Culture Shock in Africq

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Wow this place is nuts!!! I have never experienced anything lilke it really. The closest thing I can think of is the Dominicqn Republic. We cruised down the Costq del Sol and saw Gibraltar and learned thqt monkeys live there and are cared for by the Brits. We took a ferry over from Spain to Africa. The sea is beautiful. We arrived in the early evening and thqt is Where the qdventure begins. PS The Q is where the A should be and I am paying by the minute so there will be typos.
Our hotel which has an interesting humid sewer smell is right across from the beach. It is nice enough and clean enough, but very simple. Zane and I decided to check out the beqch before dinner. I was amazed at the amount of dudes out. Seriously for every 30 or 40 dudes there may be a woman. Maybe. That is pretty intimidating when you come from our culture. And the dudes sit and leer. I'm not sure if it is out of curiousity or they hqve nothing better to do. THe amount of garbage everywhere is disgusting. At the beach it is everywhere, washing up floqting around and just generally everywhere. I can't really get across how it is, but it is worse thqn you are thinking.
We took a trip through the casbah and Casablanca which was reqlly cool. The sights and smells were fantastic. Olives and spices and all kinds of food and just about anything you can imagine. We ended up in a rug shop in the Medina and haggled for a carpet. It is our first true work of art that we own.

After the craziness of the Casablanca, and the Medina (the old city), we left for Assilah, an ancient port city. We had lunch there, and toured the walled city. It's qll been restored so the walls are white washed and it is really beautiful. Lots and lots of pictures today. On the way back to Tangier, we noticed this crazy phenomenon. Littl boys would run at the bus and they would try to attach themselves any way they could. I'm told it is because they are trying to get to Spain and if they hide under the bus, they just might make it. Tonight we are going to have a Morrocan dinner and tomorrow we head back to Spain and to Seville.

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Photos

Gibraltar
cool pic of Gibraltar; didja know its a peninsula and not an island?

windfarms
on the Spain side between Marbella and Tarifa; they wouldn't spend that kind of money over in Morocco. Lots of these on the hills around the Straight of Gibraltar.

beach across from the hotel
the beaches are not clean in any sense of the word. Covered in garbage and debris washed ashore. Also covered in dudes. Lots and lots of em, with very few women. This place is crawling with people from sun up to sundown, but nobody is swimming.

nice fountain
not very many nice things to look at in the area we were. This fountain was nice. There were other nice things in other places, just not around here.

part of the Casbah in Tangiers
an old door

yep that's a cobra
actually quite uneventful and disappointing; but it is a deadly snake

part of La Medina
a big market area. We had a plain clothes Sharif (sheriff) following us around chasing people off, protecting us constantly from grabbing and harassment, and trading smokes and lighters with people!?! Odd, but quite helpful.

carpet bazar
the one on the floor is just like ours, but that one is bigger

in the village of Asilah
lots of the apartments just inside the armored wall have all been bought and restored by people with cash, as vacation homes

view from the wall
looking back at part of Asilah

part of the North African coast
on a wall in Asilah

Comments

[chrispy]

"U"
Miss ya guys, hope its all good times, Canada RULES!!

[Chives]

Luv and miss you two. Sounds like a hell of a time so far

[anonymous]

chives and balls are dimb