This past weekend I took my first adventure to Africa. I went with a program called, WE Love Spain on a trip to Morocco.
We embarked for Africa from Seville at 9:30 friday morning. I was particularly proud of myself because I'd managed to pack all of my things into my book bag for this trip. On the trip to Lisbon, I grossly overpacked. We rode for about 2 hours and then we stopped off to wander around Gibraltar.
We had to go through customs when we arrived at Gibraltar, because it is a British territory. It was rather peculiar to see signs and menus in English after having been in a Spanish bubble for so long. We took a bus trip to nearly the top of the rock. We explored St. Michael's cave, which for centuries was thought to be the entrance to Hades. The cave winds down about 700 feet into the earth, so a portal to the underworld was a logical assumption for the Romans. After our spelunking trip, we visited with the infamous rock apes who inhabit Gibraltar. These creatures are crafty and love chocolate, a dangerous combination. I watched one monkey grab a chocolate bar from somebody's hand, open it and eat it before the kid had any idea he'd been robbed.
After our bus trip we mulled around in the city center of Gibraltar for an hour. Marc, Lukas and I stopped at a fish and chips place for a pre-lunch indulgence. Turns out that British food sorta sucks and is really expensive.
We took the ferry from the town of Algeciras on the Spanish cost, to the town of Ceuta on the African coast. Ceuta is similar to Gibraltar because it is a Spanish territory mostly held for military and trade purposes. We crossed the boarder into Morocco, which took forever with 3 buses of kids and were introduced to our tour guides for the weekend.
Our bus's guide was named Jamal. He was very kind and a wealth of information through out the trip. He taught us about the history, geography, culture, and language (Arabic) or Morocco.
We arrived at our hotel in Tetuan that night and we had a nice dinner in the hotel. We were all exhausted from our long day of traveling and after dinner we all eagerly went to bed.
We woke up bright and early Saturday morning and had a continental breakfast at the hotel: coffee, juice, and bread with jam. We explored the hotel and discovered the fantastic views from the back patio overlooking the Mediterranean.
The tour of Morocco began with a trip to the city of Chefchaouen in the Atlas mountains. It is a minor holy city in Morocco and is a site of pilgrimage. The buildings in the city are mostly white and have a blue coat of paint around their base, allegedly this keeps the insects away. We walked around the city and visited the market district as well. We were taken to a particularly nice fabric store where they sold large beautiful rugs, blankets, and cloth that they made in the store on looms. Before we left, Marc and I tried the traditional Moroccan beverage of green tea with mint, they call it Moroccan whiskey because muslims aren't allowed to drink alcohol. It was delicious.
We rode back to Tetuan through the picturesque mountains for lunch. Lunch was absolutely phenomenal. We had a traditional Moroccan meal of soup with bread, steak kebabs, pastela, and sweet bread for dessert. The pastela was the best thing I tried all trip. It was a medley of meat and spices all wrapped in a friend tortilla. The meat inside was flavored with curry and cinnamon. it was salty and sweet and so delicious. We also had some traditional entertainment during lunch as well. There was a band who played music, some dancers, and the most interesting of all was this little old man who spun around with a tray of candles and a teapot on his head.
After lunch we took a tour of the Medina in Tetuan, where our guide Jamal grew up. Every twenty feet he would stop and say hello to someone and introduce us to his cousin, friend, in-law, etc. He showed us the way through the complex maze of winding streets and tunnels under the semi-ancient buildings. The streets and walls were all made of stone, and since they were shaded from the sun, they were remarkably cooler than the open air streets. This is a typical Arabic technique to beat the heat and it is common in the older parts of Seville too since it was under Islamic control for 500 years.
We stopped into an old-fashioned Moroccan pharmacy were they sold dozens of natural remedies for any ailment you can think of. We were shown a presentation of various powders, oils, lotions, spices, and other magic concoctions. Then we were encouraged to purchase things. Some people bought some of the magic potions but I think most of it was probably just snake oil and placebo.
When we were departing from the pharmacy I took a quick pit stop on the way out the door, which was only a minute or so. When I stepped outside, I didn't see anyone from our group in the alley. I was a bit alarmed. SOme little street peddler spotted my distress and said, "follow me follow me!, I take you to the group." I was pretty nervous about following this little man. Every Spanish person I talked to had warned me about the dangers of Morocco and not to be by yourself or trust the locals, but I didn't see any other choice. I followed this man at a safe distance for about three minutes through the winding maze of the Medina imaging how he was going to rob me or lead me to a den or marauding thieves/islamic extremists until I spotted someone from my group about thirty yards a head of us rounding a corner. I can't tell you how relieved I was. I thanked him and started to quicken my pace, and then he asked, "something for me? I help you find your people." I gave him 2 euro and he seemed pleased with his handiwork. This was one of the scarier moments in my entire life to be totally honest.
We completed our tour of Tetuan which concluded with a quick break in a shopping district. This district had shelves and shelves of beautiful hand-made crafts. Jamal told us that soccer is the national sport of Morocco, but haggling or bartering was a close second. He told us it is just a part of buying something and you can usually talk the vendor down to about half of his original price. I have never had to haggle like this before, but I enjoyed it immensely and wished I had more money to keep buying things just so I could grapple over prices with these sly little mussel-mans.
We hopped on the bus after the Medina tour and went to our hotel in Tangiers, which was and hour and a half away. We arrived and all freshened up before our traditional dinner with live entertainment.
The dinner, in terms of the food was just fine. The catch about cost of eating for this trip was that we had to provide/pay for all our own drinks, including water. So at every meal we would buy a liter of water and split the cost. They would also have coke available, and at this meal they even had beer and wine for purchase. Because alcohol is prohibited in muslim law, unlike Spain most places don’t sell beer.
That night we went to a club, which was connected to the hotel. It was fun do go out and dance, but the DJ was terrible. I would estimate I only knew 1 of every 4 songs he played. I am not a club music connoisseur by any standard, but this guy obviously had no clue what type of music to play for us.
The next morning we had a bus tour through Tetuan with Jamal, and then we headed for the Cave of Hercules. The cave was pretty neat and the views from the cliffs outside were spectacular as well. The highlight of this morning was certainly the camel ride. We all got to take atwo minute camel ride. The man who was leading the camels was named Abdul, and he was a riot. He just screamed his head off the whole time, and I couldn’t understand him at all at first. Then I realized he was making jokes and they were fairy clever. He would say, “Hands up! Hands up everybody! This is an Arabian roller coaster!” or “Smile real big! We make a Christmas card for momma!”
That afternoon we had a short layover in Ceuta, which is the less famous and equally valuable land holding across from Gibraltar. We had a quick tour of the city. We were taken to a view point where you could see the Atlantic on one side of the peninsula and the Mediterranean on the other. Not a view too many people get to see.
That afternoon was filled with traveling, by ferry and bus, back to Sevilla. I sat next to Carey on the ride home and we had a nice chat, which passed the time rather effectively.
