The Last Day

Our last day in Morocco was a truly example on how the Murphy Law works. It started in Fez, place where we could not find a place to crash. We ended up in a not very clean Berebe home with a bathroom that we refused to shower in.

Here was the scenario: We were in Fez at 12:30pm. The last ferry to Spain would leave Tangier at 12:30am. From Fez to Tangier we had a 6 hour bus ride. We were comfortably on schedule. The ferry would arrive in Spain at 4 am and on the same day, from Seville, we would fly to Barcelona.

We arrived at the Tangier Port at 10:30pm - 2 hours prior to the ferry's departure. Before boarding we needed the required Moroccan stamp on our passport and that was the beginning of our nightmare.

After 1 hour waiting for the police to show up, I decided to knock on the window of a booth where the only two people at that port were. With my poor French and using signs language I asked about the stamps. For my surprise he replied putting both hands together close to his head, hinting that the officer responsible for that was already asleep. Our ferry to Spain was leaving in 45 min and we were stuck in the port.

I was trying my best to explain something obvious: our ferry was at 12:30pm, therefore someone needed to stamp our passports before that!!!!! The Moroccan authorities took a while to realize that and when the officer was finally awake, it was too late. The ferry was gone.

Summing up: Due to the absolute lack of competence of the Moroccan police we missed our ferry, our flight the next day to Barcelona and we had to spend the night at the port. If you think that it can't get worse, let me tell you that it does.

We were flying to Barcelona with “Vueling” - a Spanish low cost airline company -which rules and penalties for our fare were pretty simple: no show = no refund and a new ticket has to be purchased. We ended up spending half of the budget of the entire trip in Morocco to buy the damn ticket! At that point the only thing that I wanted was a cold shower and a bed to crash. Price paid and we were back in Barcelona the next day in the morning.

The Sahara Expedition

900 dirhams (90 euros) was the price tag for this expedition departing from Marrakesh. Considering that we were in the Mecca of tourism in Morocco and that buses are really cheap, we decided to go to Merzuga by ourselves. 3 buses to get there and approximately 16 hours. We crossed the Moroccan Atlas - a chain of mountains with permanent snow on the top - an amazing landscape.

Getting to Merzuga was not that hard, yet very tiring. Merzuga is the Moroccan city where the " Erg Chebbi" is located - an amazing set of high sand dunes on the boarder of Argelia. To get there, we drove 15km thru the black desert, which colour is due to the volcanoes that once existed over there. Our "aberge" was located right in front of a huge sand dune in the beginning of the Sahara.

On that night we left towards the Desert in a group of 12 people, each one riding a camel. 2 hours later, we arrived at the camping site, place where we would spend the night. The full moon allowed us to wander around for a while, hiking huge sand dunes. Sahara is a berebe word which means " place of nothing" and there the temperature ranges from steaming hot during the day to freezing cold at night.
The next day in the morning we left to Fes. This time we took what locals call " chicken taxi" - a regular cab, but with 6 people inside - 2 in the front and 4 in the back. It wasn't the most pleasant experience, for sure, mainly when you add 90 degrees and lack of deodorant.

In Essaouria beach

Right after visiting Marrakesh, we decided to go to Essaouria, on the Moroccan coast. There we had the best meal in Morocco. Roberta had "harira" - traditional soup - and "couscous legume" - dish which I first tasted with some Tunisian friends in St. Louis. I had "tangine poulet" - chicken cooked with orange sauce in a special terracotta dish and "salad marocaine" - a salad with tomato sauce and slices of pepper.... very odd, btw.

It was a real feast for less the 6 euros! Dirt cheap, but a time only dinner for budget travellers. The next day, we went back to our daily menu: a big breakfast (milk, bread, coffee, jelly and orange juice) which would cost us 15 dirhams (1.5 euro) and a late lunch.

For our surprise, that night was the last night of a local festival and a Brazilian band was playing. Of course, samba and some semi-naked chicks wearing carnival costumes and thongs were part of the show. On the audience Muslim women covering the entire body were absolutely astonished seeing the Brazilian "art" on stage....

Who knows me, have an idea of how much I enjoy soccer. It was a real surprise to see how famous Ronaldinho is around here. Everywhere we go people would scream: Ronaldinho! and invite us for the famous green tea, which sometimes is no show of hospitality, but just the beginning of a scam. I will write about that later....

In Marrakesh

2 hours from Barcelona to Seville.
3 hours from Seville to Algeciras - Southern Spain
2 hours by express ferry from Algeciras to Tangier - Northern Morocco
8 hours night train from Tangier to Marrakesh

Counting the waiting time in between flights/ferry/train, 24 hours later we arrived in the former capital of Morocco. On our way we stopped for a walk at the Medina in Tangier and on the train we met Hadish, who invited us for a cup of tea at his house. Easily one can see that Moroccan people are very friendly and they are always willing to help. Most of the times you need to be careful thou. Usually behind a friendly invitation for cup of tea lies a much bigger interest: make you buy for a outrageous price something that you really don't want or simply don't need.

That's what happened yesterday. Invited for the traditional Moroccan tea while we waited for our train, So and I had a great time appreciating some traditional music, trying on typical clothing and hearing stories about how life is in Morocco. All of the sudden, Hadish said that we would have to buy the traditional Moroccan clothing for 350 dirhams (+- 35 euros). For one place where a good meal costs 4 euros, a hotel 5, a cab ride 2, that price was a truly Moroccan rip off. In a matter of seconds our nice friend became this obnoxious person forcing us to pay back his "hospitality".

Morocco is a Muslim country and as such, alcohol is forbidden. You do find liquor, but usually you wont see local people drinking it. I believe that's the reason why hashish is so widely used. No drinking allowed, but no problems in getting stoned. You see people smoking in the streets, in front of children, in the bus, everywhere.

In Barcelona, Moroccans are famous for petty crimes. To hear a friend of mine saying that was a great surprise to me. Here you do see beggars and poor people all over the place, but they will never rob you. It is a completely peaceful environment. Scams are everywhere, but this is different from a violent crime. I haven't seen any violence so far. Even the shadiest corner in the dark Medina is safe. Not sure what lies behind this, but law enforcement is rarely seen on the streets either.

Upon arrival in Marrakesh, a cab driver took us to the main street in the Medina, where we found a very good and clean hotel for 100 dirhams. That was close to the Place Djemaa el-Fna - a huge square in the Medina - which translates to "the Dead's Square", place where centuries ago convicted criminals where killed. Now a very busy and colorful place, full of open air food stalls, snake charmers and magicians. Now the next step is the Sahara expedition. Looking forward to that!

In Barcelona

Hey there!

After three weeks and two stops - one in Washington and another in New York, here I´m in Barcelona. I’ll try to write a little bit about my trip in the US as soon as I get back from Morocco.

So far the only big challenge has been to keep myself awake. They are 7 hours ahead of the Eastern Standard Time, so every place that I stop for a couple of minutes I fall asleep. I arrived here yesterday and tomorrow morning I leave to Rabat - the capital of Morocco.

Today, Roberta – a Brazilian friend of mine - and I went bike riding to a couple of different places. We visited the famous Sagrada Familia Church and we also went to the beach. For my surprise, topless is a very common practice and the Spaniards seam to be very comfortable with that. Also - and this will surprise my fellow American friends who would not even wear a speedo – the practice of nudism is also encouraged. Yes! There is one beach – in a very busy area here – where people worship their sun absolutely naked! I’ll post some pictures soon.

Later in the day, at the supermarket, I had another cultural experience. I knew that Jamon is a very famous meat here in Spain. The only thing that I didn’t know was that it was so expensive and so nasty looking. A huge piece of pig’s leg is sold for 150 euros!! I have no idea how they prepare that but I´m sure that it should be interesting.

Anyways, here I´ll post some pics and I hope to be back next week with lots of stories from Morocco!