shade whenever we are out, drinking water all the time and staying out of the mid day sun whenever possible.

Chez: The blue town.
On the move again we took a local bus to chezchauoen, known as the blue city. Located in the rif mountains it was populated by andulsian refugees escaping the reconquista in Spain. The influence is undeniable. Spanish is the second language here instead of french and the architecture is distinctly Mediterranean . The houses are either white washed or painted in blue. It is very hard to take a bad photo here. Everything is very picturesque.
Upon arrival we got settled into our room. We were delighted with the accommodation, the room was lovely with dark wood furniture, dark wood panelling, tiled floors, spacious bed, nice shower, air con, TV and a little balcony.
The whole hotel was set out as an enclosed village, the rooms were spread out over the whole complex. I knew as soon as I arrived this was going to be a bit of a chill out zone. We had been moving quickly since we set off, we were seeing , doing loads of things, coping with the heat and I thought a smart move might be to slow down a bit. I wasn't tired but I thought it would be a good idea to pace myself.
Once settled we headed back out for an orientation walk. Orientating through chez it was interesting to see the mix of styles. On the one hand there was the unmistakable Mediterranean feel and on the other there was the Moroccan. For me the Mediterranean feel came from the architecture and colour of the buildings. The. Moroccan side came from the closeness of the buildings, the shops and the people.
The geography of chez is hilly with a river running through the middle of the town, it is surrounded by mountains and was full of people enjoying their end of Ramadan holidays. Many people were playing in the river as they used nature to cool down. As we wound our way up and down the steps of the chez we began to appreciate the geographical diversity of Morocco.
The group split up, one sub group went to look at carpets, the other went for a wander. Shell found, as she always does, cats in distress and started agonising over she could save them. Fortunately, there was a little bowl of water that someone had put out for this little bundle of kittens to help them survive one more day. Our sub group basically looped the town and then went to a terrace bar for a drink. We got a great view of the plaza and enjoyed the sunset. Rejoining the rest of the group it was pizza for dinner.

The mystical goat herder]
Having decided to chill out for a bit I decided to back this decision by going on a hike up a hill in the hot summer heat. Hmmm. I categorise this decision under "it is an opportunity I will never get again". Besides which, I enjoy exercise and having a good hike out to see the scenery appealed to me. Armed with plenty of water and a sense of fun we started our climb. We had set 2 milestones, there were two mosques at different elevations and we aimed to reach both.
It was rocky underfoot but stable; the tracks were wide and obvious. There was some shade provided by trees which marked the path but a lot of it was out in the open. Again my snazzy adventurers hat was coming to my rescue. The abundance of animal poo indicated that this was a track frequented by the local livestock. It didn't take long before we encountered a goat herder, his dogs and his goats. This guy was classic picture postcard stuff. He was old and weathered, tempered by years out in the open with a face full of character. Despite his apparent age he was actively mobile using his stick more for guiding the goats than for support. He chatted to the local guide for a bit then herded his goats away. It was hard to imagine this guy ever being young, in my mind it's as though they mystically appear out of thin air destined to tend goats and to one with nature. Like I said classic postcard stuff. He was probably the local postman for 40 years before having a career change. Portfolio careers are more common these days.

That Garden is a bit weedy
We reached our first milestone after a short time walking. I thought it was a nicely graded walk, just enough challenge for it to be pleasant. Upon reaching the first mosque we were given its history. Built by the Andalusian refugees it looked more like a church than a mosque. Apparently, it wasn't used as a mosque because it wasn't built facing east. One of the cool things about the mosque was it had a great vantage point. It gave us not only a good view of our hotel but also of the whole town. The percentage of blue houses really stood out when we got a panoramic view, when we were in the town it looked all blue. After the group photo we continued on our way winding our way up the mountain, about three quarters of the way up we came across a piece of land that was rampant with weeds. Loads and loads of weeds stretching out through the fields, looking at it I didn't think it would be long until somebody weeded them out.
After hitting our second milestone we descended back to our hotel. To be honest I was engaged in such a deep conversation that I didn't notice my surroundings very much. There were chickens, mud, uneven ground and bushes. I was grateful that I had brought plenty of water, hat, sunnies and sunscreen because we were really exposed for most of the way.
Returning we did the classic we are on holiday routine and chilled out by the pool, ate at the restaurant and just generally enjoyed the facilities. As this was a two night stop we were well rested by the time we left in the early morning.