Even though I consider myself as a worldly person and think that I've seen it all, these new countries and experiences still seem to amaze me. The culture, the people, the poverty, all were unknowing and jaw dropping.
We first took a ferry from Spain (Europe) to Spain (Africa.) Spain (Africa) is how Gibraltar is to UK. Not connected to the same country but there was about ten square miles of land on the African continent that is still part of Spain. So from Spain to Spain on the ferry then a bus from Spain, over the boarder to Morocco was only about a five minute drive but getting over the boarder was insane. Pictures were prohibited, passports, itinerary, amount of hours in the country, and where you were going was all information they needed before getting over the boarder. There were at least a thousand people waiting to get into Spain from Morocco and a line of cars a few miles long. To get into Morocco wasn't as big of a deal as getting out. I was so tempted to take a picture because it's so hard to explain, even in great detail at what the boarder looked like. I remember being little, going to Mexico and seeing all the "policia" with huge machine guns and not even being scared. Morocco...I was scared. Polica in full uniform with big bulbous hats wrapped around their chins, multiple guns, and no expression on their faces. The Mediterranean is on one side of the boarder and rolling hills with multiple guards atop staring down on all the people crossing. Cages like jail cells lined with people inside trying to get across. It was like the line to ride on the Millennium Force at Cedar Point only it was seven foot high, barbed wired, rod iron fence with no re-entry. Felt as if I had done something wrong before I even got into the country. Good way to start out the trip.
Once over the boarder we rode in the bus to a small town (don't even know the name) on the western side of the country into old town. Before we got to the old town we stopped to see camels just off the side of the road. To start, it was raining, we all got off the bus, the camel was uncovered from a tarp and got up abruptly. Everyone was snapping photos. The camel had a red and gold striped satchel/saddle on. To ride it was one euro so I was third or fourth in line waiting for my turn. A couple from our bus was on their honeymoon from Costa Rico and wanted to ride together. The guy was maybe 230lbs and she the woman was close to 170lbs. Not a small couple, they get onto the camel, woman in front and as the camel starts to get up, the weight of the couple shifts and the saddle starts to fall off to one side. The woman leans so far forward that the camel head butts her right in the nose. It is having trouble getting up and starts to freak out. The camel starts bucking up and down like a horse and the couple fall off on top of the guide then onto the concrete. The camel bucks off into the side yard of where we were and just starts eating the grass. The couple are still laying on the ground half on top of the guy that somewhat broke their fall. The woman cut up her forearm pretty bad, ripped her white t-shirt and had mud all over it. The man looked stunned of what just happened. We all were standing there wondering if we should be laughing or not after seeing everyone was alright. I was clearly opting out of being the next person to ride it. Once that whole situation was over the guide came back with another camel and just said we could get pictures with it but couldn't ride it because of the rain, didn't want anything else bad to happen. It was so smelly and I reeked of camel the rest of the day! I was able to pet it and get some good pictures just hanging out with a camel on Wednesday which in America is considered HUMP DAY, mid day of the week.
Next stop was old town markets. We walked through the markets for about an hour. The Moroccan people are all Arab Muslims. No black people as I imagined Africa being. The women all wear full hijabs, covering all parts of the body including the hair and all around the face. Only thing showing are the feet and hands. I was walking through the market with my long blonde hair hanging out and if I've ever been the center of attention before, this was 100 times worse. I almost felt as if I was going against their religion because I was walking around all the Mosques with my hair out. Throughout the market we were able to taste a few things. These men and women would sit on the sidewalk and sell their products. Some with a few olives to sell and others with live chickens and their eggs. We walked up and down the hills of Morocco, in between small corridors no wider than my arm length, dodging all the puddles and pot holes.
I'm in love with these type of lamps. I can imagine my future house having an outdoor area with these hanging all over and a comfy area to lye down and stare at the stars. These lamps were all over morocco. For sale but I had to resist, cant really bring that back to the boat.
This was a door to one Mosque. All are different colors but most have doors similar to this one. Muslims pray five times a day so there's literally a Mosque on every corner.
This is one of the crazy things we saw while walking through the market. Because it was raining they were trying to keep the rain out and stringing lines over one another ti be able to put tarps out. They didn't have a "normal" ladder so they needed two people to make this one work.
We had a traditional Moroccan lunch, pita bread, soup, koos koos, chicken and their known tradition after the meal is mint tea, most wonderful hot tea i've ever tasted!
After the meal, we took an hour bus ride to the city of Tangier. This city reminded me of Brazil. Everyone and everything was on top of each other. Houses on top of houses, slums, people everywhere like the streets of New York City. High rise buildings like a regular city and then a slum right across the street. Every person we passed was trying to sell me something or begging for money and these people wouldn't just ask once but I swear there was one man that maybe walked a mile with us trying to sell me a leather camel toy probably only really worth 50 cents. He started out saying it was 40 euros then went down to 25 then once I literally told him to get the hell away from me he said, "ok ok for free" in very broken english. These people were desperate just to tell one thing a day to be able to eat.
Rumor is that we are leaving Gib in a few days maybe a week then to France.
Peace&Love
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