Morocco

Before I describe my time in Morocco, I just want to say that I was very hesitant in signing up before I went. I came to Granada thinking I wouldn't go after talking with various family members and other people who said that it was too dangerous and I should save my money for somewhere else. My Dad was against me going and I agreed with him that I probably shouldn't go prior to coming to Granada. At the university I am taking an Islamic Cultures class and talked with the professor, other professors, and my host parents about Morocco. Not only that, but I researched the cities in Morocco we would be traveling to, laws, crime, culture, etc, and none were on the list of dangerous cities or had crime problems. All said about the same thing. Morocco is one of the fastest developing countries and its economy is progressing rapidly. Yes, there is violence and terrorism in parts of the country, but there's violence and terrorism in many countries. I started to look at this chance a bit differently and realized it could be a great opportunity to visit an Islamic country, so different from all the other places I would see around southern Europe. No way was I going to go with a few other girls from my trip and spontaneously plan trips around Morocco alone. One of my friend's sisters studying abroad with me, went through the "We Love Spain" program through the University of Granada and loved it. Everything is prepaid for; the food, hotels, excursions, transportation, etc. One of the tour guides this program uses is so well known he was interviewed by National Geographic, so its a well known safe program. Despite knowing that it would horribly worry my parents, I decided to go. I felt guilty but I also know in the future I will be working, or volunteering, in much more dangerous countries than Morocco in Central/South America.
When we came to the border of Spain/Morocco, we waited about an hour for all of our passports to get stamped. Poor Kevin, "We Love Spain" manager, was running back and forth from the bus with bags of passports, while Pedro our bus driver was blasting music for us so we stayed sane.
After the border, we drove to our four star hotel in Tetouan, Dreams Hotel. That night we stayed in and got up nice and early for our tour of Chefchaouen. Our guide for the Moroccan part was Mohammad. As he said, in every family there is at least one person named Mohammad. He was an older man with a great sense of humor and knows Spanish, English, Arabic, French, and Berber (Moroccan dialect). Chefchaouen is a beautiful small town. All the buildings are white with bright blue doors and alleyways. Mohammad told us they paint them about 5 times a year, so everything is very fresh and bright looking. We stopped into a store where they make carpets, blankets, and scarves with a 100 year old loom. Folded blankets are lined on the walls in all sorts of colors. I wanted to buy one but knew I could get a cheaper one somewhere else, and no way was I going to try and barter with 40 other people there.
After we walked around some more, we eventually had free time to shop. In Morocco, everything is negotiable. It's part of their culture, so it's actually weird when you accept the price they give you. I got a nice orange colored carpet/blanket for 15E, which I now realize I could have got for 10 had I been stubborn enough. You can usually always get the price you ask for as long as its not ridiculous, and as long as your persistent. So I worked my magic and got a beautiful woven sweater in blue colors, the colors of Chefchaouen, for 11E. I worked him down from 20E. I was pretty happy. The trick is to claim a price before they can, but many girls did not catch on and would simply ask 'how much does this cost'? And agree with that price.
After shopping, we left for Tetouan to eat lunch at it's nicest restaurant, according to Mohammad. The tea is by far the most delicious tea I have tasted in a while. The food was good as well, but the tea is delicious and they know it. They call it "Moroccan whiskey". At the restaurant they had some entertainers who put a tray of tea and candles on it and did a dance for us while jumping and spinning. Then some would come in and play the drums and other instruments I don't know the names of.
On Saturday we also did our short camel ride. It was a tiny ride, not even 5 minutes long, around a parking lot kind of area near the beach. Of course the camel I rode was the most undisciplined of them all, and tried to stand up before I was even on it, and tried to bite the man helping me on even though it had a muzzle like thing over its mouth. Other than that the ride went smoothly, but in the end I just ended up feeling really bad for all the camels. There was a baby camel who was absolutely adorable. Two kids watching her told us her name was Sabrina. So for ten minutes we were calling her Sabrina until its owner came over and said "Sabrina?! No, its a boy! Does it look like a girl?" and pointed to its crotch, as the two boys died in laughter. Turns out they don't know any English or Spanish so they had no idea what we had been saying the whole time.
While we waited for the rest to enjoy their camel ride, me and some friends went down to the beautiful beach. The waves were huge and the sand so soft and white. All the people with houses along the coast are upper class and typically French. The day could not have been more beautiful either, sunny and 70 degrees. After everyone was done their ride, we drove up the road a little bit to a cafe to use the bathrooms and watch the sunset. It was so gorgeous. The sun set right over the Mediterranean and the sky was all sorts of oranges, reds, purples, and yellows. None of the pictures I took can give justice to the beauty of it all!
While we drove from one cite to another Mohammad described life in Morocco from the culture to religion. Many fell asleep, but always tried to stay awake for when he talked. He talked about religion and how it is an Islamic country but people have the right to take it as seriously as they want. If they don't go to the mosque on Friday and pray, no one cares. If women don't want to cover their hair, face, bodies, they don't have to. One of the reasons Morocco is progressing so fast ahead of other Islamic countries is the fact that women have more equal rights, and also the average household has 1 to 2 children. Mohammad also went over the topic of polygamy. He said most men only have one wife for many reasons. One reason he pointed out is that its very expensive. If you want to have a second wife, you need to run it by your first wife first.  If she says it is ok, he needs to by the second woman a home because 'the women don't like to live together so much'. On top of that, he needs to support any children he has, food, school, etc. Men always pay for everything, even if the woman makes a bigger income. She doesn't have to pay for anything if she doesn't want to, but the man is responsible for a dowry at the wedding, paying for the wedding, and supplying money for food, the house, clothes, etc. Another reason is that a husband needs to be equal to his first wife and for this, its almost always impossible to get a second wife. But Mohammad said he's only met one person who has two, and said the moment the man got a second wife his life became horrible and hard. Something else Mohammad said was he knows its good for women to be lean and thin than fat, "but here in Morocco its better for a woman to be fat. That way she's strong, and she provides heat in the cold winter and a nice shadow when it's hot". I got a good kick out of that.
That night we went to our hotel in Tangier, yet another very nice hotel, and got ready for our Fantasy Dinner. The restaurant was more like a huge tent. Red designed carpets covered the floor and the cloth draping from the ceiling to the walls was a designed pattern as well. There were tons of tables since all 200 people in the group were there. During dinner we had some acrobat entertainers, and a band playing throughout. For dinner the courses were soup, salad, chicken, tea and a biscuit. The salad was the most delicious salad I have had in a while! There wasn't 2 pounds of vinegar or oil on it unlike the Spanish salad I eat everyday. After we ate we returned to the hotel and passed out.
Sunday morning we woke up early, ate breakfast in the hotel, then headed for our final excursions. We toured a part of Tangiers, stopping in a pharmacy. On the walls were shelves of jars containing herbs and liquids. The owner told us they use them instead of medicines for sicknesses and proceeded to show us some of the items. For stuffy noses and sinuses they use this powder of a blackish/dark blue color and ball it up into a piece of cloth, hold it up to the nose and sniff. Nothing ends up going up your nose because of the cloth, and once you're done all you have to do is throw away the cloth and not the powder. They let us sniff it and it smells exactly like Vicks Vapor, and it did clear my semi-stuffed nose! Next they showed us ginseng, morocco oil, acne lotion, lotion for eczema, and finally some green mint tea. They gave us plastic bags and when we wanted something we'd raise our hands and they'd run it over to us and in the end we lined up to pay. I got one bag of tea but lingered around to see if I could get another for only one euro more, and I did! The tea is delicious.
Next and final stop in Morocco was Hercules' Caves. This cave was on the coast and was very big but not nearly as big as the St. Michael's caves in Gibraltar. There's a spot where the water comes into the cave and makes a pool off to the side. In the summer people go here to swim. Also, at this spot the silhouette of the rock makes the shape of a backwards African continent which looks very cool. On the opposite side of the cave is this small bowl on the side of the rock that fresh water drips into. The superstitious believe it brings good luck if you wash your face three times with the water. Naturally, we all washed our faces three times.
Finally we headed for the border. It took much less time going through than it did when we first crossed. We ended our trip with a small tour via bus through Ceuta, the Spanish city, before heading to the ferry. The tour lasted about an hour and it was a very pretty city. What makes it different from the other Spanish cities around is that the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish communities all live together peacefully. In Spanish there are the words coexist and 'convivir' which literally means to live with. They use this word to describe when people are not simply living alongside with others/being tolerant, living with them in the community, and this is what what the people in Ceuta do.