How many dirhams can you spend in a day? Dosen't matter... it was all priceless.

Today we went shopping, lots and lots of shopping. We started into the souks on purpose and quickly found our way into the chicken market. We stumbled upon a lantern shop where we spent over an hour picking out my lantern that I've wanted and getting to know the shop owner... a very kind gentleman by the name of Mohamed (the second Mohamed of the day so far...). He fed us Morrocan mint tea and gave me a pretty good deal.

We assured him we would come back and visit and escaped to discover things on our own. We wandered by ourselves for about 10 minutes before a guy on his motorbike simply kept following us telling us how beautiful we were. He asked us if he could help (as they all do) and we kept telling him no. Finally, we decided he could help.... we wanted to go to the dye pits and buy yarn. He was happy to help and led us on a brisk hike (I do mean brisk) to where we finally, after much sweat and a little jogging, arrived at a small door in a dirty and stinky courtyard. We turned into the little door and found this....

Adil (the guy on the motorbike) took us upstairs at this shop first, on the terrace... we took pictures and looked at all the yarn hung around to dry, it was breathtaking. Then we went downstairs and met his friend that works there... he showed us all sorts of scarves and how to wear them (see my first picture) and was happy to pull down the yarn from the ceiling... Between the two of us we got A TON of yarn. It's naturally dyed, hand spun, organic wool; absolutely GORGEOUS.

After all the yarn Adil wanted to take us back to where his family works... the tanneries. We went on another brisk walk and finally arrived there. I was exhausted, we were carrying all of our stuff up till now and it was hot out!! Adil would get ahead of us and we were literally jogging after him, he was probably no less than 30 feet ahead of us the entire time! However, if we got to a corner and didn't know which way to go we simply had to look around and we would quickly spot him, waiting with a hand on his bike and another in the air waving at us with that charming smile of his... I must admit that I began to appreciate this guy. At first he was annoying, that was when he wouldn't leave us alone; but by this point I was so enthralled with all that he had shown me and so incredibly grateful for the sense of security that he provided for us. Sure, we were still being cat called and guys were definately still showing their affections (including Adil), but if something out of line was said or if someone wouldn't leave us alone all it took was a quick comment from him and the guys would leave. We were under his wing, it was comforting.


He took us to the tannery pits (see below) and they smelled awful. He found a guy that gave us a great tour of the pits, gave us bouquets of mint leaves to hold to help with the smell, explained the process, walked us around (even at one point walking us across a concrete barrier inbetween two pits, basically walking along a concrete balance beam... only if we lost our balance it would have been tannery pit instead of gymnastic pads, definately upped the ante); he showed us how they are dried, scraped, softened, etc... then he took us to a shop. Thank goodness they took credit cards... :)


After the tanneries Adil took us to another roof to take more pictures and then on the way down we stopped by this spice shop. We met this woman, the first woman we have done business with other than here at the riad; she was delightful. Here she is putting kohl on my eyes with a big toothpick... moroccan eyeliner!! It was not a pleasant experiance, but I smiled my way through it... It looked pretty good!! For about 3 minutes, then it ran down my face. Adil said I looked beautiful. I asked him if I looked Moroccan and he laughed for about two minutes.



After the spice shop Adil invited us to dinner tomorrow. We have had invitations for drinks with many men... but with Adil it was different. I had become accustomed to having him around now. After exiting the tannery store I was so relieved to see him and his beaming smile. We accepted the offer and set up a time for tomorrow, he says his mother makes incredible couscous. I had read in the guidebooks that we may be invited to dinner with a family, I secretly hoped it would happen but thought it was a long shot. I am eager for the experiance, it will be great.

Adil helped us get a taxi home since we now had so much stuff with us, he spoke to the driver, negotiated a good price (only the equivelant of about $3 USD) and then rode his motorbike to our riad so the taxi could follow him. He helped us carry our bags to our riad, confirmed our plans for tomorrow and kissed us both goodbye (on the cheek)...

After regrouping at the riad, soaking our feet in the pool and planning a bit more we set out for the square. We did a bit more shopping and ran into two kittens in the middle of the souks, these two were tiny!! We played with them a bit and I took some pictures...


Abby, you asked for what the women wear, this is an example, I'll try to get you more. I thought you would get a kick out of seeing the sling in action... The women are typically veiled, but their faces are usually uncovered. They do wear full length traditional dresses (as seen here, not the chick in the red... although she may be a younger moroccan woman, they tend to dress more like western women).


We did eat a late lunch at "One One Seven - Our Ticket to Heaven" as we promised... this is our "Starvin' Marvin Guy" in the white and blue with the Head Honcho in the back. Pretty good dinner for a street stand, not as good as the cooking at our riad, but a good experiance none the less.


Here is me drinking my sweet moroccan tea. I think we drank tea five times today, easily... We had some for breakfast, with Mohamed when I bought my lantern, with the guys at the tannery/rug shop, at One One Seven (as seen here) and with dinner. All the stores offer it to you, very hospitable, or probably more to keep you in their store longer.


Here is a quick video taken from the top of a house after we left the tannery and right before we went into the spice shop. You can see the skins drying on top of the buildings and a bit of the action on the walkways between buildings (sorry for the sideways camera angle); at the very end you get a quick glimpse of Adil... such a cutie.



More video and pics to come tomorrow!! I just set my alarm for 3:55 AM to get the "Call to Prayer" on video, it will be dark... but you will hear it.

Love you all!!