casa barata Casa Barata is a jumble of low concrete buildings tacked onto each other with no plan to speak of, a haphazard shopping complex with an even worse jumble of metal sheds running down the hill out back. In the sheds are metalworkers and woodworkers, appliance repair shops and sellers of random junk. On the inside, Casa Barata is an amazing world, and I imagine it would be possible, though extremely bizarre, to pass one's days there without ever leaving the labyrinth of shops. At one end are tailors and fabric sellers, and at the other end in more provisional quarters are second-hand clothing stands. In between are cafes where men and boys gather on benches to watch third-rate adventure movies on a big screen, along with restaurants selling baisara and couscous, and vendors of the latest digital technology such as mobile phones, cameras, satellite dishes and flat-screen TVs. Most of Casa Barata is completely random. Car batteries and olives, plastic flowers and Spanish contraband, watches and spices, cleaning supplies and cheap Western clothing are all jumbled together, each little shop selling only one thing. Family men, housewives in pairs and stray boys squeeze past each other in the narrow aisles. The shop owners exchange banter, watch little TVs, or stare stony-eyed into space.
	location: Tangier, Morocco date: April 11, 2004 average rating: [not rated] your rating (0-10):