Moroccing Out!

We left Madrid at 11 a.m. and arrived in Tangier at 10:30 a.m. Very strange time zone difference considering Tangier is directly south of Madrid. Sarah was waiting with Nate for our arrival. It was so good to see ol’ sista again. A big piece of home away from home. We didn’t linger long before we hopped into a cab to take us to the town of Chefchaouen in the North Atlas Mountains. We had a nice cab driver who brought us to a roadside restaurant along the way where we were able to mow through the buffet and taste some kefta as well. We three tourists were in such aw by the scenery that the 3 hours in the cab only felt like 3 minutes.

Chefchaouen was an astonishing little town. We stayed on the roof of our hotel while Sarah and Nate shared a room. The stars were beautiful from up there. The highlight of Chefchaouen was the hike we took into the mountains on our second day. It was Brandon’s first time hiking in the mountains. Even for someone who is a well seasoned hiker, this hike would have been a challenge. Brandon dominated it. We all did. It was very beautiful from our perch near the summit. There’s nothing I love more than sitting atop a mountain staring out into the world below, truly an amazing feeling. The hike down was much quicker than our ascent since we had found a better trail to follow down. A little “seven Bridges Road” sing-a-long helped the time go by as well. Hitting the valley below was like Little Foot and friends finally reaching their valley in the “Land Before Time”. It was so green! The air was crisp and the smell the spring foliage was delicious. There were to younger boys at the bottom of the mountain hollering at us for taking pictures. Sarah obliged them with some Mega-choc cookies and they let us click away. They even took us to a fresh spring for a cool drink.

The next day we departed Nate as he went off to Rabat and we headed to the town of Oued Lau. It was a small beach town on the Mediterranean. Not very impressive. The beach was a very grimy beach. We kept getting asked to stay in houses as well. Sarah would blow them off for us. We spent most of the day there and then we had to head back to Tangier so we could get up early the next day to catch a flight back to Madrid. Tangier was actually a pretty amazing place at night. We found a cheap place to stay and had a great meal. The guys went back to the hotel to sleep and Sarah and I found a small corner bar to have a few cocktails and a good talk before we had to part ways once again. It was sad to say goodbye again to dear sista. She is the last family member I will see for a while.