Marrakech, November 5, 2011

Upon arrival to our Riad, which located inside one of the five quarters of the Marrakech’s medina, we were given a brief tour of the boutique hotel. Mohamed, the front desk guy, told us about the Abraham’s day celebration next Monday November 7th.

Then, we were taken to the waiting room, a very nice open room with low sofas and coffee (or tea?) tables, off the central square courtyard, where we savored sweet mint tea (Moroccan whisky, they call it) that was offered to us. After that, they brought us to our rooms, which are simply beautiful. I haven’t slept in a single bed in a long time, but it looked so inviting and comfortable after our long journey here.

After we settled, we headed out for a walk to get familiarized with the area. It looked a bit complicated in the map that was handed to us, and it took us just one “let’s go back to where we started,” before we were walking like locals.

Lots of motorcycles, bikes and cars share the roads with people. We saw just one accident. Also, there were a lot of lambs and kids selling hay on the streets. We learned that is a tradition: kids selling hay to feed the lambs. Every household should have a lamb to be slaughtered to celebrate Abraham’s day. “That’s the only time when you see people on the street, walking with knives in hand and with blood all over them,” Mohamed told us. “It’s a big celebration, like the American Thanksgiving,” he said.

We had dinner in our hotel. We tried our first “tagine” And at that point I confirmed what I was afraid of before my trip here, that I was in trouble for I fell in love with the Moroccan cuisine, and I had just had a little taste of it. 

We were tired and exhausted and we called it a night around 9pm that day.

Saturday, November 5, 2011
We went for breakfast and met our tourist guide for a 10 am departure. He told us about Marrakech’s history and showed around the medina. Definitively worth the money. And even more so, to have a private guide. The tour ended at the souk, some sort of bazar. We were told that it is a maze but no to worry for we were with someone who knew it very well.

Then, the expected rug shopping was presented to us. Abdulah, our guide, took us to a reputable rug store “So you can see,” he said. The show stared and rug after rug were displayed in a very elaborate choreographed style. Hard to say no when you kind of like one of them, but it’s even harder to say, no thank you, after you had been given tea and a good price for a rug!

I bought the items I was asked to. The djellabas (A traditional Morrocan tunic). And I was done. No more shopping to do there. Kimmie ended up buying a rug and I was very proud of her negotiation skills. Abdulah said good bye to us after we were done and we once again managed to get to our hotel easily.

As soon as we got to the front desk, we wanted to arrange the transportation to Touradant, our next destination. “Well…. There is no transportation that day. It’s Abraham’s day, the big celebration, and nobody works that day and everything is close,” Mohamed said. “We’re screwed,” Kimmie said. “What are we going to do? And we don’t have a hotel here in Marrakech,” she added very sadly. “It is an adventure, Kimie, an adventure,” I said.

Mohamed left for the day, and we were left without a simple clue of what to do next. The new front desk guy, is very nice but does not have a clue either! At least we could extend our stay in our hotel. “I’d ask the reservations person tomorrow to see if we can accommodate you guys,” the new Mohamed told us. “Let’s go out and have dinner,” I said to Kim… And we head out for the night!