Semana Santa (Part 1) - MOROCCO

For spring break this year, I decided to be adventurous and go on an all-inclusive Moroccan excursion with two of my girl friends in my program, Brittany and Carli. Brittany’s friend from Colorado did this exact same excursion one year ago when she was studying abroad in Spain, and she said it was an absolute must, so we checked it out online and decided to go for it! We went through a company based in Sevilla called Discover Sevilla. They put on trips all throughout southern Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. The company is run by two guys, David and Eric. David is from Sevilla, but we did not get to meet him because he didn’t come on this trip with us. Eric is from the U.S. and has lived and worked in Sevilla for many years. Alongside Eric, there was another guy, Ruben, and two other girls, Acacia and Rachel, all Americans, that work for the program and went with us too. Ruben recently graduated from Regis University, which is actually in Denver, and has only been with the company for a little while; Acacia just graduated from college in Pennsylvania and is working for the program through an internship; and Rachel is from the U.S. but permanently lives in Sevilla because she is married to a native Sevillanian. The program was very organized and everything was already setup for us so we didn’t have to do anything, and we paid for it all upfront, so there were no extra costs along the way unless we wanted souvenirs.

Day 1 - The adventure begins! Our group was made up of about 80 people, 40 on each of the two big greyhound buses. All of us were American study abroad students, mostly studying in Sevilla or Barcelona, with the exception of two girls from Holland, 4 girls from Rome, and an older Spanish couple from Cadiz (which is in southern Spain). We had about a 2 hour bus ride to the southern border, which we all slept right through. Then we took a 30-minute ferry ride across the Mediterranean from Tarifa, Spain to Tangier, Morocco. Once in Morocco, we exchanged money (which was about 11 Dirham to 1 Euro), and hopped back on our buses (which came over with us on the ferry). We were on the bus for a few hours, making our way down to Rabat, the capital of Morocco, which is on the western most coast of the country. On our way into the city, we saw the outside of the King’s Palace, and then ate at this restaurant with amazing food (see pictures below). Then we went and checked out some historical sites of the city, such as the main Tower, the site of the burial of the past King, aka the father of the current King. By the way, Moroccan people LOVE their King and their country, so we were advised not to say anything bad about either one because it could be a cause for some serious problems. There are billboards with the King’s picture on them and Moroccan flags everywhere you go! After Rabat, we headed by bus to Fes, where our hotel was that we would be staying at that night. On the way, we stopped in “El Parc National D’Ifrane” where we saw lots and lots of monkeys! Some of them were up in the trees, and we bought peanuts and threw them up to them, and some of the more native ones were wandering around on the ground taking food from people’s hands. Check out the pictures, they were all really fun! Once in Fes at our really nice hotel, we got settled in and then went down to the restaurant for some more traditional Moroccan food. For your information, they eat a lot of couscous, vegetables, meat with lots of sauces, bread, etc…and it is all very strong and flavorful. Be careful though if you have a sensitive stomach like me, because something really did not agree with me and I was pretty sick for a few days, which was no fun at all, but didn’t stop me from doing anything! A few other people in the group got sick, but I definitely got the worst of it!

Day 2 - Down to the desert we go!!! Today was a looooong bus ride down south to Merzouga, aka the Sahara Desert. On the way, we stopped at a Desert Oasis, which is basically an oasis of trees and plants in the middle of all the sand and dryness (see pictures). Much later in the day after a few movies, some reading and some sleeping when the sun was going down, we arrived at the Xaluca Hotel, where we all piled into 4 x 4 s and were taken through the darkness into the desert to the hotel that we would be staying at. It was an awesome ride, lots of bumps and this great feeling of driving through the pitch black desert and not knowing where you were going! The Desert Hotel was absolutely gorgeous! It was unlike any other place I have ever been, and I enjoyed everything about it! We had an amazing buffet dinner waiting for us in the restaurant, and afterwards our whole group met our Burbar desert guides and we all participated in a drum and music circle. These guys were all native Burbars, and were really talented bongos players. They played music for us for hours and taught us some beats and some songs to sing in Burbar and some others in Spanish. This was probably one of the best nights because we were all hanging out together in the Sahara Desert listening to some awesome music and having a blast!

Day 3 - Camel Excursion into the Sahara! Before getting on the camels, we took a little trip by foot to a nearby town to check out how Burbars live out here in the desert. This walk was not easy though, as we were walking up and down the sand dunes, which is much harder than you would think, and it was soooo hot outside that day with not a cloud in the sky. Let’s just say that being sick was not helping me, and from this point on I was know as “that girl that was throwing up in the desert.” Yeah, that wasn’t so fun! I did make it to the little town, where we checked out how they make bread in these little huts and how they make rugs, which Morocco is very famous for! But I still wasn’t feeling better after that, so an SUV came and drove me back to the hotel where I took a nap and tried to relax. After lunch, we had our little backpacks packed and were ready to hop on the camels and head out to where we going to camp out in tents in the desert. The camel ride lasted about 2 hours, which was more than enough as we were sitting on hay sacks on top of the camels. It was soooo uncomfortable and left us hobbling off the camels and in a lot of pain. We got to our campsite, which was the circle of tents with blowup mattresses in them. Lots of the group then went to climb this huge dune in order to catch the sunset, but considering I had been throwing up all day I thought it was not wise to go. When my friend came back down, she told me good thing I didn’t try and go up it because it was really steep and I probably wouldn’t have made it in my condition. The Burbar bongo players also came with us here, so we had another drum circle around a fire, which was very necessary because it was VERY VERY cold in the desert at night.

Day 4 - Another day in the Sahara! My friend Carli woke up for the sunrise and took some amazing pictures (which I have below), but Brittany and I were passed out in the tent and didn’t wake up until one of our leaders, Ruben, came around with the bongo and sung us a lovely wake-up song. We had morning tea, by the way mint/green tea is very popular in Morocco, they drink it like the Spaniards drink their coffee, and it is absolutely delicious (I bought a lot of it!). We hopped back on the camels, which was even more painful than the day before! I had to force myself to sit side-saddle, which is harder to do and less stable, but it was too painful the other way. We arrived back at the Desert Hotel where we had lunch and then got back in the 4 x 4 s to head back to the Xaluca Hotel. Here we had some free time and everyone sat around the pool and swam and sunbathed and all that! After some freezing cold showers, we got on the buses to head back up to Fes. After an 8-hour ride, yeah, it was awfully long, we arrived in Fes at the same hotel we had been at before, had dinner, and hit the sack.

Day 5 - La Medina in Fes! This was another one of my favorite days of the trip! We divided up into three groups and went with guides into La Medina. La Medina is the name for the old city of Fes. It is made up of over 2000 really narrow streets where thousands of people, usually poorer people, live and work. There are no names on any of the streets and no maps, so you basically have to know your way around the city by heart. We would have definitely gotten lost without a guide! We went into a Farmacia, where there were all types of medicine and spices. But this wasn’t your typical medicine like pills and stuff, it was all natural herbs and stuff like that. We also went to a tannery, a place where they make rugs, and a place where they make silk scarves, tapestries, and throws. After the tour, we had an hour to shop around on our own in this one little plaza. We took full advantage of it and bought lots of little souvenirs and gifts for people because everything was so unique! The Medina took up the whole day, so by this time we headed back to the hotel for dinner and bed.

Day 6 - Last day in morocco…tear! We hopped on the bus again and headed north to get back to Spain. On our way, we stopped in Assilah, a little town on the beach on the west coast. Here we had lunch and some free time to check out their Medina. It was a lot smaller than the one in Fes, but it was cute and we were able to get some last minute souvenirs and gifts. Then we headed back to Tangier, got on the ferry to Tarifa, got back on the bus, and arrived in Sevilla around midnight.

This was one of the best trips I have ever been on and I recommend to everyone to take the time and go! Everyone there was so nice and it was quite and experience!!! Check out my next blog to see what we did when we got back to Sevilla!!!

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