Talk to the La-la-la Hand

 April 24, 2025
Agadir, Morocco

"Traveling-- it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” ― Ibn Battuta

Morocco is our last African country on this trip. I'm not sure what I expected, after the arid, water-starved Atlantic island chains. I was pleasantly surprised by the riot of blooming trees and shrubs. 

The first stop on our tour included a cable car ride to the top of one of the northly Atlas mountain chain. This was only a couple hundred meters above sea level, but deep in the interior of Morocco, the mountains soar to over 4000 meters.

The fort wasn't open for us to explore, but it made a nice backdrop for our camel photo.

Correction, the three beasts available were dromedaries, which means they had only one hump. Camels have two. 

As you're probably aware, I'm not a shopper, but I have no resistance to paying a local for chance to take a photo. (This calm dromedary was nice to pet, too.) 

Some members of our group opted to ride one of these gentle creatures, but the DH did it in Saudi Arabia back in 2022. Since he's a good horseman, he had no trouble with mounting a camel. Staying on as the dromedary stands is a mini-rodeo because they raise up in stages, tipping the rider violently forward in the first part. The DH stayed on back then, but the uninitiated could easily tumble off head first!

Then another local with a month old goat in his arms offered the dear little thing to me to hold. What a sweet baby!  The DH took this shot and then the goatherd offered to take a picture of both of us with the kid.

When he did so, another man with--of all the nasty things--a snake scurried over and inserted himself into our photo, dangling the snake next to the DH. Our goatherd was still snapping pictures while I objected to the encroachment. I won't post those pics, because I was making a very unhappy face. We paid the goat's owner because we had a verbal agreement with him.

Then the snake man tried to extort money from us since we had a picture of him and his reptile. We both said "no" and started walking away, but he kept haranguing us. Then I remembered my Egyptian training when our guide to Luxor taught us how to stop an importunate vendor. 

I extended my left arm, palm out toward him in a "stop" gesture, and said in my Anti-Shopper voice, "La-la-la!"

He turned tail and practically ran from us, looking for easier pickings. FYI, la-la-la means emphatically "NO!!!!" in Arabic. 

In case you're wondering if I insulted all the local people around us, the DH saw a man with his wife and two children watching the exchange. When I broke out the La-la-la hand, he smiled and nodded his head. Evidently, it's the way everyone handles pushy salesmen in  Agadir.

The next part of our tour involved a walk down a shopping district to view an important mosque from the outside. That's the minaret in the distance. Then a stroll through a local market where vendors offered fresh produce, flowers, fish and beef hanging in uncut haunches from hooks in the ceiling. After that another mosque we could take photos of from several angles, but not venture inside (that's coming up in Casablanca for us) and then after general clamoring from most of our group, a second stop at the shopping district pictured above. 

What I loved about it is the purple jacaranda blooming along the clean-swept sidewalks.

I'm sure there must be an alure about shopping that I can't quite comprehend. Everyone else seems madly excited about it. Once I've purchased things to take home to our family, I'm terrifically done with the process. 

Can anyone explain the siren call of shopping to me? 

Hope you enjoy the DH's images from our day in Agadir!