Part 3:  The Moroccans are lovely people.  The eyes on the young women and children are dreamy.  Huge and dark and long lashed.  Women dress in everything from modern clothing to burkas.  They mostly wear head scarves and long robes which are colorful and sparkly.  Burkas fortunately were not the norm.  Haggling seems to be something taught at an early age as the price of everything is debatable.  GP, who loves to argue and is after all a salesman, was in 7th heaven.  We couldn't buy a bottle of water without him trying to get the price down.  Getting a taxi was excruciating to watch.  After all is said and done the vendors certainly came out on top though.  The prices we haggled and argued for are three times what the locals pay.  All of this is done in very good humor.  The locals were mostly friendly and helpful and very polite.  Whenever they nearly ran us down with a motorbike they always said "Pardon madam!'.  What I found amazing is how many languages they all spoke.  French and Arabic are the national languages but anyone working with tourists, (almost everybody), also speaks some English, Spanish, Italian, German and maybe Russian. 

Minaret

In front of a Mosque

A typical night in town

Selling there wares in the square

GP fighting over the price of a hat

The people live and eat on the streets, a small portable meal at a time, or a bite at an outdoor cafe.  The portions are small but they eat frequently and restaurants are open and serving at all hours.  There are hawkers selling pastries and sweets everywhere and the women, who after marriage and children are quite, shall I say, robust, eat constantly.  I think Moroccans spend very little time in their homes.  The streets and square are full of working or strolling or playing people.  There is the call to Mosque five times a day.  The Muezzin calls from the minarets, towers, of the mosques through loud speakers.  It's a haunting, musical sound to which very few people paid attention.  I thought I would see men throw themselves to the ground and turn towards Mecca every time there was a call, but only when we were very near a mosque did we see any action.  There we saw a few people lining up to enter, taking off their shoes at the doorway.  I would have loved to see the inside of a mosque but non Islams are not allowed.  More later.  xxoo me