Adventura en AFRICA

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I have now experienced Africa!

My journey began on the early morning of November 1st. We departed from Granada at 6am bound for Algeciras, a city Robert and I knew very well. There we met another bus of students from Sevilla and boarded the ferry to Cueta. A quick 45 min. ride across the straight of Gibraltar and we were in Africa, well...we were still in Spain technically, Ceuta is a spanish city on the continent of Africa. After a two hour delay at the boarder we finally could say, "Estamos en Africa".

The first night we stayed in Fez. It was a definite culture shock. The sides of the roads and highways were filled with people walking and riding bikes and the roads were filled with people riding mules, horse drawn "carriages" and mercedes. The first full day in Fez we toured the center of town which was set up a lot like Granada, yet much more raw and poor. It was really interesting to see that when the Muslims were kicked out of Granada they just moved down to Africa. There were merchants selling live chickens with their legs tied together, and young kids selling necklaces and bongo drums everywhere.

After Fez, we took an eight hour bus ride to the tip of the Sahara desert where we boarded Land Rover Defenders and headed into the desert. By the time we started driving it was dark, so it made the drive that much more exciting. In the beginning, all the Defenders were in a line, caravan-style but all of sudden we all branched off and took our own paths. The driver put in some arabic techno and we jammed out cruising through the desert with head lights scattered all around us. At one point I stuck my head out the window and looked up at the sky and saw more stars than I have ever seen. It was amazing. After about fourty five minutes of cruising through the desert we arrived at out final destination the oasis. It was like a motel but with a big camp made of nothing but rugs. Both nights the workers at the oasis jammed on the bongos for a couple of hours. They were really good, but this french guy, whom some of the girls nicknamed "Ruby Sparkles", (need I say more) danced to every jam in the most flamboyant way possible. So it took the attention off the good drummers and on to this creepy french guy dancing in front of us.

The next day we road camels through the desert to another town nearby and ate arabic pizza for lunch and shopped at a carpet store. When we got back from riding camels it was almost sunset so we decided to hike to the tallest dune we could see to watch the sunset. Unfortunately, it was cloudy but it was still alot of fun. We got to watch a group of four wheelers get stuck in the sand and watch some dirtbikers climb the dune. That next morning Robert, our new buddy from Sevilla Pete and I got up to see the sunrise but yet again it was cloudy. It was still a cool experience though. After our two days in the desert we took a bus ride to Mecknes where we spent the night and left for Spain that next morning.

It was an amazing trip and I am so glad I could experience it, but I was definetly happy to be back in Spain. It was nice to drink from the tap again. Luckily I never got sick, most of the people did at some point and it was mainly from the water. Robert got really sick the last night and we think it was from the fruit. One girl even got stung by a scorpion! She woke up in the morning getting stung by it. They rushed her to the nearest doctor's house and gave her a type of cortozone shot which made the swelling go down right away. It was definetly a Crazy place!

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Photos

Rock of Gibraltar
This is the view of the infamous rock from inside the ferry.

STOP
I think!?

Mi amigo el Burro
In Fez, donkeys were the semi-trucks.

La misma cita
This is the same quote written on the walls of the Alhambra. ¨There is no winner there is noone greater than Alah¨

Callejones
The streets were set up exactly the way the islamic section of Granada is set up. VERY CLOSE TOGETHER. Except these streets were dirt and covered in blood from the meat hanging in the shops.

Stinky
This is the area where the leather is made. So...it smells horribly of rotting corpses, they gave us mint leaves to cover up the smell. Each ¨bowl¨ is a different color of leather.

Niños
These kids all crowded around the cuatro por cuatros and tried to sell us things. That kid in the front with the blue shirt just got done playing a mean drum solo on Petes little bongo.

Defenders
The caravan ready to take us into the desert.

The Crew
This is our crew in the ¨cuatro por cuatro¨ The guy in shotgun is our new friend from Sevilla, Pedro(pete).

Jammin´ on the Drums
Both nights in the desert the workers jammed for us. If you look closely you can see Robert on the rightside trying to join in.

Tent city
This was our home for the two nights in the desert. Rugs, rugs everywhere.

Camellos
Riding the camels.

Mi amigo Jimi
My camel´s name was Jimi Hendrix, and the one infront of him was Bob Marley.

Caravan
The guides were always offering to take pictures. I´m really glad they offered to take this one.

Robert and his buddy
Everyone there was really nice. This was one of our native buddies possing with Robert.

You can do it!
On the last night we decided to climb to the tallest dune we could see to watch the sunset. Unfortunately, it was cloudy.

Estoy cansado
This is me taking a break up the big dune.

We made it!
This is the group on top of the dune.

Ommmmm
Taking a moment to meditate.

Sunrise
The next morning we got up for sunrise aswell. The guy in the blue turban just appeared while we were walking and showed us the way. Then he tried to sell us a bunch of stuff.

Picnic
On the way back, we stopped for a picnic and a family ran up to us and started begging. This little boy just stood there and looked at Pete until he gave him some food.

Monos
At this wooded area next to the road there were alot of monkeys. This is the best picture I got.

Comments

[Stephanie]

great experience
I am so glad that you were able to go to Morocco. I really enjoyed it when I went. Sounds like you really had a great time. I am jeolous, wish I could go back. Love ya, miss ya.

[Sarah Starosta]

Fantastico!!!!
Awesome, Phil, Me encanto los fotos. Sarah

[bryson]

>>>>>>>>>>
lucky