Marrakesh Days 1 and 2

Howdy,
Yesterday was our first full day in Marrakesh, and we spent it in typical Marrakshi fashion. After breakfast at the Riad, we walked through the main square of the city for a while, which is called djemma al-fna. This literally means assembly of the dead, but it is not in fact a zombie parliament, but a huge square filled with an enormous array of people. It is packed with tourists and locals alike, and at night it is filled with food stands selling grilled meats. During the day it is more open. At the risk of forgetting a few things, we have seen the following activities and people in the djemma so far: a man with a baboon on a leash (which stood on my arm and apparently "likes" me), several gambling scams, many musical groups, mediocre snake charmers, horse drawn carriages, men selling human teeth, henna artists, juice stands, enormous nut carts, cd sellers, maniacal vespa riders, and many other bizarre sights.
We grabbed lunch at a food stall just outside the djemma, which consists of a deep pit and a carving station. Whole lambs are cooked in the pit, and then lifted out with hooks, whereupon you ask for either a half or a whole kilo. It was extremely greasy, but satisfying, especially when we saw lamer tourists look in with visible queasiness and walk on. We passed the next few hours wandering through the maze of souqs, the covered markets, buying presents for those of you that have been reading the blog, and laughing spitefully as we passed on trinkets for everybody who hasn't. We took a break at the Riad before heading out for dinner. We were going to go to a Thai-Moroccan fusion place, but when we got there it was 4 times as expensive as Lonely Planet had said. When a man on stilts came out dancing to Michael Jackson (this isn't a joke, that actually happened) we dropped our menus and left. We went to a shwarma stand and got delicious platters. Afterwards we went to a hotel bar described in the book as, "raucous, but not sleazy". We found it to be neither, and we headed in for the night.
Today, we took a day trip to the mountains an hour away from Marrakesh. We took a nice walk with our our guide, Hussein, around the valley, passing through a couple of the towns. It was really great to get some fresh air, and the Berber countryside provided an interesting contrast to the predominantly Arab cities we had been in. After lunch, we ventured on our own, making our way up the river that winds down the mountains. It is pretty low right now, but apparently it can be quite powerful. We a cool spot to chill and take in the quiet of the river and the mountains, before heading back for the return to trip in Marrakesh.
We're going to head out in while for wome dinner, our second to last together...time has flown in a weird kind of way.
Much love, Luke