Tangier to Chefchaouen
Sunday March 20
Successfully navigated my way to the bus station this morning. I will be heading east to Chefchaouen. It's supposed to be a beautiful city. My cab driver Mohamed was a nice guy. We spoke broken Spanish to each other and he asked "trump or mujher?" I said Bernie Sanders, and he knew Bernie.
How many of us in America could recognize the name of the people running for office in another country? Not the actual leaders, just the random people running. He also speaks multiple languages.
Although I know better, I feel like we in the states are given the impression that Africa is uncivilized and the population uneducated, but I would counter the people I have met so far are multi linguistic, know how to use technology in amazing creative ways, and are extremely resourceful. There are different concerns and customs then we have, and they are working with a completely different economy. Formal Education can be hard to come by, but the few young Moroccans I have had the time to talk to are all studying somewhere.
At the bus station. There is a prayer room here. In the bus now. Driving through a valley with scattered homes, trash, wildflowers yellows orange purples, beautiful green rolling hills. Donkeys goats and cows just grazing along the road. Seat is broken but it's not a long ride. A very scenic ride from Tangier to Chef. People having picnics, cooking food on open fires.
In London when I saw a trash bag on the street it had an official notice that it was being investigated for illegal dumping. In Portugal and southern Spain, outside of the cities, I would seer some trash strewn out in fields.
Here in Morocco it's everywhere, just out in the streets, along the side of the road, and most unfortunately, as I took this first ride along the "countryside" the rivers where full of trash.
It rained in tangier every morning but cleared up by 9 ish. I picked up some bread and fresh dates still on the vine in Tangier for snacks on the bus. Yummy.
Sporadically raining then sunny here in chef. I arrived and took a petite taxi to the hotel because it's on a crazy hill. Did some laundry in the sink, then I went out to explore the medina.
Chef is a beautiful town, painted mostly a light blue. Exactly like it looks in all the online pictures and guidebooks. It's set on a mountainside, kinda like San Fransisco on the hills, but prettier and not very city like.
The people in the Tangier medina were pretty direct about selling you stuff. The people here are more subtle. They are all friendly but it sucks that they are still trying to sell you something.
For example as I was making my way back to the hotel a guy asked where I am from. I said California. He said he used to live in San Francisco with his exwife. We exchanged some pleasantries and he invited me for tea. An invitation to tea is code for "i want to sell you a rug or something"
I decided no matter how much I've read the stories it would be crazy not to see the experience first hand so I accepted. He said This was an invite to some tea and conversation as he has only been speaking English for a year and wanted the practice. He is originally from southern Spain and his family is half Muslim and half Jewish (Mohamed Ben Ayud is his name)
We sat and chatted for a while. Moroccan tea takes a while to prepare. He introduced me to his uncle. Still waiting for the tea he casually mentions that he would love to show me some of the rugs they had for sale.
I told him I was in no way buying anything on this trip and I did not want him to waste his valuable time opening rugs for me. I also said, politely, that I would not drink tea with him if his intention was to sell me something, but otherwise I would enjoy sitting, talking, and drinking tea so we can learn more about each other and the world.
We had a nice conversation, pretty casual, and he mentioned that when he was in SF he was selling lots of custom leather goods to the the gay community for good money, but not enough to live in SF or keep his wife happy. He mentioned the rugs and other goods a few times so eventually I said "I am not traveling to buy things. I don't need things, I am traveling for experiences, to meet people, and to see the world. I am on a tight budget and I just couldn't afford to start spending money on stuff." If you have lived with me you know I don't need more things. While I have picked up a few small mementoes along the way, this is mostly true. Especially because I am using cash here in Morocco, no credit card, which is where most of my travel monies were coming from for this trip.
I also repeated, that I didn't want to waste his time if this was just a sales meeting but I would be happy to continue talking and drink the tea when it's ready. Then the tea making sped up a little.
He then showed me his guest book, which was notes from all the people who did buy something from him. "Mohamed gave us wonderful tea and we got a beautiful ____ from him at a great price" was the basic form. Nice tactic.
We had tea and then he said he would like to give me a gift. Either they have all the angles or I'm the biggest asshole in the world.Most likely both.
He really wanted me to have a gift and I said I would feel bad taking something without paying for it. Again he insisted. So I took a leather pouch for tobacco. I offered to give him 20dirham (about 2 bucks) but he refused. He asked me to write in his book which I did ("we are brothers, both sons of Abraham" I put in there for the next reader) Then I rolled him a cigarette. I told him if he came back to Cali I would be happy to offer him mint tea. He said he'd prefer a beer, we both laughed, and with that I said thank you and goodbye.
In the end this was a great experience. I'm glad I accepted his invitation and stood my ground. I do believe that the people are nice and genuine here, even when they are trying to sell you something. I obviously have an underlying need not to be taken advantage of by someone trying to get over on me and I wouldn't say it is the healthiest attitude, but I'm trying my best to still be outgoing.
I generally think I have a decent sense of direction, but here in the medinas it's a shit show. People say go straight but there is no straight. Not that I have figured out yet. Got lost every time I went in.
Chef is the hash capital of Morocco and I'm getting offered a lot of it on the streets. I'm gonna stop by a hostel today in hopes of meeting others so I can try some cause I don't want to buy off the streets.
And check this out, I think I'm allergic to eggplants. Can you believe that? I'm not happy about it, I like plenty of things with eggplant but I'm pretty sure that's what set my stomach off last week.
Ciao
