36 hours in Taroudant…

The city of Taroudant is sometimes known as “little Marrakesh;” it’s circled by a set of ancient earthen walls that barely contain winding, cobbled streets, a maze of a souq, and a few beautiful open plazas graced with palm trees and juice stands, courtesy of the dozens of orange groves that surround the city.

The best way to see the place is on one of many horsedrawn carriage taxis, which will take you on a tour of the place for about 25 dirhams or directly to any destination for 10.

For refreshment and a break from the hot southern Moroccan sun, step into one of the city’s many smoothie shops. My favorite is a hole in the wall not far inside the Bab el Kasbah (one of the many large doors in the city walls), down the street from the city hospital. The interior features a curiously tropically themed water feature, live birds and a clock that runs backwards, and the banana-strawberry-peach smoothie is superb.

If at all possible, try and catch a summertime party, which will invariably involve traditional and modern musical performances, dancing, lots of sweets and sweet tea, upstairs neighbors yelling about the noise, and many enthusiastic women playing tug of war over you for photo ops…

I attended such a party last week and was bemused at how many of the women focused their energies not on dancing or watching the performance, but on filming it with their cell phones. When the women started dancing, the president of the association made sure to safeguard their modesty by asking everyone to turn off not their cameras, but their phones (cameras aren’t quite ubiquitous here, but camera phones are!). Which, I think, is emblematic of Taroudant’s charm: it’s modern enough to have women who are willing to dance in public, in front of men, and throw their own parties, but just a little too provincial to broadcast themselves on YouTube using their ultramodern phones…