Marrakesh --- Do you know the way?

Do you know the way to Marrakesh? and the Marrakesh Express.


Well after catching up on some rest, web work and planning we decide to head for the central Medina to see the snake charmers, water providers and the hub bub to Marrakesh.


Unfortunately it did not live up to it's hype.


Famous Minaret
The Jamal el Alle minaret marks the beginning of the central market for the Medina in Marrakesh. Now Marrakesh is a much more cosmopolitan centre in Morocco and the Medina has been modernized over the last 40 years. Since it drew the attention of Crosby Stills and Nash and their song by the same name. Marrakesh was in the late 60's early 70's a major trading centre for illicit drugs.


Now it is the centre for commercialism of ancient practices which are no longer in play, unlike Fes where it operates the same as it did 4 centuries ago.


The centre is now a much more infamous centre of attention, the recent bombing that killed innocent people at the Argana cafe in the Medina centre. There, the damage is horded over, a flower memorial is in place and the names of the victims is published. Such a waste and of course most of them muslims.
Argana cafe 

Damage

Flowers

The Innocent


Snake charmer and pic pocket
We went looking for the snake charmers and finally I saw one but as I went to take a picture another snake man stepped in looking for a donation for taking the picture, or so I thought. The next thing I know he is pushing snakes into my face and I yell at him and push him away, only to find that he had tried unsuccessfully to take my camera off my belt. Needless to say I was turned off from staying around for more. I had wished in retrospect that I had dropped him off to Police like the guy in London years ago, but then there would have been the language barrier in explaining my actions to Police unlike that time where I apprehended the guy the next day for London Police.



So we will leave Marrakesh with a bad taste in our mouths, literally and figuratively. Now we head for Essaouira.

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