HAREMS AND CAMELS
After my morning stroll is a visit to the Bahia Palace, built in the19th-century. It was once home to a harem and intended to be the greatest palace of its time. It is now home to a notable display of painted wood, ceramics, and symmetrical gardens. We get there early, though the flock of tourists is soon to follow.
A walk around the Koutoubia Mosque and its surrounding gardens is followed by a trip to the medina and its Djemaa el Fna, Marrakesh's main square, filled with snake charmers and lavishly dressed water sellers. Here I am led into a back room where I haggle for a scarf for a friend back home. I have never been any good at bartering and find the process here very intense.
Next, a drive through the Gorge of Oued Orika along the banks of the River Orika through the mountains takes some of us to a Berber village and into a Berber home, where we are served mint tea and bread with honey. Its layout is reminiscent of the Tibetan home I visited a few years ago. This is followed by a brief camel ride and a few random photos on the way back into town.
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