On the third day we ate breakfast for the last time with our families. Of course, we had fresh bread and cookies to go with our tea. Steph, Nora and I made sure to take pictures with all the family before we left.
On our way out of the city to drive to the Rif mountains, we made a quick stop at the Mausoleum of King Mohammed V. It is an unfinished mosque, which would have been the largest mosque if it had been completed. I took plenty of pictures of the beautiful patterned devised by islamic artists. I think it's so amazing how creative they can be without depicting anything living.
After our quick walk through what would have been the mosque, we piled into the van and drove to the Riff Mountains, where we had a personal visit with a family living there. We picked up a guide along the way – a man who was born in the village and left to go study in England. He led us on a quick walk through the countryside around the village before taking us to his sister's husband's house. He was a really quick and nimble guy and there we had a hard time keeping up with him. At one point, we lost half the group because one girl had lost her shoe in a mud pit. It literally disappeared into the mud and came off her foot. Consequently, her jeans also got really muddy, and she walked back to the van to change pants.
Meanwhile, we started preparing lunch and conversing with the family: our guide's sister, her husband, their son, and the mother-in-law, who owned the house. She was very likely the most adorable woman I have ever seen. She wore the precedent of a snuggy, in leopard with embroidery on the chest, a rainbow cloth tied around her waist like a skirt and a green pakistani scarf wrapped around her head bubushka-style. She also had all the authority of the household and would interrupt at any time she pleased.
The little boy was also quite novel. He was obviously Moroccan (looked north-african). However, he had red hair. It is very strange to see moreno (tan) skin against red hair. I'm pretty sure he had light eyes, too.
Our guide was in charge of translating for everyone. But he had a snarky attitude and had a tendency to control where the conversation was going. We asked the family about their way of life in the village: how many people lived there, what they did, how frequently people moved to or away from the village, etc. They asked us where we were from, what we study and what we like to do. Eventually the conversation turned toward marriage, or more specifically, what love means in America. I guess they were under the impression that many women are gold-diggers and only want to marry for money. And looks are really important too.
At the beginning of our conversation, during introductions, the poor muddy girl returned from the van still wearing her muddy pants, now soaked from trying to rinse them off. She told us she didn't know where she put her pants (the clean pair). Obviously, that came out sounding very inappropriate for a lady, and we all burst out laughing. We had to beg the guide not to translate what she said.
After the conversation was over, the family brought out two giant bowls of couscous, homemade, for us. It was FANTASTIC! I've never had, and will never have again, better couscous.
Once we finished the couscous and chatted for a little while longer, it was time to go. Chefchaouen was our next stop. It is a cute touristy town. We got there at night and it was drizzling. Apparently, it had been raining quite a bit there because the path we had to use to walk up to the city was completely flooded. There was actually a creek flowing down the street with pretty strong current, and we had to walk on a wall until we reached the top of the hill. We walked through the city with our backpacks in front because there were little punks trying to snatch anything they could out of our pockets. Thankfully, it wasn't long before we got to our hostel and could drop off our stuff.
Katy gave us a little time to do some shopping before we met up for dinner. I was on the hunt for a pakistani scarf, a necklace with the Hand of Fatimah pendant and some leather sandals – gladiator style. Oh, and post cards. However, the shopping in Chefchaouen was not as high quality as I would have liked, and I gave up on trying to find a decently-priced necklace or good shoes. The scarf was mandatory, though. I searched everywhere for one of those suckers. I had also been preparing myself for some fierce bargaining throughout my entire search. And when I finally found them, I was ready. But the price the shop owner gave me was so much lower than I expected, so I was completely thrown off. I ended up giving him the price he wanted, which wasn't bad at all anyway, so I guess I can't complain.
I also had a pretty tough time finding good postcards. All the ones they had were very weathered. They were faded and the corners were curling up. They were also rather dated. Actually, I ended up buying an antique one because it was in better condition and had a better picture than the others.
Finally, we all reunited for dinner. I had a traditional Moroccan meal. It was a pastry bread with a chicken filling and sugar and chocolate sprinkled on top. I know that sounds weird (but let's face it, I've eaten way weirder stuff, like this or this), but it is super delicious.
We all went back to the hostel immediately after dinner and passed out. We had to say goodbye in the morning. I was sad that my trip was over. It was like a bite-sized snippet of my Semester at Sea days, really opening my eyes to what other types of people and lifestyles are out there and how little we understand about them. So we drove to the Moroccan-Spanish border and went across to catch the ferry back to the Spanish mainland. (?? Yes, Spain does own land in Morocco.)
I ended up having about 10 hours between when the ferry landed in Algeciras and when my bus left for Madrid. So I tagged along with Nora and Steph to go to Gibraltar – the England of Spain. We had a great time wandering around in search of the monkeys, but I think it may have been too cold still for them to be out because we never saw any. It was a really pretty rock anyway.
Comments