Day #6: A Real Moroccan Market

Day #6: A Real Moroccan Market (without Tourists) 

After another lovely breakfast of yogurt, fruits (kiwi, bananas, apples), cheese omelets, and an assortment of breads, our friends  leave for Tades Gorge with Hassan. We elect to spend more time in the local weekly Monday market. Thierry, the owner of the hotel takes us to the market with his pickup truck. Along the way we stop to pick up Berber people who are also going to market until the back of the truck and the seat next to me is fully loaded with 12 women and children. Others go to the market on foot or by donkey or motor bikes.

Back of our truck looked like this! 

We are told Monday is a holiday for everyone from all the neighboring areas go to this weekly market which is a kind of celebration that lasts all day. Arriving there we head for the animal sales section and stand by the wall with the men (very few women) and sheep and goats. 

Men Assessing the Sheep and Goats

A sale is being made

In addition to the selling, there is a lot of socializing happening as the men affectionately greet each other and discuss the events of the day (we presume).  We watch the bargaining as men negotiate for the animal with great emotion and then drag their purchases off by their hind legs or over a shoulder. Some goats are even put on the back of their motorcycle. Others are stuffed into a car.

 I try not to be obtrusive with my camera or take too many pictures and to stay “in the moment” but it is difficult as this scene is unbelievable and indeed feels like the “real Morocco” that I want to share with others. At one point a man comes up to us smiling as he asks if we are selling the sheep next to us?  We hate to leave this sheep bargaining event as this scene likely has been occurring this way for many centuries. Just as I am thinking this the man next to me pulls out his I-phone.  I wonder if this will be happening in this way 40 years from now?

John tries on hats

We head for the vegetable section of the market and John finds a stall selling hats. He bargains not very deeply for two hats; one is a New York Yankees hat. The children all laugh as he pays $3.50 for second used hat that probably costs 50 cents.  

We reluctantly leave the market to meet Thierry to return home in order to check out of our hotel by 11 am.  



On the way back Thierry stops to tend to a sick camel, giving it an antibiotic injection in the rump while the camel owner keeps the camel still. 

John and Thierry

Thierry also tells us he has two donkeys back at the hotel, one of whom is 6 months pregnant. Thierry, previously a baker in France, having purchased his hotel a year ago now is becoming not only a hotel manager but also a vet and a taxi driver for the locals.

It has been such an emotionally packed morning we decide to bag the Palmeriae tour and rest by the pool until we can secure a drive to our next hotel in Skoura. Unfortunately, we were unable to stay the third night in this lovely place because it was fully booked. We arrive at Hotel Ksar el Kabbaba to find that Marie and Steve are already here. We lunch by the pool with chicken kabobs and salad.

Hotel Ksar el Kabbaba

Moroccan Elvis

The guide at the hotel tells us he is the Moroccan Elvis. 
John and I return to the market at 3:30 and watch the market close up. We enter a section of the market where men are repairing tea pots, clothing and putting new soles on old shoes.  Recycling everything… seems so reasonable. 

Man repairing shoes

We talk with a 14-year-old boy who is adept at running his family's store selling spices. He jokes with us and I end up paying him $2 (20 dirhams) to take his picture. 

Boy learning the trade  

Next we meet a 75-year-old butcher with a twinkle in his eye who comes from the village we visited the day before. I don’t ask to take his picture although it was tempting. 

 We return to the hotel for John’s massage while Marie and Steve are having a couple’s hammam. This is a middle eastern type of steam room bath experience intended to cleanse the body. It involves extremely hot temperatures followed by skin exfoliation. Often a dark mud like black soap made from olive oil (savon beldi) is lathered all over the body first. This is followed by rinsing with water heated traditionally by wood fires lit underneath the buildings.  We had observed the furnace in Marrakech.  I am not feeling adventurous so decide to have a shower instead, telling myself I will do this in Fez. 

Street Restaurant

We have dinner in town at the same family run restaurant we had lunch in the day before. It is situated right on the main street so we can watch all the town activities. Hassan joins us explaining why he is not praying when the call to prayer sound begins. Three of us have tagine again! Will we ever grow tired of this?

Tagine