This weekend marked a monumentous moment in my life: I have traversed into my 4^th continent! It’s on my bucket list to go to all 7 continents, and so far, I’ve been to North America, Asia, Europe, and now Africa!! Interestingly, the Spanish do not consider the world to be divided into 7 continents, but rather 5 (Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and America). Apparently, Antarctica is not actually a continent for them. And America is just America. Go figure. By their standards though, I have already hit 4 out of 5 continents! Woot!!

Ever since I found out I was going to Spain, the two other countries I wanted to visit most while I’m here were Morocco and Portugal. I had my doubts once I arrived here though because people were talking about how it’s unsafe to go to Morocco right now due to political unrest in other North African countries. But last Monday we had presentations from various travel agencies and I found out that about 15 other kids on my program also wanted to go to Morocco and we all signed up for a the Fantasy trip through WeLoveSpain travel agency. We left on Friday afternoon by bus and it literally took us all day to get to our hotel in Morocco. We took a bus to Algeciras, Spain, and from there we took a ferry to Ceuta. I loved the ferry ride and spent nearly the whole time on the deck–I loved feeling the ocean wind and just love staring out into the waters. Sometimes, I would put my arms up and with the rocking of the boat and the strength of the wind, I felt like I was floating in a dream. Since Spain and Morocco are so close, we could see land practically the whole time, which was pretty interesting.

View from the ferry!

             Ceuta is a port on the continent of Africa and practically within Morocco, but it is Spanish territory. All of us were surprised because there was no security and no one checked our passports as we emerged from the ferry station. The border was about 20 minutes from the water and to our dismay, it took over an hour to get all of our passports checked because there was another tour bus in front of us. I was completely ecstatic when we got our passports back with the Morocco stamp. I’ve never cared so much about passport stamps and visas before; to me, my passport was just a booklet that I needed to get places. But now those stamps matter so much to me and I just cannot wait to fill up my pages with the evidence of my journeys across the world.

Kyle and Fleur in Moroccan attire

Before I got to Morocco, I literally was just expecting and anticipating the worst. I barely brought anything because I thought I would get mugged everywhere, and I was expecting to just be in fear of getting robbed or shot the whole time. I also feared food or water poisoning. As you can see, I really didn’t have that much faith in my well being in Morocco; I just really wanted that stamp on my passport. I was still a little afraid during our first night in the hotel in Tetuan. While I was in the shower, I was half expecting some masked man to barge in and kidnap me. At dinner, I was also afraid of eating most things on my salad plate. The next morning, however, I saw Morocco in the daylight and realized that there really wasn’t much to fear.

Leaps in the Blue City!

               Early Saturday morning we went to Chefchaoeun (nicknamed the Blue City) and it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I soon realized that Morocco wasn’t all desert and emptiness the way I had envisioned Africa to be. Morocco (and most of North Africa) is a Muslim country so it’s really more like the Middle East. The people also looked like a cross of Spanish and Middle Eastern people. Sub-Saharan Africa is more like what people imagine when they think of Africa. Our tour guide in Chefchaoeun was this little old man named Toto that resembled Yoda from Star Wars in both stature and disposition. He was very stoic, but he said ridiculous things in such a nonchalant way that it was absolutely hilarious. And his voice just boomed from his tiny little body in such a majestic way. My favorite Toto moment was when he stopped a couple girls from taking a picture, explaining to them that soon there would be a “Super Duper” photo op. In both Tetuan and Chefchaouen, there was an urbanized area with large streets and an enclosed area with old edifices and only pedestrians. We toured only the enclosed areas and I suppose that they must be the original towns. In Chefchaouen, the buildings were all blue and white and really reminded me of Santorini in Greece! When we first started walking around, the little town was so peaceful because it was still early so barely anyone was outside. Later in the day, all the little doors opened up to reveal tons and tons of little market-esque stores and we had some free time to go shopping. On the whole, everything looked very pretty and I really wanted to buy something, but nothing stuck out to me in particular.

Toto the Great

In the afternoon, we went to Tetuan for lunch in a cool Moroccan restaurant, but it was filled with tourists. The food was all right, but I really loved the after-meal tea. I think it is a typical Moroccan tea because we had it for dinner too (it’s basically green tea with sugar and mint), and it is honestly the best tea I’ve ever had. All throughout the meal, performers like musicians and acrobats moved all around the rooms, and there was also a Henna lady. I got my name written on my arm with henna, which I later realized was not the best idea because I kept bumping into people and rubbing off the henna. Also, random guys on the street would say my name because it was written right on my arm (more funny than bothersome). Sohayla also taught me how to say Hello friend (Salam, Habibi) in Arabic and I was saying it to everyone! The people there seemed nice, but obviously more impoverished. People would always approach you to try to get you to buy stuff. And the most surprising thing to me was that a lot of the stuff in the outdoor markets was blatantly second-hand clothes, shoes, and electronics. In Tetuan, I bought a cute little leather over-shoulder purse and green tea for my host family.

Market in Chefchaoeun

Second hand items in Tetuan

After Tetuan, we got on the bus again for a nice nap (we pretty much nap whenever we get on a bus) and headed for Tangier, where we visited the Grotte d’Hercules and rode camels! The Grotte (cave) was cool because there was an opening from which you could see the ocean and there were also little market booths. By now I had started to notice that pretty much all the booths (no matter the city) sold certain pieces of jewelry that were exactly the same, but they often asked for different prices. The camel ride was cool, but I definitely hyped it up too much in my mind. I was picturing a 20-minute journey in a camel caravan across the Sahara desert, but it was actually just a two-minute ride off the side of the road by a beach. It wasn’t as amazing as I had hoped, but I still got some pretty sweet pictures and rode a freakin’ camel!!

We spent Saturday night at a hotel in Tangier (the city itself wasn’t very pretty nor interesting and we didn’t even take a tour of it). We had dinner in this really big tent right by the hotel and watched a “Fantasy” dinner show. I was really looking forward to it, but it was kind of awkward and the belly dancer never actually showed up. It was still a really cool experience though, and one of the performers made me go on stage to dance with a candle on my head.  

On Sunday, we took a tour of Ceuta by bus (thankfully, because all of us were tired of walking by then). It was beautiful, and in comparison to Morocco, looked so starkly Spanish and wealthy. Then we took the ferry back to Algeciras and a bunch of us took a tour to Gibraltar. It wasn’t until yesterday that I realized that Gibraltar is actually British territory. We needed our passports to get in and once we crossed the border, everything was suddenly in English! It wasn’t until then that I realized how comforting it was to see English everywhere. We took a bus tour there as well and our driver/guide was British (which made me really want to go to London)! Although Gibraltar had been on my list of top places to go, I didn’t realize that it was actually a city… I just thought it was a rock. It actually has a population of 35,000 though! Halfway up the rock, we stopped at a cliff overlook with a lighthouse and it was a stunning sight. I don’t think I’ve ever been at the edge of a cliff before then. We also went into this huge cave that randomly had an auditorium inside and “played” with the monkeys for a bit. We weren’t actually allowed to touch the monkeys because they bite so we just kind of posed near them for pictures. Gibraltar was really cool, but I was a little disappointed because I couldn’t see Africa. I thought that Gibraltar was famous for being able to see the coast of Africa and that’s the reason I really wanted to go, but it was a little muggy over the waters that day and I just couldn’t see far enough.

Macaque monkey atop the rock of Gibraltar!

Lighthouse in Gibraltar (and take note of henna on arm!)

             All in all, I had an amazing time this trip and I’m so happy that I went. I was glad that I was only there for a weekend though–I couldn’t live there. I loved seeing everything because it was all so new and it opened up my horizons to a continent that I really don’t know much about. It was completely worth my 3 days and $300 and trip to Spain wouldn’t have been complete without this experience.

 

Location: Chefchaouen, Morocco