There's a monkey on my head

Marrakech. It's a place that's been on my hit list for a while now. It notched up a tick next to continent number 5 - Africa.

It's difficult to explain my first impressions. I'd been so hazy on what I expected that simply drinking in the crazy traffic the yo-yo scenery (palm trees, desert shrubbery, pristine golf greens, shabby house, extravagent new villas) it seems to be a place of extremes. The journey from the airport to the hotel allowed plenty of watching as we were staying far out in the Palmeraies in a rather nice hotel. Makes a change from the usual hostelling!
It took a day to get settled in, soaking up some of the beautiful sunshine (playing chess by the pool) for us to make the most of our trip. And by make the most of, I definitely stayed up to watch Andy Murray in the US open final. Shame I fell asleep 2 games from the end!
The following day we booked ourselves onto an excursion to the Ouzoud waterfalls. This was quite the drive away from our hotel, but we shared the trip with a German couple. We hired a guide once we arrived, who took us on a walking tour up to the top and around the whole falls and pools. The guide loved that my boyfriend and I both speak French and tried to conduct the tour in French, ignoring the poor German couple! I've never tried French > German interpreting before, so that was a new experience.

It was a hot day and I wish I'd had swimwear so I could take a dive into the pools as many people were. However the scenery was beautiful and it was followed by a delicious goat tagine lunch overlooking the falls. On the way back to the car, we finally found the wild monkeys we'd heard about. I got to feed them! One jumped on my head which wasn't quite so cool. So whilst the German lady and I were cooing over wild monkeys, the men were backing away, obediently taking photos and waiting with hand sanitiser.
The day was rounded off by the driver forgetting his phone and rushing back down to the restaurant and the car being double parked. So not the smoothest end to the day but a very nice trip indeed. Summarised perhaps by a quote from the guide "In Winter the falls are bigger because there's more water". Logical.