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Thursay 11 September, a night at Jemaa el Fna square
Marrakech - part V
Elisabeth & Teije2006-07-19 19:06:53
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back at the hotel at 2 o'clock, the cleaners are still busy with our room. Every day they clean everything, even mopping down the floor. We are so early since we want to spend the evening on the Jemaa el Fna square in the Medina and we want to be rested.
This is a good time to take a dip in the small swimming pool that belongs to the hotel. It is only a few meters wide and about 7 meters long. The patio is surrounded by high walls and there the sunshine never comes in, so it stays very cool and nice, a relief after walking for a few hours through the city.
Back on the street we feel the difference; although we are used now to the heat it is much warmer than we had expected and we first buy an icecream. It is a bit tasteless but it is cold and that is the most important thing. Around 5 we have taken a seat at one of the restaurants with a roof garden from where we have an excellent view on Jemaa el-Fna to observe all that happens.
It is not very busy, yet, and the artists do their best to attract the attention of the passing tourists. As soon as they have seduced them into taking a picture the negotiations about the price starts. Some try to make a deal beforehand, but afterwards this price is not always enough and a second negotiation starts. When we later walk through the crowds we are being avoided by the monkey tamers when we tell them we think it is outrageous how they treat their animals. We would have liked to tell them we are members of an animal protection group, taking pictures for in the newspaper, but they have run away already, cursing us. Of course it has its charm to see these animals and take a picture from such a short distance but we can see the monkeys and the snakes are not very well treated.
Sometimes there are some nice performances, but dancing and making music for at most 10 seconds and then ask € 1 is a bit too much, we think. The artists themselves think otherwise and regularly pursue people who
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See photographs from:
Morocco Gallery
