Day 146: Casablanca’s Black Market

As if our couchsurfer hosts weren’t already awesome enough (making us french toast for breakfast and then Russian vegetable pie for dinner), Bryan let us tag along with him for a trip to Casablanca’s Black Market. He needed an external harddrive and a tagine (Moroccan cooking pot). I wanted a replacement lens and possibly some replacement shoes. Off we went.

Can I just point out how awesome the dude above looks? A grey jalaba (Hello, Star Wars) with bright yellow glasses. He was awesome. He also gave me a super great deal on a new camera lens. I dropped mine an uncountable amount of times (or accidentally knocked it against a rock while trekking, or it fell off of my backpack while I used Andrew’s camera to take video of him, or maybe it has a grain of sand stuck in it from when I took it to the beach…) For the past month, I haven’t been able to adjust the focal length and recently, it hasn’t been focusing unless I use the LCD screen to shoot a picture. It’s been frustrating. Bryan helped save the day taking me to the dude above.

He then took us to this awesome store (or booth or whatever it’s called in the depths of the Black Market) that I’m convinced is just a front for something even more ‘black market’ than simply having a store at the Black Market itself. Bryan was pointing out a Nazi dagger or bayonet point in the glass case. Outside of the market, he pointed out old slave shackles. He loves the Black Market and is convinced whatever you possibly need or want, you’d be able to find it there. I’m pretty sure he’s right. We stopped at a tagine store on our way ‘home’ where I tested out my new lens while Bryan shopped and Andrew kept an eye on the car. Andrew refused to let me buy one of these giant ceramic pots to ship home. He likes to crush my dreams like that.