After we left the hotel we went to see the local Kasbah, a Kasbah is a Fortress Village, that has a protective wall all around it. We had a walk around the inside for a bit, then our local guide took us to a community oven, where the local ladies were cooking the daily bread. It seems that there are a small group of women responsible for the oven, and everyone shares it. In return they are paid either in bread or other produce for the use of the oven. We sampled some freshly cooked bread, it looked a bit like a pita bread, or thin lebanesse bread. It was pretty tasty. We were then taken to the local guides home to see how the Moroccan Mint Tea was made and to sample some (more). We are offered mint tea almost everywhere we go. The tea is basically a green tea infused with fresh mint, and the Moroccans like it sweet, and I mean sweet. They go through around 1kg of sugar each a week, mainly in tea from what we gather. The tea is very refreshing, as long as you get it without sugar.

We then left Ouarzazate for Marrakech. Our trip took us back up into the fringes of the High Atlas Mountains and then down a very, very narrow winding road with many many switch backs down to the plains on which Marrakech sits. The country side on the west of the mountains was much greener continuously than we had seen for some time. The road that we took over the mountains reached a height of 2230m and is subject to blockages in winter due to very thick snow. The roadway up top is lined with markers, the same you see in ski fields, to show the snow ploughs where the road finishes and the big drop starts!

We arrived in Marrakech around 2pm, had lunch and headed out for a city tour in the afternoon. We first went to see the cities highest structure, the minaret of a Mosque in the centre of the old part of the city. This minaret sets the height limit for the city, which means no building can be more than 5 storeys high.  From the we went to the Medina  our first call was Berber “Pharmacy”, a place of alternative Berber medicine and cooking spices. We were treated to an amusing presentation (amusing for us as we interpreted what the “Pharmacist” was saying in a literal sense from his Moroccan English. We were then taken to the main square of the medina and shown where we had to meet if we wanted to get the bus back to the hotel after our free time in the Medina. We set off by ourselves and started exploring the wonderfully colourful and sensory adventurous medina. We pasted all the snake charmers, men with monkeys, drummers, dancers and food stalls to enter the deeper recesses of the Medina. We had so much fun exploring and looking at the people and the stalls and the general goings on that we both finished up with no idea where we were or how to get back to where we had to meet the bus in about 2 minutes time!!!! I am not sure how, but we got attached to a young boy, probably 13 to 15 y.o. and asked him to help us get back to the main square. He had very little English and we had less French or Arabic. As he led us through a maze of very narrow alleys and quiet streets, but Deb and I though privately to ourselves whether we were being led into a mugging or something. But we shouldn’t have doubt the integrity of our “guide”, he had us back to familiar ground in about 18 mins (I didn’t realise just how lost we really were!!!). I gave him every coin I had in my pocket, probably around 60 Dirham (a bit over $10). He seemed pleased, at no time did he ever ask for any money, I think he just like to help and we had a broken conversation as we walked, it was lots of fun and very rewarding for us as we got back to the bus on time. We have since had lots of laughs about our little adventure.

We have a nice room and comfortable bed, so we both should get a good nights sleep.

Love to all, Us xoxox