Morocco



Woke up the other day and sailed to Africa...life doesn't get much better.  Went with the kids to Tetouan, a Moroccan city at the base of the Rif mountains, and walked around the medina, through the souk (market) and kasbah.  My favorite part was the utter chaos of the border as we left the small Spanish enclave on the African coast where we left the boat and entered Morocco, along with dozens of old women scurrying across under staggering bundles of clothes, guys on bikes loaded with food, well-to-do people in dark shades and clean cars, and everything else in between, all accompanied by frantic yelling and honking.  Only a handful of (obvious) foreigners, hardly any women without head coverings, and even fewer women driving cars on the highways.  The Tetouan medina was a winding maze of little streets, where one minute we were in quiet whitewashed passageways lined by intriguing little doorways, and around the next corner, we entered the chaos of the souk.  It was filled with tiny little shops of every kind imaginable, from carpentry, to leather goods (with the vats of acid for tanning right behind it), spices and other food, the oddest assemblages of electronics, random articles of clothing...you name it, it was there, along with what seemed like half the city's population.  People either ignored us or were very friendly, with none of the badgering to buy things that I expected.  Definitely a great experience and worth going back to explore more of the country.  But need to keep going to make it Turkey for winter, so now we're back on the southern coast of Spain.

Leaving the Rock of Gibraltar behind and sailing to Africa



 
 

Crossing the border into Morocco

 

Morocco:  Tetouan's medina and Rif mountains

Maggie buys a rug while Hugo drinks mint tea