Magical Morocco

Morocco.. a land with great and magical sounding cities – Marrakech, Casablanca and Fez. How can you not love a country that gives its town such great names??? I came here expecting to find a dirty, crowded place with limited rights for women…and, while all of my preconceptions were true,.. I also found a magical place. It reminds me a lot of Tunisia (another great North African country that we visited a few years ago). With the recent protests and trouble here, we were a somewhat nervous about visiting. As you may know, there was a terrorist attack in a tourist area of Marrakech in the past week. A terrorist group exploded a bomb at a popular café and killed over a dozens tourists. There is also some civil up-rest here as they are protesting the King of Morocco and rioting for democratic reform. Because of these developments, we saw a LOT of police in the streets – really at every street corner. However, we saw no Anti-American sentiment and, although the street vendors are pushy at trying to get you to buy their stuff, there was nothing threatening or scary. And David, an African American, got his wish to set foot on Africa’s soil.
We arrived by ferry in Tangers, a large seaport town, at about 1 AM this morning and grabbed some taxis to take us from the port to a hotel in the center of town. The taxi drivers took off at a VERY high rate of speed and we were all petrified as they drove dangerously fast on narrow, winding roads, barely missing donkeys and cows that were wandering in the streets. We went to a hotel recommended by the security guard at the port (which could have been a dicey affair) but ended up being very nice and clean. We had been traveling all day so we all fell asleep within minutes of hitting the beds. There are 3 ½ teams traveling together for this leg (me and Rainey, his daughters: Elizabeth and Emily, Natasha and David as well as James – half of the “Faster than Roadkill” team. James’ teammate has family in Spain so he dropped out of the competition for this leg so he could visit with them).

We woke up early this morning to start our trek to Fez, apparently a neat place about 5 hours from Tangers. But first we had some challenges to do in Tangers. We began in the Souk (or market) where we had to buy a traditional Arab hat or “Fez.” We also got suckered into buying some embroidered cotton shirts (mainly because they were clean and all of our clothes are grossly dirty by now). Next up was to have a drink at a specific café that ended up being in a neighborhood, down an winding alleyway. It looked like a shabby dive until we walked inside. What a surprise!! The café – while rustic - is built on a cliff overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar and the view of the sea and the passing boats is breathtaking. We had to drink mint tea (an odd tea concoction with chunks of mint branches and leaves stuffed onto the top of very sweet tea) and the owner insisted that we sit and share his “tobacco pipe,” a thin wooden carved pipe with flavored tobacco. Café El Hafa was an unexpected delight.
Next, the journey to Fez. IT TOOK FOREVER. Along the way we stopped in a small village to eat at what seemed to be the local hang-out restaurant. Hanging from the rafters were skinned cows in various stages of being cut up and cooked. Their entire tails (with fluffy ends) were still attached to the bodies. The menu consists of you going up to the counter and literally pointing to parts of the cow’s body that is hanging (dripping blood on the floor) right in front of you. The man behind the counter then cuts off a hunk of whatever area you select, throws it on an open fire and roast its up for you right there. The flies were buzzing all over the raw carcasses and the workers did not even bother to try and swat them away. At another counter, a different man was taking the cow’s brains, liver and kidneys and putting them into a grinder with hot chili peppers and making meatballs. We carefully avoided the meat balls (as there was no way that was going in my mouth) and ate “shank” (not sure what that actually means except that we pointed to the least fly-infested part of the cow and asked for that to be sliced and cooked). It came served with chopped up tomatoes, olives and bread. No rice, no potatoes, no knives and forks, no napkins. You just pick everything up with your hands and shove it into your mouth and use the bread to wipe your hands and mouth. We were awful at it and our table was covered with dropped food by the time were done. Amazingly, the food tasted great and it was served with very hot, heavily-sugared tea. We had asked for a beer but this is a Muslim country so the restaurants do not serve any alcohol – only tea and Coke.
Another funny story. We were sitting at the café when a shoe shiner came up and wanted to shine our shoes. Unfortunately, we were only wearing flip flops or sandals. Not to be discouraged, the boy whipped off Rainey’s flip flops, placed a decorated ceramic tile on the floor (for Rainey to rest his feet on while his shoes were being polished so his feet did not get dirty) and started polishing and wiping down Rainey’s flip-flops with great dedication to the task. We laughed so hard - and tipped him double - because of his earnestness at shining shoes that did not exist!!!
We just arrived in Fez. Our challenge for tonight was to find a hotel for less than 100Euro and it took some convincing to get the hotel manager to let us get rooms for 99Euro. But we did ... and we are here ... and are about to go out exploring...