My Morocco trip was amazing to say the least. We left early Friday morning on October 28. The night before, we had a Halloween Party at my school. My señora dressed me up with some of her old clothes and made me into a witch/vampire. I ended up winning third place in the costume contest! Anyway, we had a long ride on the bus to get to the ferry to cross the Strait of Gibraltar. We arrived in Ceuta which is a Spanish colony in Africa so things weren’t so different just yet. As we went through customs and entered into Morocco everything started to seem old and beaten down (see pic of the toilet we had to use!). We drove for a couple of hours through the northern parts and then stopped in a small town in the Reef Mountains called Chefchaouen. There we had lunch (typical food, couscous) and walked around the city to shop. One note I need to mention is that we were in Morocco during Ramadan, which is a religious period when the people fast during the daylight hours and can only eat at night. They do this in order to suffer for their sins...or something like that. Anyway, they pray a lot during this time and don’t smoke or do anything bad. So, while we there most of the people stayed at home or went to church, therefore, the cities weren’t very busy.
Our next stop was Fez, but we just stayed the night there in a hotel. On Saturday, we headed for the Sahara. On our way, we stopped at a little rest stop on the highway where, for some reason, there are a million monkeys running around. We bought peanuts and oranges to feed them and looked around at some of the fossils and jewelry for sale. As we made our way through Morocco (we spent a loooooooooooooong time in the bus!), we could see the huge differences in scenery. Everything became more dry and brown the further south we went and for some reason, the people also seemed friendlier. It seemed like everyone waved at us in the bus! We arrived at a hotel in the Sahara where Penelope Cruz and Matthew McConaughey stayed while they were filming the movie The Sahara. From there we took Jeeps to our hotel which was about a 2 hour drive into the desert (very bumpy!). Once we unloaded we sat around the fire and watched the Berbers (the native people) play the drums and sing. That night after dinner, we all took a walk through the dunes and watched shooting stars (there is indescribable, so I´m just going to leave it at that!).
The next morning we woke up and went back to the dunes. We rolled down the huge mountains of sand and had an incredible time! Around 4pm, we saddled ourselves onto our camels and headed even deeper into the Sahara. Two hours and one really sore butt later, we arrived at our new home in the oasis. We spent some time settling in, drinking the famous mint tea of the area and meeting the locals. Its amazing how many languages these people speak because of the tourism industry! (Another thing about Morocco-there are cats everywhere!!!)
After dinner, I went up on the highest dune with some other people and some Berbers to look at the stars. We actually ended up seeing some fireworks in Algeria if you can believe it! They were really far away, but from the height we were at, we could see them in the distance. I stayed up really late dancing, singing, telling jokes and listening to the music of the Berbers that when we woke up the next morning, I felt like I had only slept for an hour. By the way, did I mention that there are no bathrooms (obviously) in the desert...you can imagine...ugh. Anyway, we hopped on the camels again and rode back to the hotel. After saying goodbye to my new friends (including a man named Janka who I really enjoyed meeting), we headed out for our final destination in Fez. Once in Fez, we hurried to eat and get to a belly dancing show, which was really fun! That night, I tried to catch up on my sleep, but it didn´t work.
We left bright and early to take a tour of the medina in Fez, my least favorite part of Morocco. The medina is the old market that is surrounded by walls which makes it seem somewhat like a mall, only completely different! We went first to a leather store where we could see the entire city! Then we visited a rug factory, of course, and then a pharmacy to look at spices. Later they gave us 10 minutes of free time. I didn´t exactly want the free time because I didn´t want to be left alone in the medina which is full of beggars and store owners trying to sell you everything they have. By the way, just a small detail about Morocco...I felt a lot safer than most people make it seem. Its hard to explain, but it definitely wasn’t what I expected. Anyway, after the medina we rode the bus back to the border. They told us on the bus to make sure we didn´t tell anyone that we were going back to Spain because people climb under the bus to cross the border. Even still, when we got to the border in Tanger, they pulled out about 12 men from under our bus!!!! They really know how to do this kind of thing. Then we waited for the ferry, but apparently, since it was sunset when we got there, everyone had gone home to eat because of Ramadan. We waited for about 2 hours and finally got on our boat, really behind schedule.
After arriving in Spain around midnight we got back on the bus and drove towards Sevilla. We noticed a couple of strange things on the bus, but didn´t think anything of it. Then...when we stopped about 2 hours later at a rest stop a man came walking out of our bathroom on the bus. A Moroccan had found his way into our bus without the officials catching him!!!! Anyway, he ran out smiling. This is when we realized that the missing gummy bears, cookies and water were because HE ate them! Haha. We thought it was hilarious. It´s so interesting because they don’t want to harm people, they just want a better life! Nothing on the bus was stolen except for food and water which I’m sure he needed more than us!
Well, there is my trip to Morocco. It was probably one of my favorite trips of all time....as are most of my trips lately, including actually being in Spain! I´ve changed my mind about a lot of stereotypes that people have about Muslims and Morocco too. If you ever have the chance to go to the Sahara, let me know...I´ve got some contacts! Still missing everyone....this weekend I stay in Sevilla to work on some papers that are due and then next weekend I´m going to Florence, Italy to visit my friend Chasen from Chapman who is studying there. Only 6 more weeks left....
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