Morocco!

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The trip to Morocco was incredible. We really didn't know what to expect so we were prepared to face a shady tour guide and all the worst-case scenarios associated with a developing country. But as soon as we met our tour guide in Málaga we knew we were in good hands. It ended up being six of us, our friend Jim decided to join us last minute.
After the bus ride to Algeciras, which is the port in Spain, we boarded the ferry that would take us to Ceuta, the port in Morocco. From the ferry we could see the rock of Gibraltar and the coast of Spain slowly disappearing along with the sun. Some dolphins played in the wake behind our ferry and I was ecstatic to see wild dolphins for the first time.

Sooner than we thought we were in Africa. We had arrived ... a completely new continent, one that I've never set foot on before. We got our passports stamped and drove to our hotel in Tetuan. Upon our arrival we were served the famous Moroccan mint tea and some cookies before our delicious dinner. Room assignments were handed out and we went to bed soon after.

The next day we rose early for our tour through the Medina bazaar (old part of the city) where we learned about the day to day lives of the people of the town who come to the street markets to sell their goods.

After we settled down to watch a rug demonstration, we were shuffled off - separately and began to bargain for the rugs we wanted. I got nervous when, after having shown interest in several rugs, I was guided into a corner to sit down and discuss the matter further with a salesman. Communication alone was difficult because my knowledge of Arabic consists of 2 words and his knowledge of English and Spanish was also very limited. So we began to bargain. He asked me to shock/surprise him with a number after he gave me the asking price. My first experience haggling something of true value down, I cut the price down to a third and insisted until he gave in and gave me 2 rugs for the price of less than one.

In the afternoon we traveled to Tanger, which is a very cosmopolitan/European city on the western coast of Morocco. We visited cape Espartel, from which we could see the Spanish coast and where the Atlantic ocean and the Mediterranean sea meet.

On the way home we stopped to ride some camels!

The next day we left our hotel in Tetuan for Chef-Chaouen, a cute and quaint little town in the mountains. There we shopped the markets and took a walking tour of the blue and white painted alleys and houses.

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