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Published: December 15th 2006
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Alright, alright I know it has been a while but internet prices are high here. To twll you about Morocco I decided to do it in pieces with a few (hopefully short) comments and pictures for each blog. I am also warning you that I don´t intend to even try and edit this so try to enjoy the typos.
Casablanca does Bite! It is now safe to admit that while in Casablanca, for the first time since I began my travels in March, I was having doubts about my choice of destinations. In short Casablanca sucks. There isn´t much to see, the medina is so-so, I was havin trouble finding restuarant/cafes where I felt comfortable eating. Thamk goodness for schwarma! It didn´t help that it was the last days of Ramadan and a lot of places were closed. On top of that, during Eid I was witness to a huge block party taking place everywhere I went in the city and I wasn´t invited. Getting used to the N. Africa culture also can ruin the first couple of days.
The only redeeming value of Casa was the Hassan II Mosque built during the 80s. It was impressive.
Basically the previous kings decided he wanted to build the grandes of all mosques in Morocco and hired the best Moroccan craftsmen to decorate it. This also help promote and preserve the woodworking, zeilj making (tile mosaics), stucco carving, silver working, etc of Moroccan. The results are beautiful. It is the only mosque you are officially allowed to enter and you must take a guided tour that I found entirely too short. I would give you all sort of facts and info on the mosque but I was so busy trying to look at everything, I really didn´t hear a whole lot that the guide said.
In short, the only reason to go to Casablanca is to see the mosque. Since the tour is only about half and hour and it only takes about an hour to get to and from the airport, you really only need to ever spend about half a day in the area. That is the perfect amount of time for Casa.
An alternative way of recycling My hotel room in Marrakesh the first night had a lovely view of he train station which is great for people watching. I saw
a garbage truck with its men recycling the old fashioned way. They would open the bags and pull out the cans, glass, and plastic bottles. Personally, I wouldn´t have chosen to do it barehanded. And if I did do it bare handed, I definetly wouldn´t have washed up afterward with the contents of one of the thrown out plastic bottles. I am sure they all went home to wash more thoroughly later, hopefully with bleach. The depressing part of all this is that I´m sure it is worth it for the men. The average Moroccan makes $3.25 a day. If they´re lucky, this what the trashmen make and the extra they get from sorting out recyclables is probably a great second income.
Dental Fatalism I found a new approach to dental advertisin. Instead of a happy cartoon tooth or a smile on a sign outside the office, many dental offices in Morocco advertise by showing dentures. An option that most people would regard as a last resort. The denture angle was was continued further with display cabinets in the windows showing various types of dentures. I must note, though, even before I notices the dentures in
Dental Office
When I took this picture, a guy behind a partion in the office came out and started yelling at me to not take pictures. Not sure why as there was no one in the office for me to take a picture of. the dental office, I notice the average Moroccan´s teeth. Older ones had few, youngers ones a few more that were often brown. This was especially true further away from large cities. Sadly I saw kids who probably only had thier permanent teeth gor a few years and already had rotting teeth. The people are poor in Morocco and I am sure that dental care isn´t on high on the list of hosehold expenditures compared to food and shelter. Malnutrition probably plays a part as well. The country´s love of sugar doesn´t help eiyher. Moroccans appear to be sugar fiends, especially in the mint tea which arrives so sweet it made me wince. Even so I saw plenty of people add yet more surgar to their tea.
Goats in Trees In reading the Lonely Planet guid, which basically serves as a bible for me during my travels, I read a passage about goats in trees. Specifically Aragon trees, which look similar to olive trees and pretty much only grown along the southwest coast of Morocco. The Aragon nut is to produce many things including a nutty flavored oil that, according to studies, helps prevent arterialsclorosis. It also
Goats in Trees
You can see the goat´s but in the upper left. has properties that make it great for skin so many trendy cosmetic companies are adding Aragon to their face creams.
The goats are encourage to climb into the tree where they nibble on the branches and leaves, pruning the trees and eat the Aragon nuts. The shell of the nut is extremely hard and apparently passing through the goat helps soften the shell. The nuts are retrieved after the goat is through with it and aragon nut, with its now soften shell, it processed to be added to moisturizer and oil.
Anyway, I thought it would be neat to see goats in trees but wasn´t really expecting to because I don´t think I believed it. Then, on my bus ride from Essaouira to Agadir, I almost hurt my neck whipping my head around to check out goats in trees. The goats don´t just put their front hooves onto the trunk or wedgethemselves in the base of the branches but perch themselves in the trees like birds or fruit waiting to be picked. I think seeing these goats was one of the most jaw dropping sights in my travels so far. I was able to stop and try to get a pic but the closest ones jumped out before I got it. I did get a good pic of a goat´s but while in a tree. I firmly believe that goats in the States should be encoraged to climb trees. It was a great sight to see.
I am only adding a few photos at this point because they take a while to add and eat up Euro. In future blogs I will let you know if I post more pictures to this blog or others.
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Ya, ya, Casa Blanca sucks, but let's hear about Spain! Though the goat thing is very cool. Aren't you getting close to going home?