PACE

The surf was immensely strong. The beach was vast. The waves rolling into Africa breaking over the sand.

You had to tread out even in less than knee deep water to get out to the waves. It was like a wall of water only about 2 feet high, but with tons of force. Once you got out into the surf, it was a battle getting out to where the waves were breaking. Duck under one wave and try with all your might to paddle with your arms out to catch the next wave before it crashed again.

Massive current pulling to the left. No desire to tread further than chest height. Traveller lost of the coast of Morocco. Strike that, they wouldnt even publish it.

It was basically your dusty one horse town with vast expanses of open beach and ocean. A few small places to stay, a couple options for food. The chill set on almost immediatly. Omar hooked us up with bbq’ed fish, bread, and Moroccain salad for lunch. Usually a tomate y fromage omelette for breakfast. Water, maybe some orange juice. You lose your fat pretty quick on that. Plus the surf is a workout.

Heres a video of the main square Jem Al Fna, in Marrakech.

It seems the last 2 months or so of posts have been deleted due to a server error or something like that. So I’m going to try to do a recap of what has been up since august.

I am writing this from Morocco, my second visit. Its Ramadan here, so its pretty wild to see how the Muslims are living. I’ll get into that later…

Early August I came back to Southern Spain from Morocco. I was in Southern Spain for a while, visiting alot of citied in Andalucia. Malaga, Almeria, Mijas, Feugirloa, Sevilla, Chiclana, Algeciras, Murcia. I was staying with people that we knew the whole time, so I got to learn alot of Spanish and really get what is going on in Southern Spain. I can’t really sum up everything that happened in all those cities, but it was an awsome experiece overall.

One of the best spots was Mijas, a little village up in the hills overlooking the Mediterranean. I stayed with a friend there who was working on this house, probably a multi million dollar property. He was helping the owner fix it up, but in the meantime had the whole place to himself, so we crashed there for about a week.

Mijas is a big tourist spot for the English. Its a really amazing place. Alot of character. Whitewashed buildings overlooking the sea.

After Southern Spain I flew out to Ibiza island. Now this place is really amazing. The biggest and best clubs in the world, with the best DJs. Carl Cox on Tuesdays, Paul Oakenfold wednesdays. Its a massive party island. I only ended up going out to the clubs for 1 night. The rest of the time I was chilling out on the beaches, which are superb. The water is beautiful. I was trying to do as much swimming as possible. Also got alot of sun. heres a picture of one of the beaches.

We were at 3 beaches on Ibiza – Salines, Tarida, and Vadella. All had their own character. Probably one of the best setups was on Tarida where we had an apartment overlooking the sea. Sunsets shimmering off the water every night. The sun set behind the rocks. Really nice place to chill out.

After Ibiza I flew to Madrid and checked out the city for a few nights. Stayed in a crazy part of the city full of crazy people and prostitutes. Got out of there in about 3 days and went to Toledo, which was a really really cool place.

Toledo is about an hour south of Madrid and is an old Medieval city. Walking through the narrow cobble stone streets is a trip. You really feel like you could be back in time. Shops on the corner sell Toledo blades, which the city is famous for. Swords, knives, etc. Its a mix of 3 cultures, Christian, Muslim, and Jew. The main cathedral in Spain is in Toledo and is truly grand. Its awe inspiring. Massive amount of wealth. Its mindblowing.

After Toledo I decided to head back down to Morocco. So after a few days of heavy travel, here I am in Marrakech. Its cool because I have some friends that live here that I met last time, so I got in touch with them as soon as I arrived and they came out to meet me. So i’ve been hanging out with Abdou and Khalid, as well as Ismael and a bunch of other people. Just hanging out talking, meeting people ect.

Its the Muslim time of Ramadan here so people are fasting from sunrise to sunup. They blast calls for prayer over the loudspeakers 5 times a day. First a heavy siren.. then people almost screaming at the top of their lungs over loudspeakrs.. “ALLAH – AKBAR” …”ALLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH AKKKKBAARRRRRRR”. It means something like “Allah is the greatest” (or so Abdou says).

Alot of people were wondering what is going on during the day, people are a bit on edge, then they kind of mellow out, then around 4:30 or so they start to get excited , which works itself up till about 6:00 because at 6:20 when the sun goes down everyone breaks their fast and is happy again. Its really strange. Abdou says that most everyone smokes hashish here and smokes cigarettes, which is forbidden during the day. So what you have is a bunch of irritated Moroccans going through withdrawal till 6:20.

I got to break the fast over my friend Khalids house with his family. Traditional food, the whole deal. it was really cool. The next day I did the same at Abdou’s house. I feel blessed because I dont think alot of people, especially Americans would get this experience..

Right now I’m about to head over to the west coast where there is a little surf town I want to check out. Supposed to be a really magical place. It was discovered by the Beat generation of the fifties and followed up by the hippies during the 60s. Oscar Wilde lived there for a season, and Jimi Hendrix as well drew some inspiration from chilling in the place for a little while. There are international surfing competitions there, so the waves should be pretty sweet. Hoping to relax out, surf, check some music, swim alot during the day and chill at night.

So thanks for everyone thats been keeping up with me, it means alot to me. – Ryan

trying to get these posts back through google cache..

I stood on the edge of a hight cliff overlooking the valley below. I looked down at a white bird sitting in a rock crevice just below. The sun had just set behind the mountains to the right and the valley sprawled out to met the sea on the far left. Built up on the ocean are Fuengirla and Malaga (Malaga being the most famous and larger of the two). Mijas is the village further up that overlooks them both.

The mountains to the right took on a dull greyish blue tone as the sun went further down. The sky was orange blending up into a darker blue. There was a heavy cloud that roled in on top of the ocean so much so that all the ocean was completely obscured. It looked like the city was floating on a cloud, or that you had reached the edge of the world. I realized that this moment is what people are looking for, its why the English flee their home and take a week or two holiday in Southern Spain. Its what for some people would be a once in a lifetime experience. I’ve had many of these moments so far. Its something you cant put a price on.

Queen of Light took her bow, And then she turned to go,
The Prince of Peace embraced the gloom, And walked the night alone.

Oh, dance in the dark of night, Sing to the morning light.
The dark Lord rides in force tonight, And time will tell us all.

Oh, throw down your plow and hoe, Rest not to lock your homes.

Side by side we wait the might of the darkest of them all.

I hear the horses’ thunder down in the valley below,
I’m waiting for the angels of Avalon, waiting for the eastern glow.

The apples of the valley hold, The seeds of happiness,
The ground is rich from tender care, Repay, do not forget, no, no.
Dance in the dark of night, sing to the morning light.

The apples turn to brown and black, The tyrant’s face is red.

Oh war is the common plight, Pick up your swords and fight.
The sky is filled with good and bad that mortals never know.

Oh, well, the night is long, the beads of time pass slow,
Tired eyes on the sunrise, waiting for the eastern glow.

The pain of war cannot exceed the woe of aftermath,
The drums will shake the castle wall, the ringwraiths ride in black, Ride on.

Sing as you raise your bow, shoot straighter than before.
No comfort has the fire at night that lights the face so cold.

Oh dance in the dark of night, Sing to the morning light.
The magic runes are writ in gold to bring the balance back. Bring it back.

At last the sun is shining, The clouds of blue roll by,
With flames from the dragon of darkness, the sunlight blinds his eyes.

Ooh, Bring it back, Bring it back…

Apparently the server hosting this site has crashed and lost all posts back to August. I think its almost October or something, so there were about 4-5 posts about Spain that got killed – southern spain, about 10 cities or so , plus a 2 week trip to Ibiza.
so basically 3 months wiped out. frustration.

I woke up this morning, had a stretch and ah, a morning yawn and..

Walked out of my riad – you stay one more night? No, I check out today – 12 o’clock. D’accord. Merci, Au revoir.

I walk out and up the narrow road towards the main street leading to Jemaa Al Fna. Round the corner past a few ladies, covered in the Islamic gear. Head down to meet Calif and Abdul for breakfast.

The street is narrow and stone. Shops on either side are small, maybe 6 or 8 feet across and packed with goods. I pass a butcher and a fruit stand. People on small mopeds go by and people shrink up next to the walls to let them pass.

I’m going to meet Abdul and Calif, two guys I met the other day who are studying English at a language school here. They live here in Marrakech and have dreams of getting out to America. These guys love America and especially the rap music. ‘I need to get to America, you know homie?’ ‘P. Diddy, he was here, you know? I tell you the truth homie! He spends 1 million dollars for one night, he had a HUGE party in one of our palaces. He brought all the laides, He is a true pimp, belive me homie, you can google it , i tell you.’ Awsome.

I met these guys walking down the street where I live and at first thought they were the typical touts that just try to get you into the shops, but it turns out that these guys are halarious and just real cool people. They want so much to give us a good image of Morocco.

Yesterday we took a ride with them up to the mountians and hiked up this mountain through a series of waterfalls. Calif’s family was from there, so he knew the area. We were about an hour and a half outside of Marrakech. After the hike we ate Tagine and grilled chicken kababs, sat around and drank tea and chilled.

Getting back to town we went to an Herbalist where we picked up this black soap to go to the Hammam, the public bath.

The Hammam was really awsome. For about 1 dollar, you get in there and walk into a 3 room area. Increasing in strength, almost like a steam bath. There are all these Moroccan guys in there (in bathing suits) washing up with buckes and these gloves that are for scrubbing the skin.

So we get in there and there is a whole process to this place. We have 4 large buckets. First we fill them up and slosh the tile floor, the whole place is tile and really hot inside. Then we sat down and chill and sloshed some water over us to wash off. Then we rubbed this black soap all over us and once again relaxed for a minute. The stuff takes a while to set in.

After its set in we rinse off again then exit for a rest, because its too hot in there. Then after a few minutes go back inside. Abdul tells Oscar, the Mexican guy from Cali, to lay down on the floor. He then puts on this black glove thing and starts scrubbing him down. I have to leave because again its too hot.

When I go back in I lay down and Abdul lays into me with this black exfoliating scrub thing. He basically scrubbed my whole body front and back then rinsed me off with a few buckets of hot water. When in Rome…

After that we went to rinse with buckets of hot water, then mixing in some cold water, then finished off with buckets of cold water. Sitting in this hot steam room and rinsing with these buckets of cold water, it was so good.

I would have never had this experience of walking into this public bath place on my own. No way. It was such a cool experience though. This is daily life (or actually 2x a week life) for the people here. I got to experience what they do, the real people. I still get these moments of awe where I realize where I am and what I’m doing, and how far outside of the life I was living these experiences are.

I meet Abdul and Calif for breakfast, OJ and omlette and some bread. We’re going to meet at noon and head to Casablanca to stay with Calif’s brother and ‘cook some chickens, they are cheap homie! only 20 dirhams, we’ll cook so many chickens, ya , I tell you!’

‘You have to wake up and stop kidding yourself. Travelling around 15 countries or something. You have to settle down, be near to your mother and father, find a nice wife. I tell you.’
-Abdul

‘Konto Atajawalo Hawla Al Alam’ (‘I was travelling around the world’ – in Arabic)

The night before that we went out to an underground place that serves beers after hours. We smoked the cheecha, which is fruit tobacco or something like that. We chilled there all night and listened to the Moroccan music. Calif and company got us in and for free.

On my way to pack up my bag and meet everyone in the square. Get some train tickets and head to Casablanca.