As I am beginning this post, I'm sitting on the train to Madrid and my seat is violently moving because the drunk guy behind me is using the table attached to my seat as a drum set to drum along to Akon's "Damn yous a sexy bitch". Never a dull moment. Thought we could avoid the drunks by buying first class tickets! (Just kidding, we had no clue we bought first class tickets. They were the cheapest available. Turns out "perferente" doesn't mean preferred seating assignments...it's first class) We'll share the video later.
Anyways....
Morocco. We arrived to the port and the map we had to get to our hotel showed that we were walking distance away. We were at the bottom of a huge mountain and women on donkeys were going up the mountain. Liz was convinced we could get to our hotel just fine, but we stopped for directions just in case. Well, turns out we were at a new port that was 30 kilometers from our hotel. So we waited a bit for the city bus and headed into the city center. The views were gorgeous over the huge mountains into the small towns along the highways. There were sheep, donkeys, cows, and camels along the roads. As we approached the city, the vibes changed. Lots of chaos and crowds everywhere. The bus dropped us off in the middle of a crazy turnabout and before we had time to process where to go from there, taxi drivers were already grabbing our backpacks to take us into their car. We stuck together hoping we would get to hotel in one piece. Our luggage barely fit into the trunk and the driver used a bungee cord to strap down the trunk. He could tell we were worried and he reassured us by saying "It is ok I use my mirror to see if luggage falls out while driving". Great. A tour guide, named Sheriff, jumped in the front seat and started rambling off every possible American reference to Morocco possible. "Rock the casbah...funky Cold Medina". He thought we would hire him for our trip. Um we'll pass.
We pulled up to the hotel with all of our luggage still under the bungee and said goodbye to Sheriff. He wouldn't give up on us, though, and gave Katie his number thinking we would call him later. We checked into our room and had some time to calm down after our overwhelming arrival into the city center.
Enter Ismel, the concierge guy who helped reassure us that we would be just fine in Morocco and we had nothing to worry about. We discussed what we wanted to see and do in Morocco and then he booked our driver and guide for the next day. Oh and most importantly, he showed us the way to the hotel bar and pool so we could drink local beer and relax there for the night.
The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel (we were always the only people eating because it was Ramadan, therefore, everyone in Morocco was fasting from sunrise to sunset) and waited for our guide to arrive. At 9am, our pale yellow Mercedes pulled up with our driver and guide inside. None of us ever caught their names. Our guide spoke pretty decent English so he was rattling off facts as we drove the hour west on the coast to Asila, Morocco. We arrived to a city center and walked towards a group of horses. Our guide paid one of the horse owners to take us for a ride. Attached to the horse was a wooden flatbed with two wheels. We all jumped on (including our guide) and held on for our dear lives (Katie and I held onto Liz haha) as he galloped around the square.
Next, we went into the fortress in Asila that lined the coast. We tried a green cactus fruit from one of the venders on the street, which tasted like a really sweet peach. Our guide said that all of the women ride their donkeys into the city to sell their produce and then use the money they make to buy what need to take home that night. Most of the women sat with a bucket of produce hoping to make money. Inside the fortress were homes with pretty tiles and huge wooden carved doors. All of the doors had knockers that are a tradition in Moroccan homes. They are used to alert the women that a visitor is present, but the women are only allowed to greet other women or their dads and brothers while their husbands are gone for the day working. A lot of rich looking Spanish people own homes in the fortress. The views from the top of the fortress walls were beautiful overlooking the ocean and the mountains.
We returned to the cab and departed to the Hercules caves. We were scared that there would be bats, but thankfully the dark area where the bats live was closed off. We walked down into the cave to see the natural opening that looked into the ocean. The opening was said to have perfectly resembled the outline of the African map. There were a couple of vendors including a guy who had the traditional women Moroccan clothing to use for pictures. Our guide dressed Katie up in the entire outfit and we took funny pictures. She fit the part perfectly because of her European tan :)
Onto the lighthouse where you can see the area that the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea meet. It was a nice view from up high.
The highlight of our day came next: riding the camels! Liz jumped on first to her camel named Nadia. Nadia was a little bit of a wild child and had Liz shrieking a few times. Katie then got on Sabrina and I got on Fatima. It was a little scary when the camels stood up, but no one fell off! Our camels formed what was supposed to be a caravan with Liz's camel in the front. Sabrina and Fatima were lovers so they would not take part in the caravan, instead insisting that they were always side by side intertwining their necks. We made our way around the cliff taking some fun pictures. After we got off, our guide insisted that we pose with the baby camels. Katie bravely went over to the first baby and all of a sudden, I see her running away screaming. Hilarious! He acted like he was going to bite her ear.
We drove back to Tanger to visit the markets. They were a bit nerve-wracking and very crowded. The meat market was wild...we were almost run over by a guy carrying a 5 foot long side of a cow. I also saw a guy sledgehammer a dead donkey's head off. Yuck. The seafood market was crazy and filled with people everywhere. A dead shark on the ground, weaving in and out of the crowds to avoid being touched by any of the fishtails sticking out, really slippery floors, and a lovely fishy smell. Great cultural experience, but it didn't leave us with the desire to shop there :)
The handicraft markets were our next stop, which started with our guide taking us to a store where they gave us a rug presentation and wanted to to buy $500 rugs to ship home. No thanks! We preferred the smalls stores where we could barter for pottery and jewelry. "Blondies make me go crazy..I give crazy prices to blondies!" -how Liz was lured into the first shop. The same guy also told Katie she had an Arabian nose. Haha We had some good laughs from him. Lots of necklace and pottery purchases later, we ended our tour with a walk up what felt like the world's steepest street in 100 degree weather back to our hotel. (Forgot to mention we were in jeans and 3/4 sleeve shirts to fit into the culture.) hot, hot, hot!
We spent the afternoon by the pool, had lunch, and then had dinner with the same waiter and menu. Food wasn't easy to get because we were the only ones eating. Our waiter served us free Ramadan soup, dates, and Moroccan cookies, which were quite good. The kabobs we ordered were a different story. Liz took the first bite and it didn't go so swell. We didn't want to offend him so we wound up cutting up the kabobs and mixing them around our plates so it looked like we ate them. Liz also put a napkin full of 1 kabob in her wristlet for good measure. Hahaha
Morocco was a very cool cultural experience. We were a bit out of our comfort zone, but our adventures were amazing. Back to Spain....
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment