Parts of three days in Marrakesh were spent exploring different sections of the Medina and souks.

Once again, Audley Travel set us up with a local guide, Jameil who taught us a lot and introduced us to local traditions. He seemed to know dozens of people we passed along our travels.

How much can we eat?

Our first night in town we enjoyed a food tour, sampling along the way.

We had assorted nuts, the wonderful local soup, Harira (usually a mainstay during Ramadan), and three varieties of really delicious flatbreads (m’semen) filled with onion, apricot, and honey. That was plenty for my dinner and we were just getting started.

At a tea break we got some exposure to a spot where locals rent bare rooms for $1-5-a-day (depending on the floor). There does seem to be a culture of sharing here, it’s interesting to see in action. People step-up to fill in or help out throughout the souks. Even taking temporary duty to watch someone’s stall.

We selected a dozen pastries for later, and tried some ground liver and bread (it was very good).

The finale was a meal in the Jemaa el-Fna, a famous UNESCO square filled with all sorts of food, people and chaos. We skipped anything to do with the poor monkeys exploited for entertainment and didn’t see any of the rumored snake charmers. There’s music, lots of chatter, a big line at the ATM, people of all ages in every kind of attire imaginable, blocks of food stalls, and what seemed like dozens of dealers hawking fresh-squeezed orange juice.

By now, we were completely full from everything we had already eaten … but we weren’t done yet. We joined a communal table next to a mother and her adult daughter, and immediately declined to try the cow’s brain and other organs the mother was having (her daughter told us, she wouldn’t eat it either). We did enjoy the shredded beef in gravy we ended up trying. At our last stall we tried a hot digestive brew loaded with herbs and spices. Then, we rolled back to our Riad for the night.

Browsing & Shopping

Shopping the narrow alleys was fun. You have to constantly dodge the motorbikes and are supposed to walk with confidence and let them deal with it!

It was great to have a guide to steer us to the better items. Vendors were pretty candid about what was authentic, I think because he was with us.

I do believe I may have gotten market-style shopping out of my system.