Marrakech, Morocco, Africa

We arrived in Marrakesh at 6:00pm and walked off the plane to be hit in the face with a wall of heat. At that point it was only about 90*F (30*C). I can just imagine what tomorrow is going to be like out in the middle of the desert, on a dirty camel, in the beating sun, in the middle of the day. It’s gonna be great!

We walked around the Marrakesh airport for about 30 minutes trying to find our arranged shuttle to the airport. It turns out that EVERYONE visiting Morocco has a shuttle prearranged, so there were about 7 million taxi drivers holding signs with random names of people and hotels. We never found our guy, so we were forced into our first attempt at bartering. The taxi driver tried to make us believe we needed to pay 33% more because it is Ramadan, but we weren’t having it! We finally got it sorted, so the first bartering attempt was a success.

Lynne and I checked into the hotel, which is quite nice, but not in the center of town. So we just dropped off our bags and ventured off to try to find some food, surprise surprise lol! While walking into the center of town, we noticed just how different this place is. Everyone in town was heading to the main mosque to pray, so the streets were pretty quiet. We finished dinner at Marrakech Ground Zero about an hour later and the streets were much busier. This place is manic! There are no rules of the road here. People do not stop at red lights, or cross walks, and there is no need for them to even stay on their side of the road. I could never drive here! Anyway, we managed to find our way back through town and are preparing ourselves for a ridiculously hot day on a camel trek tomorrow!