Day 3 - 4 Taradount (29 April 2008 - 1 May 2008)

Say goodbye to Riad L'Orientale, Latifa & Zaccharia

After a lovely breakfast in the courtyard, we were met by "The Car Man" -- again the language barrier got in the way of our introductions. Fortunately, Latifa got us squared away and we were off to pick up our rental car. We had made arrangements to meet Fouad from Always Car somewhere in the new city and "The Car Man" was going to take us there. It's interesting how this kind of business is done in Morocco -- no offices, lots of cafes with mint tea at the ready. Trust is a huge piece of the exchange...and really, what choice do you have?

We signed here and there, handed over a wad of cash, and then "Car Man" drove us to a convenience store to get water and bread, and a liquor store to get wine. The first time I actually felt like we were getting a non-tourist price on our goods. All of the exchage was done in Arabic, and with wide eyes we passed over the cash to pay for it. The liquor store was in a dark basement -- it was exactly what I imagined prohibition establishments to be like. Makes sense in a country where alcohol consumption is largely frowned upon. After we entered, it took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the darkness and then I could see the vastness of their stock. Any type of alcohol was available...just have to know where to find it. We stuck with wine. It was wrapped up in brown paper sacks and as quickly as we arrived we were gone. Our next stop was the gas station to fill up the tank. In Morocco, you rent the car but it comes with just enough gas to get you to the station to fill it up. Again, I was so grateful to hav "Car Man" help with the first gas buying experience. The signs were in Arabic but they were color-coded. "Green one," he said. Cross my fingers that all of them use the same color code!

The final leg of the exchange was to take us to the edge of the city so as to avoid driving in the madness of Marrakech. "Car Man" took us to the road to Taroudant, pointed us in the right direction, and left us. He wouldn't accept a tip - WOW!- and before I knew it, he was out of sight. *gulp*

The driving was pretty straight forward. As we passed through the first real town, we saw a bunch of tents on the side of the road. The first thought was "shanty town"...that must be where the country people live. We laughed till it hurt when we later realized that it was actually the town's souk!

Driving on, we took a detour to Imlil to see Richard Branson's hotel and the Jebel Toubkal-Morocco's highest peak. We were "greeted" in Imlil by "guides" - various dirham amounts were being thrown out for donkey rides, car parking, hikes, etc. Todd opted to forge ahead and we began a perilous (in my opinion, not Todd's) drive up a single lane, un-paved, switchbacking "road" with no clue what we would encounter. We passed a number of tourists walking up the road with "guides" and chuckled at our good fortune to have bypassed the hard sell. We drove to a point with a good view of the peak, parked the car and hiked to a boulder for an even better view, snapped a few pictures, and started our walk back to the car. It was at this point that I remembered something I had read in the guide book about not walking off of trails -- something about land mines that had been left during previous strife. Oh crap! Gingerly, I walked back to the car. Todd, of course, was more bold -- he pointed to all the footprints of people who had come before us as evidence that we were probably safe from land mines. When did I become so paranoid??!!

After Imlil, we drove for quite a while through towns and beautiful countryside--Morocco is a spectacular beauty--looking for kasbahs and mosques. We stopped to see Tinmal Mosque (UNESCO sight). It is the only mosque in Morocco that allows non-muslims. They are in the process of refurbishing it. Currently, it doesn't have a roof. While we were looking at the mosque, some shenanigans were going on outside. Three little boys (approx. age 7) had taken an interest in our car tires...flattening one tire! We had read about this happening but didn't think it could happen in a town with such a grand mosque. SO, we were glad the Fouad had shown us the spare tire and that it had air. While Todd changed the tire, these little boys watched on, giggling and grinning like they had more shenanigans up their sleeves. Todd finished changing the tire and all three of them held out their hands for money. WHAT?!?! I started laughing and then went into my suitcase -- acting like I was looking for money. I retrieved my package of wet wipes, opened them up, and put one into each of their hands. Then I took one and showed them what to do with it. I'm sure they were thinking I was getting them ready to receive a shiny coin or two. So imagine their disappointment when we got in the car and drove away. I felt a little vindicated -- how could I reward them for putting a hole in my tire?

We laughed for a while about that. I still chuckle as I think about it.