"Sometimes the book can lead you astray"

This was the response of a Moroccan shop owner we passed yesterday morning while trying to navigate our way through Chefchouen's windy streets to get to the trail head to climb Jebel al-Kelaa, the mountain overlooking Chefchouen. He asked if we needed help finding anything and not wanting any hassle about coming to his store, buying hash, or eating at his restaurant, we quickly shrugged him off, saying no, we didn't need any help because we had a map and book. At the time, I didn't think much about it, because we were just looking at a map and had no interest in paying someone to point us in the right direction or get into a conversation that would inevitably lead to either an attempt at a durg sale or an invitation to come to their store "just for a chat," when what they really want is to sell you a rug or carpet or chalabah (the long wool hoody things that the men here wear). But, later on, as we're trekking up the mountain, his comment got me thinking about how we as tourists do affect their economy in a very real way. Particularly since Chefchouen is not as touristy as some of the bigger cities here and people still live very traditional lives; on both of our hikes we ran into more goat and sheep herders than other hikers. So each single tourist's impact is felt more. And it got me wondering how we affect not only the restaurants and shops we patronize, but the ones that we don't. If we just eat at the restaurants recommended by the book, it's very true that we might be missing out on someplace really good, but also if all the tourists only eat at the restaurants in the book, it's easy to see how this will only perpetuate the unequal distribution of wealth that already plagues Morocco.