I slept a solid 12 hours, surely a sign that I was on the road to a recovery. Still coughing more than normal, but I felt like I had a little more energy. While I slept through, Kuniko was sleeping on and off.
I tried out our shower but the overhead rain style shower head had a significant leak that sprayed most of the water directly upwards into the ventilation fan, causing a subsequent spray of H2O in every direction. A later phone call to the staff was necessary to tighten the head and stop the leak. Afterwards it worked admirably.
Today we had a chance to have the first of our two hotel breakfasts. We had a wide open schedule today and no big travel, so I was looking forward to a slow paced breakfast. When we arrived the layout was a little unusual – they had the usual buffets and coffee machines inside with most of the tables, and outside next to the pool (but in the dark) were some other stations – a flatbread maker, an omelette station, and a fresh juice station. There was a long line in front of the omelette station that I joined later on.
The coffee machine that I used produced only hot cocoa, no matter which button you pressed. We changed to another machine and it dispensed chocolatey coffee that was quite sweet – again, no matter which button I pressed. The food itself was OK but not abundant in flavor – my favorite item was the fresh oranges that were remarkably sweet after I peeled them. The staff seemed friendly enough, but just an overall weird vibe to the place.
We went back to the room for a short rest and then went out to make our souvenir purchases at Carrefour. We got a load of stuff at the shop, carrying out a big bag of various candy bars and dried fruit local to Morocco. On our way back we found another Carrefour, so we carefully dug out the receipt from the first Carrefour shop, and carried it with us while we shopped at the second Carrefour. We found more of what we wanted to get, so when we checked out I had the receipt ready to show but the cashier didn’t really seem to care. But when walking out the door another staff politely asked us to hold up, and then asked us, “English or French?” We used English to explain that we had done shopping somewhere else and he reviewed the receipt and then gave us a kind farewell. At first I thought it was strange that the cashier didn’t say anything, but now that I think about it maybe they wanted to give us every opportunity to pay before asking us. Interesting experience.
We came back to the hotel with all our loot, souvenir shopping for the trip basically done. I was aiming to head to the famous market square in Marrakech called Jmaa El-Fnaa, but I heard that it changes from a quiet square to a vibrant and lively marketplace from afternoon to evening. So I wanted to time our arrival so we didn’t have to wait too long in the market. We spent about an hour in our room (playing Balatro) and then took a long walk to the medina of Marrakech. We walked mainly in the sun, using shade when we could – it was one of the few times where we could shed our jackets during the trip.
Near the main square we stopped to visit the holy building of Koutoubia, which had a large tower that was acting as shade for a big squad of pigeons. From there it was just a short walk to the big square that I remembered seeing so often in movies (James Bond) and TV (Amazing Race). A couple of people asked us if we wanted guides but were super chill when we turned them down – a contrast from the guys in Fes.
The square was starting to get lively, we caught it right in the transition. There were plenty of shops and guys with monkeys, snakes (cobras) and dance groups playing loud music to get attention. The animal handlers would try to get you to pay if you took photos, so we had to sneak around behind. It was a little sad to see this kind of stuff though – the monkeys, the handlers, even the cobras didn’t look too happy to be there.
There were black guys selling sunglasses everywhere, looking determined and motorcycles criss-crossing the crowds, sort of mildly controlled chaos. I guess this is what people sign up for when they come, Marrakech was delivering.
We found our lunch place – La Farmacerie – on the outside of the square. Since the square was so big and crawling with so many people it was common for restaurants to be on the upper floors with terraces to look down on the chaos. Our restaurant had a terrace on the ground floor and as I waited for the staff to notice us a guy came from behind me and asked if we wanted to be up on a terrace or on the ground floor. Something about the way he approached and asked seemed fishy – it turned out that he was trying to poach us away to another restaurant upstairs. The staff at our target restaurant were remarkably chill about this – maybe they had some arrangement. Anyway, we found the another staff member who let us sit at nice tables on the ground floor facing the square.
This restaurant was really good! The location was great, next to a big spice shop that was getting a lot of photo attention. Our seats were in the shade but we had a clear view of the chaos of the square. While we watched some street performers set up a super loud dance routine before a policeman came and moved them along (for some reason). In front of us one of the customers was a twin of Mr. Yamaji back home. And the food was excellent, too.
We started with some appetizers that really hit the spot – garlicky carrots, pickled beets and heavily herbed olives. We had some juices – Kuniko once again had avocado juice with milk – yum! For mains we split some chicken skewers (not bad but not revolutionary), but the big hit was a dish called erghayef khliie – don’t know how to pronounce it. They were spicy flatbreads with beef baked inside, so good!
After eating we decided to walk through the markets. They were wider and cleaner than Fes, but basically the same stuff that we had seen in previous cities. One area was sketchy – with exotic animals that were probably illegal to buy/sell in other countries. They even sold shark eggs in water – hmm…. We circled around through the square one last time, getting our final taste of the Moroccan marketplace, and then headed back on a slow walk towards our hotel.
Along the way we found a museum/community center that featured many of the tiles that I had been so impressed with, so it was a chance to take more photos. Later we stopped at a sports bar to grab a cocktail. The place reminded me of a dive bar back in the USA, a little smoky with an emphasis on cheap booze.
Not satisfied with that experience we stopped in another place that was also a hotel, it was advertising a rooftop bar. We missed the elevator and ended up climbing five flights of stairs, but found a pool and a bar on top. They had better cocktails (although a little sweet and more expensive) and we also ordered three types of croquettes: chicken, shrimp and cheese. Kuniko and I were in high spirits thanks to the booze and the feeling of wrapping up our visit to this country. The staff were all very friendly and welcoming, and it was a nice stop.
Finally we went back to the hotel, having walked a significant distance. It was still early but we holed up in our room so that I could catch up on my journal writing and think about packing for our flight to Portugal tomorrow.
