We made it to Fez and spent 2 nights parked just outside one of the main gates of the medina (“blue gate”). We enjoyed the labyrinth of alleyways on our first visit and wanted to return to get lost in it by ourselves. We had a wonderful guide in January with Martin and Sven and he weaved us around the chaos of Fez. Without him, what we saw in a day would not have been possible on our own. We would surprisingly spot him in one of the 9,000 alleyways on this second trip and had a nice interaction with the one and only guide we had in Morocco. We later found our way to a one-eyed man who could repair our inverter that had suddenly gone out while we were in the Todra gorge. After a day and a half of waiting and his searching for the replacement pieces, he could not get a hold of them. We enjoyed an avocado smoothie on a terrace and met a lovely Italian couple, had a delicious meal in a literal hole in the wall along one of the streets and went on to Meknes thereafter. Meknes was a breath of fresh air and was one of my personal favorite cities we visited. The people were all very friendly and were more interested in interacting than selling you something. Our interactions in larger cities near the attractions were quite the contrary to those in Meknes. We were parked outside an old jail and just across from one of the King’s royal palaces that had a tempting well kept 9 hole golf course at $40 for unlimited play including a set of the exact clubs I have at home and a caddie. We decided to pass on the opportunity and after seeing the city for two days we went to visit Volubils where old Roman ruins remained. It was very impressive and had a hell of a backdrop. We struck up a conversation with a nice American family living in Bahrain and we realized after talking with them for over an hour that we had not had spoke on the phone with any of our friends since we left home. We miss you guys and are thinking and talking about you! It was very nice sharing some stories and speaking with people that have the same sense of humor. We considered their offer to visit them in Bahrain and went to look up flight costs to see if it were in the realm of possibility. Turns out, on our budgetary and time constraints…not feasible.
Heri El Souani – Royal Stables in Meknes
Meknes
1 of the next 4 at Volubilis
We then went north to Kenitra along the coast to visit a Moroccan family (Mustafa and Naghagt) for a few days. They were the family of an international student who worked in my office while I was working at a college in Seattle. It was easy to become friends with Yassir and I considered him that much more than a colleague. He shared his very generous, kind and hospitable family with us. They have a beautiful home that is just near the river that bleeds into the ocean in Kenitra. They fed us until we could not eat anymore. Our first breakfast spread included 8 different types of breaded items to choose from. We didn’t have dinner for 3 nights as we had had so much during the day, I don’t think we could stomach another meal. We would finish the late nights with tasty treats from the bakery (which had become a bit of an obsession to me), tea, fruit and yogurt. Although on one of the nights I was exhausted from lack of sleep, I laid awake in bed with a sugar high, stuffed with sweets and sugary tea. We spent some days doing a good bit of driving around visiting a nice lake (Bayet Erroumi), Tangier Med, Larache, Azillah, and our favorite spot, their farm in Ait Malek. They have 7 hectares (roughly 15 acres) with an assortment of fruits and veggies planted and producing for them and the farmers that tend to the land. Their olive trees occupy the majority of their land. We would eat the oil they had pressed with breakfast, see where they had it made and walked away with a large tub of from their stocks. Mustafa and Naghagt were very sweet and eager to share their culture, language and home with us. We had almost forgotten how lush the north of Morocco is as we had spent much of our time in the south with a far different landscape of mostly barren wide expanses covered in rock, dirt and some rough shrubbery.
Najat and Ratha hanging out with Mac.
We needed to leave the country as our 90 day visa was coming to it’s end and would spend a few days getting up to Tangier Med. We stayed a night in Azillah and passing through Tangier to stay a night on the water at Tangier Med (30 mins east of Tangier). We would run into Christie and Phillip for I believe the 6th time in Morocco (whom we first met in Ouzoud) and planned to meet up in Algecerias after crossing the border to Spain. Ratha and I got a snack in the nearest town to Tangier Med, I got a haircut and had to enjoy the last avocado smoothie before exiting the country. For anyone doing the border crossing to or from Morocco, we strongly recommend Tangier Med for it’s organization and less hectic atmosphere. We caught the next ferry out and were paid for and in the queue in 20 minutes.
And just like that, our unplanned, unexpected journey to Morocco would come to a close as we pushed off for the short ride across the sea. Our first encounter with an African nation was filled with a variety of colors, sounds, smells, sights, people and flavors. All things that shocked our senses and were even overwhelming, some still so up until we had left. The vast majority of our interactions were positive and we had countless numbers of them. Our negative warnings about travel to Morocco and the media’s attempt to vilify a religious group were all without merit. This was shared by 100% of the travelers we spoke with and many who had been coming here for years. We would be happy to share more and would encourage anyone considering travel there to go. So for now, goodbye swaths of nomadic goat and sheep herders, goodbye baked treats and sweet tea, goodbye mountain children whom we avoided squashing when nearly jumping in front of the car, goodbye souks filled with rich, flavorful and affordable vegetables, meats, spices and more, goodbye tasty olives and twice daily fresh bread. We will miss you and would enjoy the opportunity to see you again.
Vantastic Voyage 