Morocco

Morocco was amazing. A totally different culture and religion. Maren and I took an overnight bus on Wednesday, to arrive in the port city of Algeciras, Spain on Thursday morning. We met up with our exchange group and headed off to Tangiers, Morocco via ferry. We arrived after about an hour and a half and headed through a market to talk with people at a women's center. Here we first experienced Moroccan tea, a green tea served with mint and lots of sugar. We then headed off for lunch in a smaller town, but before we arrived we pulled off the road to ride camels. Then to the capital, Rabat, to meet our host families. I stayed with the two other guys on the trip with a family that had the most amazing house... I mean big with an open courtyard and everything. Our "room" was like a palace. I say "room" because Moroccans don't have the bedroom concept... instead they just put low benches around the walls of all the rooms and then when you get tired you just find an empty bench. The culture is very group orientated, with most meals served with everyone eating out of one large dish. It was very different. The next day we toured Rabat. First we viewed an ancient cemetery. There are old ruins and gardens, and even a pond of eels. Rumors says that if you want to get pregnant you throw boiled eggs into the eels. Also at this place of life and death, there were tons of storks. Kind of surreal. Then we went for lunch with the families and following that a walk through the town with Moroccan students. They were very nice and answered all of our questions. One more dinner, and a talk with peacecorps people later, and it was time for bed. The next day found us in the Rif Mountains. We visited a village and took a short, muddy hike. We then went to a small town that used to be part of Spain... yes Spain is greedy and has/had parts of itself in Africa. It is a city that is almost entirely blue because it is where many of the Jews settled when expelled from Spain in 1492. The city is still blue and quite peaceful. We settled into the hostel and then went out to spend money (we had already exchanged it and didn't want to have to change it back.) Well lets just say that this place was cheap. For example a bowl of soup, a cheese omelet and three glasses of Moroccan tea will set you back about 37 Dirham or less than 4 dollars. We spent the night and then traveled back to Spain the next day, first Spain in Africa, and then the real Spain. Maren and I took another 8.5 hour bus trek and arrived back in Madrid at about 1:15 Monday morning.


View of Rabat


Market in Rabat


Clint and Maren in the Rif Mountains


Rock of Gibraltar from the ferry


Maren and Fatima the camel


View of the coast


The blue city


Clint and his bread