slept a lot yesterday. then slept all night. woke up feeling fine. funny, that when you’re not feeling quite right, it’s hard to say exactly what is wrong and how much is wrong. but when you are feeling fine, it is definitive. i felt fine. we got up and went on our little excursion to the mountains. we made a couple of stops along the road, to “take pictures” but were met by many jewelry salesmen. “berber” was the buzz word. everything was berber. berber jewelry. berber carpets, berber villages. glad that they figured out the key sales words. we were driving along a river, through the valley up higher and higher. there were houses across the river that had little rope bridges for access. people herding goats wearing traditional garb. we got to the berber village and was guided up the path to the waterfalls. it was beautiful and the air was clear. our guide was very attentive, helping us up the rocks. he scampered up and down like a mountain goat. he grew up in the village so had been playing on the rocks his whole life. we bought a couple of souvenirs, but my family criticized my weak bargaining skills. i paid too much, but supported the local economy. anyway, a couple of euros too much is nothing to us and much to them. driving into marrakech, we could see the walls of the city surrounding palms of the large park on the south. it was quite impressive.
it is new years eve and we have a special dinner at the riad. we are all sitting on the roof deck having a mint tea and the staff seems all excited setting up for the party. the musicians are coming in and 2 have just started playing. it started off sounding like a bass and a drum, but are traditional instruments. they sound great! strains of ali farka toure.
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