Sunday, November 6, 2011

Last night we went to the main square for dinner. The big plaza, which by now we recognize well, gets lively with thousands of people at night. Jogglers, monkeys, music, orange juice, serpent enchanters, henna tattoos, traditional dancers… you name it. We ended up having dinner at a nice restaurant facing the square. Chicken in a honey and almond sauce accompanied with rice with vegetables was my entree. For dessert, oranges with cinnamon…and yes, they sell liquor. 

A young waiter asked me in Arabic if I was Moroccan. It was funny, he again asked me in French the same question. We chatted for a bit and finally I tell him I’m Colombian and he said Shakira is not good because she isn’t Arabic enough. Belly dancers come to the room and a little girl comes to dance with them.

We went to our hotel around 11 pm and it felt pretty safe walking back. It feels that way always.

This morning, we asked Mohamed to recommend us a hotel since there is a group coming to this one and they don’t have any room available. He recommended one around the corner. We went to see it but the prices are too high. Again he recommended another one and this one looks promising. We settled for that one.

Then, we head out to walk around. “In order to see this city, you have to walk,” says the maitre d’ whom by now we know and chat with. We walk in a different direction this time. Again, lots of motorcycles and the locals are preparing for the feast. Lambs are being taken home by car, bike, foot, etc. “There goes another rug,” a local said, after we watch another lamb getting handled by two guys. 

Since we are tourists (there is not doubt about it) we get people to come and offer to help us finding our way around. We went through the Jewish quarter (another section of the medina) and at some point we ended up in a herb store where Kim Wong bought some oils and of course we were given mint tea.

Surprisingly enough, we ended up where we started. We went in circles. Then we headed to the souks again and walk and walk and walk. We walked for almost six hours. And while we were walking we bought tickets for a day trip for tomorrow (finally we found someone who’s working).

A long day is ahead of us and we go to our hotel, have dinner and some wine and excited about tomorrow’s day trip.