Preconceived Notions v. The Truth

Some things I thought about Morocco vs. The Real Morocco:

Marrakech is in the middle of the Sahara desert and is surrounded by sand dunes
Morocco’s landscape reminded me more of Puerto Vallarta than the Sahara Desert. I expected to see miles and miles of sand dunes with no vegetation in sight, but that wasn’t the case. The landscape is very dry, but there is vegetation everywhere (lots of cactus) and in the mountains, although still dry, the vegetation gets fuller and around the river there are trees and bushes. The mountains reminded me of the mountains in Arizona.

The people are dark skinned and are all strict Muslims
The people of Morocco have relatively light skin and dark features (eyes and hair). Most men wore western clothing, but there were some men in long tunic-like things. Women varied from wearing jeans and tops, to jeans and tops with scarves covering their heads, to those wearing traditional dresses with only their eyes showing. Prayer was called a few times a day over loud speakers over the city (and even when we were in the Atlas Mountains) but I never saw anyone drop down to their knees to pray.

It is dusty and dirty and a third-world country
Marrakech was much more modern that I expected. There are two sides to the city. We stayed in the old city, which was much cleaner than I had expected. Every night when the Souks closed down the trash in the streets was swept into piles, and each morning the trash piles were gone (I guess the sanitation department works at night?) The ground of the Souks and Square are covered in tiles or cement blocks, and are washed down every night. The people don’t smell, and there were very few beggars or homeless people milling about. Once outside the Old City’s wall, Marrakech is a modern, clean city. We went out for drinks on Friday night in the New City, and went to a restaurant with a rooftop terrace, modern furniture and Western music. I could have been in Los Angeles.

And one more thing…
While waiting to board the airplane on Monday, we were held in a line on the tarmac in Morocco. A few gates down the Prince of Morocco was boarding his private jet, and we saw the rollout of the red carpet, the guards lining the red carpet, the photographers, everything. Very cool.