Some corners of the world assault the senses with a barrage of sights, sounds, tastes and smells so exotic, so exciting and so unlikely that sorting them into neat categories is simply impossible. You can only hope to piece together the bits like a living mosaic and accept that, in order to love every minute of something, you don’t necessarily have to understand it!
My days in Morocco were a crazy quilt of colors and sounds, flavors and scents – all wildly contrasting and all fascinating.
In the souks (markets) of Marrakesh, the smell of roasting meat tantalized hungry tourists who were soon horrified by the discovery that what sizzled on the barbecue was whole goat heads. Sumptuous leather handbags hung in the doorways of shops in the rabbit’s warren of the souk – while just a few miles away, leather workers waded waist-deep in dye-filled concrete pits to prepare the materials. With their legs dyed red, yellow, blue and green, the workers sweated in the hot mid-day sun.
Dark, uninviting doorways at the ends of winding allies opened into luxurious riads (guest houses), opulent enough for any sultan. Brightly costumed ‘watermen’ sold their wares on sun-baked street corners – but the liquid that came from their pouches proved to be significantly more potent than water!
Woodcarvers spun pieces of simple hard wood into carved boxes so intricate that they could only be opened by those who knew the magic trick, while talented bead workers stitched beads into bouquets of flowers to adorn silken robes.
Rug makers knotted millions of tiny fibers to create carpets so soft they felt like gossamer, while tile artists tapped, cut and pieced delicate ceramic bits together to form images that were nothing less than stunning – like the mosaic that is Morocco.
Liz Fleming is an award-winning Canadian travel journalist who specializes in adventure, health and wellness and learning travel. For more from Liz, go to: Liz Fleming’s Travel Tales