Djemaa El-Fna Square

 Rachid and I waiting for the repair shop to open.

The police station in the square.

 Snake charmer cobras.

 Water sellers.

 Jewelry galore.

 People power delivering goods.

 Subsaharan masks in front of a mosque.

Koutoubia Mosque and its 12th century minaret.

 Monkey hucksters.

 The view from the Cafe de France.

Tuesday, September 26^th.

First thing this morning Rachid and I took a taxi to a cellphone/computer repair shop. We arrived just as the shop was opening. We were met by a nice guy who had a look but decided that he could not repair it. The problem is that he would have to take the screen apart and since it is a touch screen there was no guarantee that he wouldn't damage it further and he had no access to parts, particularly in the short time frame I have here. So, unfortunately I will have to live with it for a while, until either it breaks or I decide to buy a new one.

We took another cab back and met up with Wim and Tara. Together we all took the public bus to Djemaa El-Fna Square to re-visit the police and see if we could get Wim's money back. It took a while but eventually a police officer took us for a walk around the snake charmer area to see if we could find the bully. As we were walking the small community of charmers was watching us closely and one guy who wanted to approach me with a snake backed off when he saw the plain clothed police officer. Wim did identify the guy, but it took a bit a he was wearing traditional clothing instead of the western wear he wore yesterday. The police took him and Wim back to the station. According to Wim the police gave the guy a very stern lecture about ripping off people and the upshot was that the guy was apparently afraid because he didn't want to go to jail. He asked Wim not to press charges and he refunded the money. Wim let him keep the 100 he had agreed to pay for the photo, even though the police said that was too much. I was very surprised that this had a successful conclusion, I thought that the police wouldn't really care, or that we wouldn't be able to find the guy.

While I was waiting for that situation to be resolved I just stood outside of the police station and watched from a distance the goings on of the square. I could here the racket of the snake charmers with their 'flutes' and drums and I could see the snakes on the ground, or being put around people's necks so that they could have their photos taken, or monkey handlers who put the monkey on people's shoulder for picture money, or the dancers who would perform and then pass their hats around, or the water men who were dressed in their red outfits and crazy hats who would pose for money as well. None of this had changed in the last 40 years, I watched and participated in all of it then (check out the entries on the blog from 1979 to see the square back then). 

At this point Rachid left us and returned to his office. The three of us spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the medina and 'window' shopping. The medina is a maze of narrow alleys with all manner of things for sale. I was surprised that the vendors were not really aggressive and took 'no thank' well, actually a few then said 'have a nice day' or 'good travels'. This was a much different experience from the past, and frankly after last night's scene and the fact that a couple of people I met in Essaouira had warned me about the vendors, I was happily surprised. We were able to walk around and check out the goods for sale, from metal works, to wood workings, clothing, shoes, souvenirs, etc.

We returned to the main square and went up to the terrace of the Hotel Restaurant Cafe de France for lunch. Shortly after getting there Elisa saw us up there and joined us. We had pizzas which were very good and a coke. When we were finishing Theresa, Trish and Kate saw us and joined us as well.

The four of us spent the rest of the afternoon again going through the markets as Tara was shopping for a t-shirt. In the end Elisa bargained for her and got her a nice souvenir shirt.

The group of us took the public bus back to the hotel where we hung out for a couple of hours before the 7:30 meet up and dinner in the hotel restaurant. They have a nice restaurant here with a section that is outside by the pool. We enjoyed a great meal (I had an excellent lamb shank and creme broule) and a number of us had sangria. We had collected money and I presented it to Rachid and thanked him on behalf of all of us. I said that we didn't get a guide, we got a friend. He is the most gentle, patient, supportive man you could meet.

After dinner a few of us went up to the terrace on the 7^th floor (Rachid included) for a night cap before bed.