Morocco Trip - Day 3

March 23rd, 2016

We met Akmed in the lobby of the hotel at 9:00am.  We were very fortunate that the sun was shining!  We took a taxi to La Palmeria, an area just north of the city where Akmed had arranged for us to ride camels.  La Palmeria is a desert oasis where you can find lavish estates and huge luxury resorts.  He arranged for us to go on a camel ride for 100 MAD per camel.  Everyone got their own camel except Cole and I shared.  The guide led the head camel, and the rest of the camels followed in a line as we explored the oasis.  It was such a neat experience for the kids.

After our camel ride, we headed back into the medina to visit the Ali Ben Youssef Medrasa, which was an Islamic College founded in the 14th century.  One thing that surprised us was how cheap entrance fees are in Marrakech.  To visit the Medrasa it was 2€ per adult and the kids were free.   Our guide explained a bit of the history of the college and then we went inside to explore.  The elaborate woodwork, plaster and tile work is very similar to Muslim architecture from Andalusia in the South of Spain.

We walked around the Medina a little more and this time I resisted the temptation to buy more things. Then we took a taxi back to the hotel for lunch.  Unfortunately it poured rain all afternoon and evening, so we didn't get to do much else that day.  

I had never experienced an all-inclusive vacation before, nor had any desire to eat all my meals at the hotel, but when I booked the hotel through Destinia, there was no other option.  In the end it was very convenient being able to eat at the hotel because it's difficult to always find a restaurant that will please four kids.  The hotel offered a buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner with a wide variety of different dishes every day.  The kids enjoyed being able to eat whatever they wanted. Bob and I inevitably ate too much, this is the problem with all-inclusive.  Inside the hotel there were also 2 other restaurants that you could eat in if you made a reservation. That evening we ate a fantastic meal in the Moroccan restaurant at the hotel. 

Back in the Jemaa el-Fnaa Square

The best Moroccan meal we had according to Bob and I

Moroccan salad

Beef tangine with prunes

pastries for dessert

Morocco Trip - Day 2

March 22nd, 2016

Our second day in Marrakech was also pretty wet.  We met our guide, Akmed in the lobby of the hotel.  He had a large taxi waiting for us and we set off for our tour of the Medina or the old city.  It was really exciting walking through the souks and wondering if we would ever be able to find out way back if we accidentally got separated from our guide.

First Akmed took us to a huge cooperative where they sold all different kinds of arts and crafts.  It was amazing, so many interesting things to look at, just like stumbling into a Cave of Wonders. I should have been more cautious, as it was the first shop we visited in the medina, but it's so difficult to not buy something.  They never tell you a price, they just ask you what you like and then they quote you a really inflated amount for everything together.  Then the bargaining begins, I wanted to buy a Moroccan tea set and a few cushion covers.  I think the first quote was 250€.  I was shocked because I thought it was pretty high.  When I said no, the salesman wanted me to name my price.  I said 80€.  He said 225€, I said 100€, he said 200€, I said I didn't want it and was prepared to walk away.  Finally he said 150€, but he would have to ask permission from the head boss.  I think Bob was probably fed up with the whole bargaining process and told the man that it was fine.  Of course when he took the stuff to the boss so we could pay, the boss didn't say a thing, but very quickly wrapped everything up before we could change our minds.  So just like that, we spent 150€ in our very first shop!

Of course, I didn't learn my lesson and proceeded to pay too much for pretty much everything we bought that day, jewelry, tea, scarves and wooden boxes.  Also on the recommendation of our guide we ended up eating lunch in an over priced restaurant. Oh well, it's all part of the experience and at least we are supporting the local economy. If there were no naive tourists, a lot of people would be out of work in Marrakech.

I hope that our guide was somehow profiting from our purchases too, because we only had to pay him 200 MAD (less than 20€) to take us around the entire morning.   We enjoyed our tour so much, we hired him to take us around again the next day.

After lunch we ventured out on our own to see the monkeys and snake charmers in the Jemaa El-Fnaa square.  We paid quite a lot of money to have our picture taken with some snakes, always best to negotiate the price before you let them wrap a snake around your neck.

walking into our first shop

Amazing doors

masks

The narrow streets in the medina

Berber woman processing the argan kernels

learning about the benefit of Argan oil

Touch Down!

Cool treasure box

Cool treasure chest

Rainy day in the souks

Akmed showing us some perfume bottles

Young man showing us how to carve wood with his feet

Same young man managed to sell us a wooden box

Bargaining with the man in the jewelry store

Cole with the geode

The metalworks souk 

One of my favourite pictures, colourful lanterns

learning about how they dye material

Here is the scarf store where the shop keeper dressed up the kids and managed to sell me two scarves

Rylan digging his new scarf

Cool doorway

trained monkeys in the Jemaa El-Fnaa square

Everyone gets to wear a snake

Dancing cobra

Everyone gets to hold a monkey