Country Article / Postcards
In Your IL Magazine This Month--Morocco…Backpacker's Haven Turned World-class Resort
Date: 08/01/2007Morocco, when I visited it some 12 years ago, in the winter of '95, was a beggar's paradise crammed with touts eager to harass all and sundry foreigners. I had piloted an RV over practically every road in Morocco and thought, right, I've been there, done that. I could not have been more wrong; in the last decade Morocco, with more than 100,000 visitors a year, has morphed into Europe--with no beggars or touts on offer, and, fortunately, without Europe's stunningly inflated price tags.
The formerly free-camping cliffs north of Agadir have been turned into world-class resorts to match the Mexican, Spanish, and French Rivieras. And Agadir, way south on the Atlantic coast, has been rebuilt into a First-World city with matching amenities and shopping malls to make super-Walmarts look anemic--a far cry from the dusty Agadir I recalled from 1995.
The most memorable parts of Morocco remained unchanged, except they have become comparatively better. Thus Marrakech stumbles blithely along as a premier destination. A few years ago, Marrakech's city fathers narrowly failed to turn the main square, Place Djemaa el-Fna--a medieval pageantry of snake charmers, iffy games of elusive skill, orange-juice mega-stands, herbal pharmacies, luxurious fast-food carts, and the freneticism of a hundred circuses attended by a billion trillion tourists--into a municipal parking lot. Marrakech without its central square would be nothing more than another sprawling Moroccan city. Even the fascinating labyrinth of its secretive souks (especially the candy souk) would fail to rescue Marrakech from oblivion, should the 50-ring carnival of its central square morph into a parking lot.
One of the best reasons to visit Marrakech is its proximity to the visually prominent high Atlas Mountains, easy access to great trekking, and the highest peak--Mt. Toubkal, at 4,167 meters (nearly 14,000 feet). I crammed myself into the back of a shared taxi for almost two hours, arriving at the Imlil trailhead raring to go. The first hour of trekking was in drizzle, the second in rain, and the next two in snow. The halfway refuge was snowed in and somewhat chilly; mid-April is apparently a tad early in the climbing season.
Next morning I strapped on crampons to tackle the snow and ice fields for the assault on the summit…
[Ed. note: What hardships await David on the mountain? Will he make it back to the streets of Marrakech ? Fear not, all is revealed in the August issue of International Living, out now. If you're not yet a subscriber, you can get instant access here]
David Rich
For International Living