Africa ✔ : Moroccan Adventures

Chefchaouen, Morocco

Our bus departed from Granada at 1230pm and so began our journey to Seville and then to the Spain/African coast.  The bus ride took the entire day and we boarded the ferry around 9pm. They day was full of motion sickness for me so I took every patch/pill/bracelet that I could to avoid feeling sick more sick than I had to. Lucky for me the waves were calm and the boat barely rocked at all! We arrived in Africa (that felt kind of crazy to type) around 9pm local time (they’re an hour behind Spain), and quickly drove to the hotel. Around 11pm we all got our room assignments and had dinner. It was a terribly long day of travel, but for the price we paid and the service we received it was wonderful. I’m in heaven here with all of the tea, my home in Granada is the Arabic teahouses and here there are even more!

 

tea for every meal :)

We woke up around 830am Saturday, ate a quick breakfast and hopped on the bus. Riding through the country in the early morning gave us a much different impression of Northern Africa than the pitch-black ride through the curving roads the night before. The side of the highway was lined with mountains, bluffs, and lots of peaceful lakes. I don’t know how to describe the lakes besides that they were tranquil. The water was still and the surrounding mountains gave the lakes a manner of protection and security. It reminded me (very vaguely) of Winona and my home surrounded by the Mississippi river, lakes, and bluffs.

 Once off the bus in Chefchaouen, Morocco we took a tour with a local guide named Abdu Salem, he was quite the character and I would guess that he was in his late 60s.  Much like the people in España he didn’t hesitate to grab your arm or shoulders when he was speaking with you. He directed us around the inner blue medina. Honestly, I don’t have too much information for you because in addition to being short, our group had 40 people in it so it was nearly impossible to even see his lips moving. Any tour group larger than 10 people is pushing it for me; you don’t get the connection you need. 

Abdu Salem

The kids let me join their game for a bit!

After lunch we got free time to roam the city on our own. This was my Godsend. Annie, Steph and I wandered around the blue maze stumbling in and out of different shops conversing with the locals. I felt like I was under water the entire time, so many shades of blues covered the walls, and they all changed colors and reflected when the light hit. It was a mono chromatic wonderland.

Talking to the locals took a lot of concentration, we would discuss with each other in English, barter with the shopkeepers in Spanish, and then they would discuss their store prices with each other in Arabic. In addition to this we were paying in Euros and Dirham (the currency in Morocco), while simultaneously trying to convert the exchange rate to both of those in dollars. It was mentally exhausting and it makes me miss the US a little bit where I know the true value of what 5 dollars should be.

Moroccan Money

  Nevertheless the cultural experience was eye opening and the people were incredibly pleasant and helpful if you were firm in what you wanted. I bought a beautiful leather duffle bag, Annie bought a hand woven rug, and Steph purchased a canvas painting from a gallery after a lot of indecisiveness. I was impressed she was able to narrow it down to one; they were all incredibly beautiful and revealed a seamless story of all different aspects of Moroccan daily life.  After our personal exploration time we headed back to the main square to meet the rest of our group; the open area was filled with walking vendors trading bracelets and henna for whatever money they could get from us. I slept most of the bus ride back to the hotel, despite the best efforts of the girl sitting next to me trying to keep a conversation going (sorry..). 

After dinner we all sat down to drink Sangria while watching a traditional Moroccan cultural performance. I was honestly a little terrified when the guy starting swinging around his flaming tea cups..but when in Africa yah know? Tomorrow we are riding camels in Tangiers, and then heading to Assilah for some more exploring and shopping before we catch the ferry back to Spain.

Today (Sunday) we woke up an hour earlier than yesterday and after a quick breakfast of tea and fruit, left to make the best of our last day in Morocco. Here was the view from the balcony the morning we left:

 The first city we arrived in was Tangiers, we did a quick bus tour of the city before heading to the beach to take a ride on a camel!

 I think I was on a camel one other time in my life…possibly 5^th grade at the new zoo, so I guess you could say I have some experience with the art that is camel riding. Just kidding, I probably yelped (yes. like a dog) the loudest when the camel was ordered to stand up. We took a quick lap around the beach and then returned to the cement platform to “unload”. I’m going to be real with y’all, one lap on the camel was more than enough for me, the jerking motions of their body in addition to my legs getting squished by the camels on both sides was not something I could have done long term. I heard a FEW others say their legs were sore after so it wasn’t just me! 

After taking in the beauty of the beach and many selfies with the camels we got back on the bus for Assilah. Once in Assilah we were immediately set free to wonder around the city, we didn’t have too much time, but we made the most of it! I bartered with a shop owner to get one of his beautiful paintings and I got him to drop 77 dirham, don’t get too impressed that’s the equivalent to like 7(ish) euro.  I can’t wait to hang it up in my room next year, even though I purchased it in Assilah it reminded me a lot of the blue medina in Chefchaouen.

I’m currently on the ferry waiting to leave the Moroccan port. As I mentioned yesterday, this ferry is HUGE. I didn’t even know ferries this big existed. They have a general store, a bank, a little restaurant, and lots and lots of seating. Almost every seat is filled but I still have plenty of room to stretch out.

Once again I am amazed by my friends here, they all love adventure, taking risks and planning last minute excursions to different cities, countries, and as this weekend showed: continents.

On a quick side note I got very seasick on the ferry ride back to do the insanely huge waves we kept hitting. So thank you veryyy very much to Anna for helping me out with everything and to Katherine and Logan for carrying my bags when my hot mess self couldn’t walk straight for awhile afterwards.

I arrived home in Granada safe and sound around 415 am .

Thanks for the good times Morocco! I hope to be back in Africa sooner than later J