That's the ferry
My first view of Africa!!
This is the Rock of Gibraltar (The Pilar of Hercules, as the Spanish call it)
Our first stop in Tangiers was a women's shelter. On the way there, we walked through a plaza that seemed really familiar. Colleen told us that it was the plaza where the opening scene of Inception was filmed, and then it all made sense. In the movie, they call it Mumbasa but it's actually Tangier. Remember the first scene where he's in a dream and then he wakes up from that into another dream? The other dream is in this plaza:
This picture was taken from the roof of DARNA, which we'll get to soon
DARNA is a women's center in Tangier that includes a restaurant, workshop, store, and school. Since women's rights are still kind of new in Morocco, DARNA helps women who want to take advantage of the new opportunities they have to be financially independent. They can learn to read and write arabic (which is more difficult than speaking it so not everyone can), to speak french, to cook comercially, to sew, to weave, and to manage money. We had lunch in the restaurante that the center runs. Their only sources of funding are the restaurante and the little store. They have a rooftop patio too, which has a great view of the city.
Some of the looms
our lunch! it's couscous
This woman gave us books so that we could learn arabic. The only problem is that they're all in arabic so we can't even understand how to understand it.
the view from the roof
our group!
When we left DARNA, we left Tangier. We took a little private bus to Asilah, but before we got there, we got a surprise. We saw some camels chillin on a beach and we started talking about how we'd love to ride camels. Colleen told the driver to pull over and admitted that the camels had been brought there for us to ride. We were all over it! Btw, i took more pictures of the camels than anything else.
there they are waiting for us
us + camels + morocco + beach
this camel is named ali baba
This one is suzanna
this is my camel, mustafa
me, slightly terrified, behind katie
Laura, very terrified. When camels get up from a "sitting" position, it's like your own personal earthquake. I was the first to get on so i found that out the hard way. The silver lining was that i got to take pictures of everyone else freaking out.
Miguel, and Oscar in the background
me!
bigger me!
Mustafa and Oscar got pretty close...
So after that speed bump, we cruised on to Asilah, a town on the Atlantic coast of Africa. We had a guided tour of the medina (the old part of the city. remember that word) and we went out on a big, stone pier from which we could see the coastline of the city. It was absolutely beautiful!
medina
More medina. All buildings in medinas or islamic cities are white on top (purity, heaven) and blue on the bottom (faith, islam) and it is illegal to repaint them.
we were in asilah on friday, the islamic sabbath, so no one was out :(
fat palm tree
The view from the pier. The area in front of the green door is a very old cemetary
That "door" is actually conrete, which effectively makes this a staircase to nowhere.
Tori, Shanie, and Me on the pier
Me, Elsa, and Alex. Same pier, different side.
the outer edge of the city
Oscar trying to throw Kathy over the edge
beautiful view of the ocean
That's all i have time for right now. Next up on the Morocco post agenda is Rabat, where we stayed 2 days with a family. If you thought i had alot of pictures of camels, just wait til the next instalation.
Hasta el proximo episodio
Muchos besos,
Sarita
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