Time for Africa!

   
October 11-13

Morocco, AFRICA!

Yet another weekend of venturing out into this incredible world has come and gone, and what an experience we had. This time, we traveled to another world in itself- Africa. Although we stayed mostly Northern, only traveling around Morocco, I have never felt more out of my comfort zone and I loved every second of it.

The Travel: It took us about, a 3 hour bus ride, an hour ferry ride, and another hour and a half bus ride to get to our hotel called Hotel La Paloma (we must not be that far from Spain right?). It really wasn't bad, just a hop, skip, and jump to another continent, and we arrived in Africa!

The Abode: Upon arrival at our very religious, conservative, owned by Super Muslims Hotel, we all got the most confused looks from the people there. It could have been our hair, our 'revealing' clothing styles, our bright eyes, but realistically it was all of the above. Once we got past the lobby full of stares, we settled in nicely to our 4 star comfy beds to which we all agree beat the worn out spring beds we have in our host families. So needless to say the part of Africa which we spent time in wasn't THAT African after all.

Chefchauen!

The Food: When traveling to Africa, it is very similar to traveling south from the states, in some ways. Rule #1. Don't drink the water! A basic concept, but more difficult than it seems. Rule #2. No street food. Only consume food and drinks that are prepared in a restaurant where you know they are cooked fully and safely! Rule #3. Order the simplest of foods. Luckily we went with a group, and had no choice in what to order as the meals were just brought to us at the table. But I was thankful for this, because given an Arabic menu, I would have not a clue what to order. So our meals were pretty basic, a curry-ish soup, with chicken and coos coos, meatballs, and chicken and rice. We were happy to be finally eating food with flavor! For some reason, the food here in Espana, although delicious too, is so bland, with little flavor or excitement. The little taste of Africa came just at the right time.

The view from our restaurant.

The Exploring: Based in Morocco, our adventures weren't anything more than an hour and a half bus ride away from our humble abode La Paloma. Our first morning on the continent we hopped on the bus and took a drive to Chefchauen, also known as the Blue City, because everything is painted blue. We had a nice little tour guide who spoke nearly perfect English, not surprising as we learned that the inhabitants of Northern Africa speak 5 languages... And here we are struggling to learn a second. He toured us through all of Chefchauen, a relatively small city buried in the tall mountains around it. We saw blue doors, teal doors, aqua marine doors, navy walls, turquoise floors, ocean towers and all other shades of blue that you can think of. It was more exciting than it sounds, especially looking back at my 260 photos of mainly just doors. But each one was unique and beautifully different.

My newest friend.

Day 2: HUMP DAY! Not really, but today we rode camels! At first, we were under the impression that we would be going on a long exciting camel ride down the beach at sunset, but where we actually ended up was much different, and nonetheless still exciting. Pulled off the side of the road was our big tour bus, and 5 camels... for the 50 of us in the group. As it turns out, our thoughts became a little more realistic as we noticed the small area for which we were to ride the camels. Although it was a short and sweet little ride, it was by far one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life. How many people do you know that have ridden a camel?



The most exciting Sport in Northern Africa: Bargaining. 
Each day we had an hour (ish) of free time, that consisted of perfecting our sporting skill of bargaining. Similar to how we bargain with pesos, but this time with the Moroccan currency the Durham. When we went into the day we asked our tour guide what the reasonable price for some items would be, and he explained to us to never pay more than 5 Euro (they accepted euros in the markets), for anything. So, eager to test our skills we went to the nearest shop to purchase some goodies. After hearing the store owner tell us that a simple painting was 180 Durham (18 Euro), Joe (the buyer), insisted on only paying 5, which is what our tour guide had told us to do. Although we considered this offer quite generous for what the item was, the man responded with a blunt and forceful, "get out of my store." To which we proceeded. This little game of theirs continued all day, and we ended up paying a little more than what we bargained for, but hey... When in Africa right?


We ended our weekend in a small city known for its murals and paintings on the walls. Similar to graffiti, but in legal forms. There were walls and walls of mostly beautiful paintings, and in some cases if they were beautiful enough, they would stay on the walls for the entire year before it was painted white again. It's interesting to notice how different cultures view things. For the most part, the graffiti that I am used to consists of 4 letter words and inappropriate phrases. But here, the people focused on painting something beautiful that people would enjoy looking at! As did we.

Leaving our mark on Africa's walls. #gobeavs!

Along with the walls of graffiti, we left our mark on the relationship tree wall, where it will stay until we return again and write something again!

Reflecting back on the weekend in Africa... It was nothing like what I expected. In my mind I had pictured desert, with safari trees and dirt roads. Instead, there were luscious green mountains surrounding the cities, with paved roads and goat markets. Still different in so many ways, but I'm assuming Northern Africa has few similarities to the real Africa. 

I have now traveled to 3 different continents, and have every intention of continuing to up that number. Seeing many different parts of the world gives a whole new perspective on what we have in America. Some good, others indifferent, but watching other cultures interact and live is by far one of the most interesting aspects about this world. I can't wait to keep exploring!

Until next time Africa!