Driving

Driving in Marrakech is crazy. The most common cars are hatchbacks and these sort of minivan-station wagon combinations, mostly Renaults and Peugeots. I have seen one Hummer and it was shocking. The roads are mostly very straight, and none of them have names so I'm not sure how people navigate.

Our host mother is very intense about driving. She goes way over the speed limit most of the time and when she wants to pass, she leans on the horn - which never has any effect - until the other side of the road is clear (or not clear, she doesn't really care) and then zooms by the slower car, moped, bike, pedestrian or horse. Most of the scooters are Yamaha Mates, which look a little bit like old Vespas but not nearly as pretty or well-made. They also don't go as fast as the cars, but scooter drivers do frequently run red lights. Apparently traffic tickets are very expensive here, but that does not seem to be a deterrent from running lights or stop signs (they are rare, most cars just turn without stopping).

Crossing the street is another story. Just as cars don't normally stop for red lights, pedestrians are either ignored or unnoticed entirely. Horn-honking is basically a perpetual sound here. One must sprint across the street, stopping between mopeds, cars and trucks to avoid being hit. It's very frightening.

Parking, however, never seems to be an issue.