Morocco

Ssalamu' lekum
..............meaning: hello but with a God be with you, God is with you, God loves you type cannotation.

HOLY SHIT. What an amzing country. It is the land of bitter-sweet, sweet and sour........ sauce aigre-douce.
(I am writing this on a very funky keyboard so it is long, arduous, and I can't find most of the proper grammatical symbols.......like exclamation marks)

Most people in the bigger cities are straight up crooks. They prey and feed on tourists and all of the warnings are true. They flock towards you and offer everything at exaggerated prices or offer to help guide you but later ask for money. They are street professional that manipulate you and that have an unkeen sense and power of making you feel bad because they "seem" so sympathetic and friendly but are really full of shit.

Now that that's said, Morocco is incredibly beautiful and is so shocking in environment and culture that it will for sure be easily remembered from this trip. You learn quickly via getting swindled but then you have to roll with the punches, and not let it ruin the experience. After a few days of seeing how things work like: everything has a tourist tax and you must bargain everything.........everything even food, water, clothing, even hotels or camping spots, bus fare, watch out for guys that sell fake bus tickets right outside the appropriate bus, and the worst are the guides. There are the faux guides that aren't official guides that can bring you to one place totally out of the way and secluded and then charge you three times the price to get back or leave you there, or they can be really sympathetic and cool and become true friends, and there's the official guides which are total dicks and just want money.

Word of advice, steer clear of the big cities and just trust your instincts; the face tells all (crosseur ou bon mec). In Morocco you just have to take your time and everything will be fine. You hurry, you pay. You just have to say Inch Allah, which is always used in the spoken language and it means: we'll see; let things go by; I hope; but it really means is, we'll see if God will allow it.
Also very important, since the water is tainted and there is no toilet paper in any toilet, all you need here is (pic right).

70% of people in Morocco speak and thus identify as being Berber, in contrast to the remaining Arabic speakers. The small towns and secluded areas are usually run by simple, tranquil, sympathetic, and amazing people, the Berbers............unfortunately the Arabs are usually more crooked.


So....................................

Chefchaouen

After arriving in Tangier, I took the bus straight to Chefchaouen in the Rif mountains. It's a charming city with blue and white walls everywhere in the medina (central square with merchants in all cities) (pic left). The streets are always super tight and facilities always limited like the spectacular turkish style toilets (hole in the ground). The hotel I stayed in in town was nice and clean and cost about 5 bucks canadian a night for a dorm room with hot shower (pic right).

I wanted to go trekking in the hills so I combo'd some clothes witha guide and got screwed cause the guide ended up bringing me to other people at an auberge in the mountains and I had to pay them separately, but, they were really awesome people; truly good hearted. So I wanted to go see the pont de dieu, which is an arch type bridge naturally made by erosion and water but only ended up about 500 metres from it after 4 hours of hard trekkng cause my guide was sick and sprained his ankle. Really f'n sucks cause I went into the mountains strictly for that and didn't see it but the trek was amazing nontheless (pic right). We also saw the cascades and swam in the glacial and refreshing spring water (pic left). Another Moroccon technique, guide is supposedly 250 Dirhams, or Dh, (= 35$) a day, but then, you find out you need to pay 100 Dh for food then you need atleast 50 Dh for a porteur to bring the cookware and go back to get help if accidents happen, and of course tips (usually 15%). So....... one day of trekking 4 hours to and 4 back, with food cost me $75. Too much but I learned. You do need the guides though to get around the unmarked trails and speak with the people. They are like a multipass.

The auberge that I slept at was amazing. Very secluded in the mountain with everything you need in the garden, fresh spring water rolling down the mountain side, unbelievable views (pic left of me laying down looking over the vast steep terrain).....completely self-sustainable, simple, and refreshing to see people living like that. They prepared the food, like huge Berber omelettes and Tangines (kind of vegetable and chicken stew with many spices.........really tasty).

You eat everything with your hands, or bread in your hand, from a large platter in the middle of the table. Everyone (the men) eats together with their right hand since the left hand is to wipe yourself after number 2 business.

Criffe de Kif du Rif

Morocco is known for its major export of Hashish, n'est ce pas? Well, the Rif mountains are the place where the marijuana or Kif is pretty much all grown. The lush green mountainside looks like small evergreens or other shrubs and regular greeneries but no.......it is pot (pic left). You see the mix of wheat and pot.......harvest as any other (pic right).





The Erg Chebbi

After some hard times, but meeting great people, I used my new contacts to go to the desert. The beautiful and rare Golden Dunes of the Erg Chebbi, near Merzouga, in the middle of Morocco, on the eastern border, about 30 km from Algeria. The best part is that I met 2 awesome dudes from St. Bruno (Pascal and Jonathan, pic right) on the bus and told them I was going to the desert, and we ended up travelling all over together for almost 3 weeks now. It is so much more fun in Morocco, and in general, to travel with other people, especially with similar backgrounds.

We got to Merzouga, set up at an auberge, then hit the dunes with the dromaderies (pic left with our guide Mohammed) towards an oasis where we spent the night. You can't travel during the day since it's too hot in the desert, so only before 10 am, and after 5 pm. It took 2 hours to get to the oasis and my crotch was yearning but check it out (pic right). We had great food and our great hosts Mohammed and Mustafah, 19 and 21 years old respectively entertained with the tam-tams and singing, and the stars in the friggin middle of the desert.......mindnumbing. Check out the videos on my Snapfish account from Morocco.......you get to see the our hosts playing and singing and smiling..........just amazing memories.

We also had some snowboards at the oasis so we hit the dunes. Hard at first cause there's more friction but with speed it's OK (pic left of Pascal). And here's my buddy Montgomery, the dromadery (pic right).



We slept in gites, big nomad Berber tents made of dromadery wool (pic left). We also had plenty of tea (pic right) as is always important in Moroccon culture for invitation and discussion and just relaxing. All in due time.



After one night in the desert, we needed to unwind and chill some more so after coming back the next morning to the auberge via dromadery, we hung out and slept during the day and walked back through a windstorm (pics left + right) to the oasis the same evening to spend two more nights. This way we payed no guide or dromadery, and it cost 300 Dh a night ($45) for three great meals, bottled water, good people, entertainment, and total piece of mind.


I have so many gorgeous pictures of the dunes but here are some of my favourites. They were taken on our way back from the oasis at sunrise, so you can see the shade on one side of the dunes and sun on the other.

The High and Middle Atlas

Dry mountain ranges with gorges and open rugged terrain in central Morocco. Joe Pascal and I then slowly made our way through Todra Gorge, that is split by a river spring (pic left of people filling up from spring source) and we camped on the rocky floor of the parking of a secluded auberge in the gorge (pic right). You can see the auberge in the middle of the picture and there's nothing else for 15 km.

We hiked a bit (pic left + right) and got on our way the next day. It is so hard for transport around these parts. We went 15 km the 1st day to the Gorge, 15 the next to Tamtattouche (Tamtattouche........ca me touche), and 80 km the day after to Imilchil in 4 hours because it is really through the mountains and there's hardly a road.

So Tamtattouche was at an auberge (pic left view from auberge) for another night and it was a very simple town but with beautiful kasbahs, then through the mountains in a minibus (pics right). We then stayed in Imilchil which is the 2nd highest city in the High Atlas at 2800 metres. We met a french girl that had stayed for 4 months there, and could give us a lift the following day to our next destination. So we stayed at her place and left the next morning.

There is also a legend of two lovers from different Berber tribes from the mountains around Imilchil. They weren't allowed to see each other because of bad blood between the tribes so they wept so much and each made a lake. (pic of girls' lake above)

Les Cascades d'Ouzoude

These are the nicest falls in Morocco (pic left) and they're usually crystal clear but the day before we got there it rained so all of the mud in the mountains cluttered the water brown. There are auberges and camping all the way down the river with many trails and cafes (pic right) to chill, have a tea, and go swimming. We actually went swimming behind the fall on the pic on the right and splendoured in the hidden grotto.

The camping was awesome as we slept on the terrace (pic left) and lounged around for 3 days because we were all a little sick. We got our first taste of alcohol in Morocco which was made from the figs from the area. It is a local drink that is 60% alcohol and thus packs a punch. BUT, we weren't sick from the alcohol per say, but from the figs...........Figs usually do what to your digestive system?...........exactly.........clean the pipes............thus a concentrated fig alcohol distillate gave us the major mud slides for 3-4 days. There are also some monkeys all over the place that try to steal food cause silly tourists usually give them some (pic right). It's amazing to see how lush and tropical this area was........Amazon like.

Essoueira

After the relaxing times of the falls, we hit the African music festival on the atlantic coast fising + port city of Essoueira (Essoueira.....ca ira). It feels like being at the montreal jazz fest but not at all really. It's nice to be back on the coast. The beach is pretty nice, and jam packed (pic left) but it is 98% men......no joke..........even with the tourists.......islamic women really aren't allowed to have jobs.......they make clothing and carpets and other stuff, and take care of the children, that's about it. Atleast they come out at night for some music. It is pretty hard of not seeing any women around. Morocco kinda sucks for that.......I think I'll have a sensual overload from the topless beaches when I get back to Spain.

The music is amazing though. The bands and instruments and crowds going crazy........really good vibe. The town and medina are also really cool and relatively clean. Go check out the videos from my Snapfish account and you'll see that the music is really cool and everyone dances here.......see pic right.

Well I'll leave you at that............I take off for Marrakesh tomorrow, spend 2 hours, (Marrakesh....Arnakesh) and then night train up to Tangier to take the ferry back to Spain with Joe and Pascal..........Inch Allah

Faro (Portugal) + Sevilla (Spain)

I have to apologize now for the lack of photos since I couldn't load them up but all of them can be viewed on my snapfish account. I'll do it better later.

Leaving Lagos was hard since I had so much fun and made some really cool friends but gotta keep movin.

Faro was a short but super sweet stop to end my quick tour through Portugal. It's a big town but not too touristy and no big buildings so it's really nice. My buddy Gabe from London gave me the contact information of his friend Luis in Faro, whom he knew from montreal. So, I rang up Luis from Lagos and jetted to Faro to meet him and he cordially accepted to entertain and put a roof over my head for the night. He had to work and there was a pick up delay on my part so his girlfriend came and picked me up at the bus station. She had only been in town for a couple of days so we checked out the town together. She was super cool and there wasn't much in town since it was Sunday so we hit the beach for some sunny relaxin. Then there was a percussion festival so we checked out some live carribean style steel drum band in the street with some nice tasty refreshing beer.

Luis finished work and he made a huge friggin scrumptious steak-frites and I got a little 24 to keep us busy. Luis has an awesome pad that he shares with one other house-mate. 3 floors, 2 bathrooms and a crazy nice roof terrace looking over the city. After the sunset from his roof (So on my last day in Portugal, I saw the sunrise in Lagos and the sunset in Faro), we later went back to the beach to lay in the sand and chill with the waves and moon. We stayed up late even if Luis was working early the next morning.

What an awesome dude..........seriously. Invited me over and he and his girlfried totally took care of me. I love Portugese people.

Sevilla

I took the bus over to Sevilla and hooked up with 4 Aussie buddies on the bus that were coming over from Lagos. I originally met Chris and Cindy in Lisbon and again in Lagos, and Maggie and James in Lagos. We had a really chill time checkin out this simply beautiful and friggin hot town. It is worth all the hype.

Plaza d'Espagna is a huge place with an impressive semi-circular monument that represents all of the various spanish disrtricts with murals. There is also the beautiful Catedral and various parks and greeneries. After the Plaza, we grabbed some refreshments at a terrace bar (pic left) in the park with these elevated ( chinese royalty) bed style seats........really chillax. At night it was time to hit the Santa Cruz district for the infamous, awesome and cheap tapas and beer bars.

Sevilla is definately a place to check out.

I then left Sevilla for Tarifa on the southern tip of Spain, bordering the strait of Gibraltar and took the speed ferry across to Tangier Morocco in 45 minutes. I thus left Sevilla at 9 am, and was in Tangier about 6 hours later.........super quick.

Tune in next time for Morroco.

later y'all,

Raf

Sintra and Lagos

Sintra was by far the highlight of the Lisbon surroundings. The day trip brought me to a small town with so much history and beauty, and of course tourists (but not too many). There is the Mourish Castle at the very top of the city (pic left), which is just amazing because it mingles at many spots with the mountain; not just sitting on but immersed in it.......and the view, forget about it. The hike up through the mountainside was so worth it! You also have a good view of the Pena Palace from up there (pic right).

In town there was also the National Palace which I visited and was very beautiful. A nice mix of different eras and cultures in the decoration of the various rooms; very luxurious! You're not allowed to take pictures but I sneaked a couple in. Pic on left is of the chapel ceiling within the Palace........so intricate!

The water in portugal is supposedly some of the cleanest in the world. The fresh water springs have no bacteria, so you can just drink water straight up. In Sintra there were several water outlets that came straight from the mountain and the locals fill up their water bottles for the week (pic left). There was also a very cool statue (pic right).


Lagos, Lagos, Lagos

I love this place. It is my number one so far. It is on the southern tip of Portugal. A gorgeous small beach town with shops, bars, surfing, shopping and parties. I was expecting to relax here and regroup for the next leg of my trip but I just couldn't go against the flow. And whatever........I had such a great time doin it......Only I spent a little too much. People seriously come here for a weekend and stay for the summer. I want to come back and do just that sometime............or retire here.

The hostel was simply awesome! Three floors, with 3 kitchens and many bathrooms. Super clean, cheap and the roof terrace is just amazing (view from terrace, pic left). People would always eat up there (BBQ) and then just drink and mingle all together (pic right), and then go out around midnight until whenever.........I've been seeing people that I met in Lisbon also at the other hostel. It's great partying with so many different people at the same time. It's also strange, so many canadians, americans and aussie's at the hostel and in town. Everyone is a tourist, and everyone speaks english.

And of course, I went surfin' baby. Took a package. They picked us up at the hostel (me with 2 quebecers and two Ontarians) and drove us 25 minutes northeast to Carrapateira on the Atlantic coast, gave us the wetsuit and board and lessons (pic left). It was friggin radical dude! So much fun! It's so hard on the body though. I'm still soar 4 days later. The beach was gorgeous and I spotted a cool little crab (pic right).


The most surprising aspect was the breathtaking coastline that you can walk down and then pick and choose from the many secluded beaches down below with the many grottos and caves.......simply majestic. You have to walk via the water or sometimes through the rocks (pic right).I also have some video footage but I can't put it on this blog.

As I finish my stay in Lagos, the sun is coming up and I'm getting ready to catch the bus.

Well.........Things are fantastic.......Many more things to see. I can't wait to keep movin.
Next comes Faro for a day, and then Sevilla Spain......and then.......Morocco!

a la prochaine la gang.
Je vous aime tous tres fort!!!!!!