Marrakech

Greetings from Marrakech! I have 15 minutes before we take off for the Atlas Mountains and Ouarzazate. Even with a much longer time, I might not be able to describe this vibrant, crazy city, tourist-mad and overwhelmed with fancy development but still somehow full of its own Moroccan, funky life.

I am on a lightning tour of this country, hopping from one place to the next, checking out luxury hotels in the company of Kate, the President of ATA, and Sarah, her friend who is also the National Geographic rep. The focus is to fill out the details of the tours that will begin next March, to run through the itinerary, looking at options and problems. It is not a good way to see Morocco: much too fast, very much too much time spent comparing the "Superior" rooms with "Deluxe" ones at 5-star hotels, far too much eating and sitting without a balance of walking around in these beautiful places.

We walked through the "souk" of Marrakech last night as the sun was setting and the life of the market was accelerating. This is a city that lives at night and the scene in the souk, centered around the huge square of Djemaa el Fna, was dazzling. It was filled with Moroccans, either locals or people from Casablanca and elsewhere taking advantage of the long weekend created by Eid al fitr, the end of Ramadan. There were European and American tourists, for sure, but they were not so prominent in the Moroccan crowd. The main roads of the Medina, the old city, were filled with tourist goods but also mountains of olives, spices, fruit and vegetables. There was a village of food stands in the middle of the square, brightly lit and shrouded in a cloud of cooking smoke. There were snake charmers and herbal healers, musicians and, as Salmi the guide said, certainly also pickpockets.

I am including a couple of photos, but I couldn't possibly do it justice, especially since I have to run. I'm well but tired from not enough sleep and an overbalance of artificial hotel air. More soon.
Lev/Andy