Camels in the Palmeraie

This morning we had a shopping tour scheduled for the moms, but Aliya and I didn’t feel great so we stayed at the riad with Andi and relaxed.  Gia and Lana took off with Ahmed (our guide from yesterday) for a couple of hours of shopping, while the dads and kids went to Djemaa el Fna to buy a few chatchkes and take a caleche (carriage) ride.  I’ll have to have some guest bloggers cover those excursions for you.

We settled up with the riad, and set out for lunch at Kui-Zin, which I thought was very good.  Getting around in the medina is not easy.  Whenever anyone asks how long it will take to get somewhere, I always say “10-15 minutes.”  I’m usually wrong, and I think the group is starting to catch on.  After lunch we went to the assigned street corner to meet Dani, loaded up, and hit the road.

We had promised the kids a camel ride.  There are lots of camel ride establishments in the Palmeraie outside of Marrakech, so we stopped at the first one we saw.  In hindsight, we should have driven past all of them, yelling “bsh’haal?!?!” (how much?) out the window, but we didn’t think of it and Ben just haggled a bit to get the price down.  It ended up being about $15/kid which is kind of pricey for Morocco.

There was an extra camel so we urged Andi to climb aboard.  I almost peed my pants watching them load everyone on and head out for the ride.  I will let the photos speak for themselves…

Adlani jumped right on like he rides a camel to school every day:

Camels stand up in several stages…

Amine thought he was about to be eaten (photo by Gia):

Larry in Camel Pose (photo by Gia)…

We’re in Mohammedia tomorrow, waiting for Elizabeth, Chloe, and Hannah to arrive!  Then it’s off to Fez!