Bienvenue au Maroc

Apologies for this post being out of order. It shows up at the top now because I found a few mistakes and had to edit it slightly, but it wouldn't let me repost it in the same place I originally posted it. 

So this past weekend (from September 4th to September 8th) I decided with a few days off that I should visit a different continent. This is why I packed up my big red backpack and made made my way to Morocco.

The view from the back of my ferry from Tarifa to Tanger

On thursday morning David and made out way to Tarifa and then got onto a ferry that took us from Tarifa to Tanger. These ferries were extremely fast and it only took us 45minutes to cross the straight of Gibraltar. Once we landed in Tanger, we were almost immediately introduced to Moroccan culture.

Once we got off the ferry we were greeted by an older man who claimed that he was an official tour guide by flashing his Moroccan ID at us (which should have been the first key to say that this guy was slightly shady). He then proceeded to walk us to our hostel through the old medina (market). Once we completed this 15 minute walk through a very tight and confusing maze we gave this man 5 euros for his services.

This is a view of the Tanger Skyline from the old city at the Hostel I stayed at. 

 After we got settled in David and I met two other guys, one from Essex and the other from Australia as well. This made the four of us who travelled around the entire time I was in Morocco. It made for some excellent adventures indeed.

An example of the markets in Tanger. 

He is a little example of what the streets looked like.
I'm amazed locals don't even get lost!

After only a day in Tanger I was quite tired of the pressure tactics of the souk keepers (shop owners). Their goods were quite nice and looked very interesting but if you stopped even for s second to look at them they would push the good into your face and follow you right down the street to continually try and sell it to you. 

The next morning the four of us packed into a cab and made our way towards the bus station to catch a bus to Chefchaouen (the blue city of Morocco). The bus was only 45MAD (about 6$ Canadian). This was one of the most unique bus rides I have ever had. The terrain was alot more mountainous than I thought and I had absolutely no idea that Morocco had such a beautiful landscape.

Here is what a big taxi looks like! The driver said that 6 people could definitely fit into a "Grand" taxi!!

Once arriving into Chefchaouen, we decided to try and find our hostel in the old city on our own. BAD idea!! We were walking around the old medina for close to an hour trying to find where we were staying. There was finally a nice man, who showed us how to get there and amazingly wasn't after any of our money! Once arriving we were greeted by the humble owner of the hostel Casa Amina.

A picture of what our hostel looked like. 

This hostel turned out to be my home for three nights until I was forced to bus back to Sevilla in order make a meeting with the teachers I will be working with once classes start on the 15th of September. 

Now after settling in to Chefchaouen (it is said Chaouen by the locals) we decided to hire a guide through the hostel and take a hike up the Rif mountains. It is said that the Rif mountains are some of the most beautiful hiking that can be done in Africa. 

The next morning at 7am we dragged ourselves out of bed and began to head up the mountains. We left so early because we wanted to avoid the deadly heat of the afternoon sun. The hike was absolutely amazing. The views were simply breathtaking. The hike wasn't very easy either, the 4 foreigners were gasping for the breath the entire way up as the guide was walking along in old flip flops!

The view of Chaouen from the mountains. 

After coming down from the 4 hour hike we decided to take a well deserved ciesta before lunch. After this we decided to explore a little more of the city by getting lost in the medina. This actually proved to be quite fun as the blue throughout the winding and narrow streets made for some great pictures!

 

 

Now on the second day we decided to take another hike to the akchur waterfall. This time,  we decided to try this trek on our own with a little bit of guidance from our hostel owner. We took a taxi up even higher into the mountains and were let off at a very congested parking lot. As the summer was ending, there were hundreds of locals who had decided to take this hike as well! It was quite refreshing to be the only tourists around and that local Moroccans were also enjoying the hike along with us. This highest point of this hike was supposed to have an amazing natural waterfall, although we were still extremely tired from the trek the day before so we decided to stop half way and enjoy the water from this point.

What our hiking trail looked like. 

Once we decided to settle in I seemed to be the only one excited to get into the water. We stopped at a basin where there were a group of Moroccan men doing acrobatic dives into this small crevice of deep water. After watching several death defying jumps by the Moroccan men, they told me that they weren't jumping anymore until I tried it. So I did, and the water was extremely refreshing! It was cold enough to have to get out after a few minutes but after a few minutes I found myself jumping off these rocks a lot. I found it to be quite a bit of fun! 

After this amazing hike we once again went back to our hostel for some well deserved rest. 

After a nice long nap we decided that we should go all out and visit the nicest restaurant in town, because the next morning I would have to spend the day travelling back to Sevilla. We did out research and went to a very nice restaurant with a beautiful rooftop patio that gave us an exceptional view of the city. We all order complete meals. I started out with a Moroccan salad with goat cheese. Beef tagine and coucous for the main meal and a chocolate crepe with almonds for desert, all tied together with a fresh fruit smoothie to drink. At any restaurant in Canada this would be a very pricy meal, but in Morocco this luxurious meal came out to 100MAD (or 14$ Canadian)! 

After a full belly of couscous am olives we went back to the Hostel to get some sleep as I had to be up early to catch my bus back to Tanger to get on the ferry and eventually make my way to Sevilla. It was a long trip back, but it was completely worth it because I have some amazing memories of being in Morocco with my Commonwealth friends! 

Keep checking back shortly and I will put up a post of how this week has gone! I miss you all and hope to hear how things are going back in the Great White North!!!