morocco's the kind of place you visit once?and immediately know you?ll be back. there's plenty to make this impression: it might be the way marrakech, the red city, glows as the sun rises, or how intoxicating it is to watch magicians and storytellers move in knots through jemaa el-fna square as that same sun sets. the thrill of haggling for rugs and cuffs and copper trinkets inside fez's maze-like medina could do it. or perhaps it's that view of spain, clear across the med, as you sip tea at café hafa in tangier (that's what kept william s. burroughs returning decades ago. that, or the hash?). we are hooked on feeling like you've escaped to somewhere completely different, where you sleep inside opulent riads, venture into the desert, admire mounds of spices at the markets that you know would never be on a menu back home. then you realize?you?re not even that far away. east coasters can be in this arab-berber country, on the tip of africa, in the time it takes to get to california. and all of the sudden, coming back doesn?t seem like such a stretch after all.
