In order to get to Morocco from Granada, we took a bus to Tarifa, Spain (along the southern coast) and then caught a ferry to Tangier, Morocco which is considered the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. The bus ride took about four hours but the ferry was only about 45 minutes. Customs wasn't nearly as tight as I thought it would be so it only took a while to get through because there were so many of us.
When we arrived in Tangier, we went straight to lunch at the Darna Association of Women. I'm not quite sure why our lunch was there because it's not a restaurant so we were seated in a classroom. We ate couscous and chicken, which I soon learned was going to be the theme for the lunch and dinner menu. In the middle of lunch, one of our tour guides came in and handed one of the girls her passport. Apparently she's originally from the Dominican Republic and hasn't switched to a US passport yet so it was harder for her to get through customs because of the tense relationship between the Dominican Republic and Morocco.
After lunch we did a quick tour of Tangier. We saw the market and walked around the main streets. It was interesting to see how different it is from anywhere I've been so far, but to be quite honest the city is filthy. Once the tour was over, we drove to the outskirts of the city for a camel ride. As fun as it was getting to ride and pet the camels (I wanted to take the baby one home with me), the whole ordeal made me kind of sad because I doubt they're taken care of very well. The camels that people ride literally sit down, have someone climb on top of them, stand up, walk in a circle, sit down, and repeat the whole process over and over again.
The sun was setting as we rode the camels so by the time we were done, it was almost dark. We got back on the bus and drove to Tetuan, the city where are hotel is located. It's called Hotel La Paloma and it was actually extremely nice. It kind of exemplified all of the stereotypes you could possibly have on Arabic architecture so it reminded me a lot of the Alhambra (famous Moorish palace/fort) in Granada. We checked into the hotel and had some down time in the room before eating our dinner of chicken and couscous. We were told not to leave the hotel because there was nothing in the are, which I know they did on purpose because it can be dangerous to go out at night in Morocco.
The next morning we woke up early, ate breakfast at the hotel, and were off to Chefchaouen, a small town at the foot of the Rif mountains. The reason the city is so special is because all of the buildings are painted various shades of sky blue, a tradition that was started by the Jewish inhabitants who sought refuge in the city after the Spanish Reconquest.
We started off at a hotel to meet some of the kids who would be our host families for lunch. They then joined us in a tour of Chefchauouen where we wandered around the streets for a while and walked through the market. Frankly, once you've seen one Moroccan market you've seen them all so I wasn't very interested in the whole thing. Between all the hanging meat, questionable looking fruit, and various bugs and animals, it wasn't really my favorite part of the tours. Fun fact: if there are flies swarming around the food, it's spoiled, but if there are bees, it's fresh.
At one point during the tour we stopped in a weaving shop where they make all kinds of rugs, blankets, and cloth by hand (well really with a loom). Apparently the weaving business has been suffering because of all the manufactured cloth these days so about five of the weavers in Chefchaouen have gotten together to form a kind of weaving union where they work together to have the same prices so they don't lose money through competition. It was really cool to see all the things they make there. Apparently the men make all of the big items like the rugs, blankets, cloths, etc. while the women make the thinner fabrics which are mostly scarves. Of course, we could buy whatever we wanted after the presentation so now half of my program owns some form of Moroccan cloth.
The tour ended in the courtyard of a school, where we met up with the rest of the kids who were going to be our host families for the day. We split up into our assigned groups of five and they took us back to their homes. The girl who I went with had a cousin doing the lunch too so our groups ate lunch together. No one in the family spoke English or Spanish other than the children and my host girl's uncle. The girls were fluent in English even though they had only been studying it a few years, which I still can't get over. They were so sweet and it was fun hearing about how different their lives are from mine. Most of their classes for school are in French even though they speak Arabic with their friends and family (Arabic and French are both official languages of Morocco). They were obsessed with Justin Bieber and American television so that was pretty funny. I also thought it was really interesting that no one in the entire family had ever left the country.
From left to right: me, Chaymae, Chaymae's best friend, and Chelsea (who goes to Tulane)
The house was different than any other house I've ever seen. Because they constantly have people over and eat in what we would call a living room, the main rooms of the house have seating aligning all of the walls. It was almost like a window seat but it continued throughout the entire room. When they set the food down on the table, everything was on one plate even though we each had our own cup and silverware. It's part of the Islamic culture for everyone to eat off the same plate so that's exactly what we did. I don't think I've ever eaten "family style" before, but it was pretty fun. Of course, once again we ate coucous and chicken. They usually drink this milky concoction, but it tasted like tart yogurt to me so I drank Hawaii (some sort of fruit drink) instead.
This is the room in my host family's house where we ate lunch.
After our time with our host family was over, we met back up in the center of the city and had some free time to wander around. We ended up just walking through the different streets and shopping a little bit. Juan and Jorge (the CEA staff) hung out with my friends and me for most of the time which was fun because they're absolutely hilarious. A lot of people bought these cloth Moroccan sweater shirt things that I have yet to see anyone where since the trip.
After we left Chefchaouen, we went back to our hotel in Tetouan to rest for a few minutes before dinner. We had a special dinner that night that included non-stop andaloussi music and afterwards a show with belly dancing, candle juggling, and more. It was short but very cool and we headed straight back to the hotel once it was over.
The next morning we did a guided tour of Tetouan. I got to see the royal palace, and we went to the market which was the same as the ones in Tangier and Chefchaouen. The guide took us through a tannery where they skin the fur off of sheep and turn the hides into leather. Theoretically, it could be interesting, but between the smell and visual of raw animal hides in mysterious liquids, I mostly had to focus on not throwing up.
A more uplifting and better smelling part of the tour was the stop we made in a Moroccan pharmacy. The pharmacist told us about the different herbs, spices, concoctions they have, and of course we were able to buy anything they mentioned.
This is one of the squares we walked through in Tetouan. As you can see there are flags everywhere, something that's not unique to just this square. There are also pictures of the king, Muhammad VI, hung up all over the country. There aren't any laws forcing people to display flags or pictures of the king so they do it willingly to show their patriotism and loyalty.
After the tour of Tetouan, we had to get back on the bus and head back to Tangier to take the ferry to Spain. The water was extremely rough so the boat rocked really badly. We knew it was worse than usual when the employees started passing out sea sickness bags. People were throwing up all over the bathroom (so I heard) and at one point the boat swayed so much that we could only see water through the window. I knew the odds of the boat actually tipping over were very minimal, but it was a little frightening. Needless to say, we were all extremely happy to get back on land and settle in for the bus ride back to Granada.
My favorite part of the trip was definitely the lunch with a host family. I'm taking an Islamic Culture class right now so I really enjoyed witnessing an Islamic country in action and being able to ask my host girls about what it's like to actually live there. Five times a day every day we were there I heard the Islamic call to prayer (praying five times a day is one of the five pillars of Islam). Alcohol is nearly impossible to find in Morocco because drinking is forbidden by Islamic law. I couldn't care less about it, but some of the people on my program were seriously upset about that situation so that it was kind of entertaining to watch them freak out. I was even reminded of Israel a little bit because there are stray cats in the streets instead of squirrels or rats. Visiting Morocco was definitely a very unique experience!
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