Blogs from Tétouan, Tangier-Tétouan, Morocco, Africa
March 12th 2012
Monday Day Two Alarms started buzzing and beeping around 6am and tent zippers followed soon after. I didn’t sleep as well as I would’ve liked but the warm shower soon sorted that. Breakfast was a variety of cereal, bread toasted over hot coals, fruit and tea and coffee. I sat on the curb opposite the truck to survey the scene as the sun rose higher, also bringing much welcomed warmth. Dishes were washed and then dried in the traditional way known as ‘flapping’ which also doubles as a bit of early morning exercise, waving your arms back and forth until the dish is at least somewhat dry. Water was poured on the coals, firewood packed back under the truck, bags packed and then quickly unpacked as we remembered what we wanted in the truck cabin for ... read more
October 28th 2010
I am swamped in the middle of midterms, but I wanted to get a chance to upload some of the pictures I took from my trip to Morocco last weekend. I went with the CIEE group so they had tour guides which made it a lot of fun. It was really a different experience getting to live in a Muslim-dominated culture for a few days. Note: It looks like I can only upload 100 photos at a time so I have more to put up later. For now I've got a plane to catch to Barcelona for the weekend!... read more
October 19th 2010
Gabriel is being led around the medina by a guide called Omar. Gabriel has disappointed Omar by not purchasing anything from crappy stores which will pay him a commission. Omar is doing everything he can to terrify Gabriel with horrible tales of epic misfortune visited on parsimonious tourists. Gabriel has not seen any beer in the medina and that displeases him. Nor has he seen or smelled any sign of kif. Gabriel does not see the point in hot smelly narrow alleyways without drugs or alcohol. Eventually, he is led into a gigantic carpet warehouse and given some mint tea. The warehouse is both visually and olfactorily stimulating. It is very noisy. He is encouraged to touch the carpets. Gabriel is perched on a stool and carpets are strewn before him. A carpet expert - and ... read more
Morocco from Ceuta to the Rif or Africa 3 times in a week
Published: March 18th 2009Africa » Morocco » Tangier-Tétouan » Tétouan
March 18th 2009
March 13 and the Rock of Gibraltar came into view after travelling non stop from Melilla-Malaga- La Linea. We found the truck as arranged , quick introductions and we were off in the direction of Africa ..... for the 3rd time this week- by fast ferry. After stocking up on diesel, alcohol and groceries in Ceuta we attacked our 1st border crossing in Africa-into Morocco. This will be our easiest by far- only 2 hours to get across. As aging hippies do we camped in Tetouan and Chefchaouen . It was very cold high up in the Rif Mountains but the views are magnificent and with snow on the top and precarious villages all around. 30 percent of the worlds supply of hash is reputed to be grown here and Chefchaoun still has the hippy look ... read more
March 11th 2008
Ok, so it was Ronda one weekend, and then the following weekend I made a spur-of-the-moment trip to Morocco Africa with some of my IFSA-Butler friends. The trip was such a culture shock, and I would go back in a heart beat. Here is how it all went down: Our program director gave us the information for guided tours through Morocco so we would be safe and know where to go. The tour gave us 3 days in the cities of Tétouan, Tangier, and Chef-Chauquin (sp.). We took a tour bus from Málaga to Algeciras (1.5 hours) to catch a ferry to Ceuta (a spanish province in Africa). We left for Ceuta around 6:30 in the evening and it only took about 45 minutes on the boat. We saw dolphins, kind of cool, but the most ... read more
