We're not in Kansas Anymore

If you were to take a look in any Moroccan Travel Guide on any given day it would tell you that the country is located in North Africa, has a population of over 33 million people, and an area of 710,850km2. You are sure to read that the country’s capital is Rabat and that the national currency is the Moroccan Durham. If you’re really lucky and picked up the special edition copy featuring maps of cities with names you can’t pronounce, you most definitely will have a list of the best places to really experience Moroccan culture. From the Kasbahs to the mind droning carpet salesmen, these books have it all.

But, what you won’t find between page 3 and 4, located next to the long list of celebrity hot spots, is an accurate description of how it feels to truly be in Morocco. Yeah, you can pay 200 Euro to be taken 5 minutes out of town and ride an over worked and abused camel long enough to get your award winning picture. Or, visit a city’s bustling Souk to find yourself surrounded by hundreds of camera happy white faced tourists. Don't even get me started on the so called "snake charmers." But hey, this is what the folks back home pay to see on TV.

Never in a Travel Guide will you find a map of culture. It’s something that each one of us finds and experiences differently, and at our own pace. It took me days to truly get in the swing of things. I wasn’t used to strange men eyeballing me like a wolf would a three-legged cat. Or, how there are two prices for everything; the local’s price, and then the tourist’s price (I once paid a Euro for a single banana). I didn’t understand the importance of art and music to the Berber people until I was in the Dades Gorge drinking tea with them. Culture can’t be written, and it can’t be photographed. A people’s lifestyle must be experienced hands on and without any reservations. I didn’t completely unveil the true Morocco in the one week I spent in the country, but what I did discover is something you won’t ever read in a book.