Saturday, February 3. Too many pictures.  Breakfast guy slept in.  Life goes on, but 40 minutes later than expected.  Ben (our guide) says (in essence) that life’s too short to worry about details.  So true.  I suspect Morocco has some version of Navaho Time.  Breakfast was various breads and spreads.

Nice casual walk through town before the Saturday crowds hit the place.  We later saw the crowds and were very thankful for Ben’s planning.  Lots of blue, lots of shops.  Toured the kasbah, built in 1471 to blunt an invasion of Portuguese.  Descriptive languages used were Arabic, Spanish and French.  I think this is the first time I’ve visited a place where English wasn’t the first or second language.  The translation app I had failed to be useful.  Arriving at the other end of town we waited for the bus to take us to our next destination.  Had a mint tea.  Sweeter than yesterday.  Wonderful.

The drive included simultaneous views of pine trees and cactus.  A farmer using a two horse rig for plowing his field, with the wife(?) following behind with a hoe.  No doubt the man had a smartphone in his pocket.  Technology advances inconsistently.  Our family meal was with an entrepreneur named Muhammad and his wife and small child.  Being a weekend, the neighborhood children roamed by.  I pulled out my balloons and created a little magic.  The small child kept biting her balloon.  I’m going to have to rethink the age groups that I make balloons shapes for.  Muhammad answered questions and served sweet tea.  Then we strolled over to his garden to pick turnips.  I pulled a few but didn’t know how to find the ripe ones.  Others were much more successful.  Then the spouse took over slicing the turnips for a dish, with our help.  Well, not my help.  I was entertaining the kids.

The meal was steamed veggies, bean soup, the turnips with seasoning, and fall off the fork beef.  Plus bread and water.  It was all fantastic.  Muhammad not only brought in two crops each year, but hosted these events and had two apartments he rented out, short term.  Morocco apparently has its own version of Airbnb.

We returned to Chaouen, when three of us climbed to the Spanish Mosque.  It’s a pretty little building.  The view was great.  Returning to the hotel we gathered for a briefing by a motivated young lady regarding Morocco’s New Family Code, instituted by the enlightened King.  Overall it seems that Morocco is moving along towards granting equality to women, though there’s still a lot to do.  I think the most impressive aspect is that the country appears to have true freedom of speech, which allows a dialog between the old establishment and new generation.

Dinner was at a small place with good, very inexpensive food.  I had fall off the fork beef again, with steaming veggies.  And a coke!  Then two of us scampered over to the only bar in Chaouen that serves alcohol. Whisky and beer, but no wine.  I had a “Casablanca” beer.

I can’t believe I’ve only been here for two full days.  So much we’ve done, so much more to do.  Really cold today, cold tomorrow with a chance of rain.  Great photo opportunities may be over for a while.