Day # 8 & 9: Taroudant Market and Honest Berbers

Day 8: Wednesday April 10 Taroudant Market & Honest Berbers

Dates

We head out for the Taroudant market, said to be a Mini-Marrakech market with primarily Berber items. It feels quite different from the hustle and bustle and frenetic pace of Marrakech. We are not pressured to buy and the market sellers seem quite relaxed.  In one market stall John decides to buy one of those small leather purses that open into a box and use it for his change for tipping. The woman shopkeeper offers to take us to a place where Berber rugs are made.

In this place Marie and Steve look at blankets with one seller, Saeed, while John and I look at rugs with another. There is one indigo blue runner that I think is rather colorful and beautiful and I make the mistake of showing interest in it. Our seller says I can have it for the discounted good price of 5000 dirhams ($500).  I had decided previously I would be willing to pay $50 for the rug and realized immediately it was way out of the price range, even if prices end up being 1/3 of first proposed price. Moreover, we don’t have a place for this rug  in our home and I am not sure if my daughter or son would like this for their hallway. 

During this exchange John has mostly been sitting watching and shaking his head no at me.  While Marie negotiates a reduced price for two camel and sheep mix blankets our seller keeps asking me “what price?”  and I reply repeatedly that I am not interested. 

Towards the end John enters the negotiation and offers 1000 dirhams ($100), an offer that is rejected so we leave. We are followed outside by Saeed who is clearly the more senior and savvy negotiator who works on John in an intimate huddle with his arm around him. 

Next thing I know John has bought it for 1300 dirham, a 74% reduction!  Who knows how we will get this rug home in my already overly packed suitcase? When John goes in the store to pay, Saeed motions to Marie he has a gift for her and somehow during that exchange she buys a leather purse.  

Just then John realizes he has lost his new coin purse. The store sellers help us look for it but it is not found. We return to the first store where John bought the purse and ask the lady if she has seen it. No luck and we console ourselves by saying it was only change money worth about $20 so not a big deal. Still I wonder if it really fell out of his pocket or was stolen? 

We head for the market square, order lunch and watch all the activities of story telling while cute children approach us for small change for a Kleenex pack. Older men play some music on rather odd instruments made out of recycled trash. Men huddle in groups making some sort of deals.

To our surprise the lady from the market finds us and returns John’s purse which she found under the chair in her shop where John was sitting. We thank her and offer a tip which she refuses. I am impressed with her honesty and effort to find us to return this money. While it is not a lot of money for us the message of the people’s honesty is profound. 

Market Lady returns John's purse

Back at the hotel we lay by the pool and have dinner talking of what we have observed and learned about Moroccan people’s honesty and friendliness, tree climbing goats, the magic qualities of saffron as well as books we are reading and news from US about fungus and politics.  John has a massage but it is still not up to his expectations. Definitely not painful enough to get results!

Day #9: Thursday April 11    Taroudant to Fez

 

On this morning we take a horse ride around the great walls of Taroudant. I fall in love with this small place perhaps because it is not on the normal tourist tour itinerary and lacks the hordes of tourists and frantic sales pitches of Marrakech.  Moreover, it feels like such a relaxed place as the Berber souk is easy to walk in, to explore (without the fear of getting lost) and feels comfortable to talk with people without pressure to buy something. They even seem pleased to have their pictures taken although I try to curb by addiction to take more pictures of people.  We find areas of the souk where the products are being made by the artists, such as shoes being hand crafted, clothes sewn on non electric sewing machines, women buying beads to put on their jellabas, artists sculpturing marble and alabaster, and old tools being fired in amazing primitive looking fire burners. 

 I find a pair of shoes I like which don’t quite fit and the tailor asks me how long I will be there and offers to make me a pair to exactly fit my feet but he will need 24 hours.  Too bad I didn’t meet him the day before. We are content and reluctantly leave to pack up to leave this magical city. We are off to the airport in Agadir with Hassan who we also hate to leave as we have enjoyed being with him the past 10 days and it now feels like we are leaving part of our family behind. 

After a 45 minute flight to Casablanca we wait for 3 hours for the 1 hour flight to Fez. It is a sterile airport waiting area but my mind is packed with images that keep me occupied. Eventually at 2 am we enter the beautiful Riad Fez. Unfortunately Steve discovers he has left his bag (with passport) at the airport and he races back to try to find it. Once again the honesty of these people triumphs as he recovers his bag.