Asilah
12 Oct
Our voyage to Tangier (the Moroccan port city) from Algecieras, Spain was long and tiring.
To start, we took an overnight train from Barcelona to Algecieras. Kyle, Scot, and I slept in a cabin with a Moroccan man who laughed at Scot when he mentioned we were going to Morocco. The he says “They will cut off your head and put it in coos-coos!” WHAT?!
So we are sleeping on the train, in a compartment that holds six, but we are only 4 so you would THINK it comfortable. NO. Moroccan man took up three seats, we smush on our side and await daylight.
4 AM. Conductor comes in and turns on the light, yelling something. We groan, turn off the light, and try to fall asleep. 10 minutes later the conductor comes in again, turns on the light, and yells something else. Sleepy Scot turns the light off again, probably cause I told him to. A few minutes later someone comes in and tells us this is the last stop, we must exit the train. We are confused because the train isn’t supposed to get to Algecieras until 8 am. We hurry to pack up our bags and join the other disgruntled, sleepy passengers on the cold train station floor. 20 minutes goes by, we meet two girls who speak English. Luckily, Lauren also speaks Spanish. She spies on the conductors and translates it to us.
Somehow the train tracks are not in working order. They put us on a bus. The ride is bumpy, curvy, and obnoxiouslly beautiful. The sun comes up, we don’t arrive in Algecieras until 11 am.
We get our money back from the non-working train, and jump ship.
Two hours, a tunafish sandwich, and much nausea later…
we arrive in Tangier. When you exit the boat, there is a sort of free-for-all. The shipyard is gated in, seemingly as protection, but I think it was to make you feel trapped and want to get the first cab out of there. The pushy cab drivers all approach you at the same time. We learned to totally ignore them; many are known to be scammers, or pick pockets. We are now following Lauren and an older Spanish woman she met on the boat. The woman has been to Morocco many times. She helps us, changes our money, and shows us where to catch the train.
Finally, after sharing a cab with an Aussie/English guy and his dad, we arrive in Asilah at the Hotel Azalea.
It felt like everyone in town had radar that tourists were arriving in town. Kids on bikes, men in cloaks, and Sammy (our un-official tour guide) greeted us at the door. We made a deal with Muhammed, the deskman…
…and got a great price on a BEAUTIFUL hotel room.
our view out of the hotel room window…
our view in the hotel window…
We stayed in Asilah for quite a few days (8 I think.) Sammy (named after Sammy Davis) our tour guide showed us the best restaurants, fruit and bread stands, and the scenic overlook of the ocean.
In Morocco many towns have a ‘medina,’ which pretty much is a part of town which is surrounded by castle walls and paved in cobblestone. In the medina you find much graffiti, tourist-type shops, real moroccan shops, and maze-like alleys and paths. Luckily for us, Asilah was a small town. We didn’t get lost in the medina, but we did walk in circles for fun.
In the summer months, Asilah is considered a beachy vacation town because of its proximity to “Paradise Beach.” We read of this paradise, and took a taxi down a orange/brown dirt road in it’s direction. The driver couldn’t continue to take the road due to the jacuzzi-sized potholes in the “road” (dirt path) so we walked the rest of the way.
kyle has a unique way of spelling.
the cows in the area were all skin and bone.
As it turns out, the beauty of Paradise beach disappears in the off-season. Vendors leave tons of rubbish which clutter the dunes and surf.
We were mostly disappointed, but our cameras found some beauty.
The cliffs around the beach were magnificent. We came across some weird tent/camp/houses up in the hills. A few Moroccan dudes even followed us for a bit. We hiked about two hours back to town right along the ocean. This might actually be my favorite part of Morocco.
A dried up riverbed.
The ruin echos softly as the roots undo.
Crossing a stream.
I found some fire ants.
Two young kids were herding these sheep. Lucky for the sheep, there is actually some vegetation up in the hills for the sheep to graze.
As we hiked, the sun almost came out.
slightly scary hilltop camps
hilltop graffiti
As we got back into town we ran into a young boy on a bike. He was cute.
The sheep in town had nothing to graze on. I have no idea what the were attempting at eating.
We ate at some really fantastic restaurants while in Asilah. This was our real “vacation” part of the trip, and we took full advantage.
HERE’s an email from Morocco:
hello friends y familia!i am typing yet again on the french keyboards so please dont mind any mistakes i make!
i write from asilah:::morocco, africa… we are having a totally relaxed time. this tourist town is crazy in the summer but thankfully we missed the crowds, high prices, qnd total pickpocket chaos. the people of asilah are very welcoming and friendly after you get past their constant ïce grill¨ typical expression. in the past 6 days here we have met some great characters with nicknames like The Boss, Fromage, Denim Dan… and such. most folk have ulterior motives for being friendly and polite… such as trying to get us to eat at certain restaurants (they get a percentage) or selling us something or other. we met a really great guy who runs restaurant sevilla in town who even tooks us to his home to have a meal with his wife and adorable children!!
they are just finishing the muslim holiday Ramadan today, so everyone is on the streets wishing each other well and spending time with friends and family. during ramadan (which is one month long), the moroccans fast all day. they cant eat, drink, smoke, gamble, or really anything between 5 am and 545 pm; at those times a very loud siren (that sounds like a bomb warning or something) is played on speakers all throughout town. there are many people on the streets at night since that is the only time the people fasting can eat. they have breakfast at 6pm, then lunch a little later, then a big dinner meal around 3am! the first night here the siren woke me up at 5 am and i was a little scared and confused… but we got used to it after a few days.
ANYWAY kyle is rushing me we must go pack up our VERY LIVED IN hotel room. we travel to FEZ tomorrow… a big city in morocco. after fez is a LONG 2 days of travelling, a sad goodbye to scot, and a happy hello to MALLORCA, spain!! for 3 weeks kyle and i will work on a farm!
i hope everyone is getting ready for halloween… i am sad i will miss it! carve me a pumpkin or two.. and jump in a pile of leaves for me!
MRumianowski
nice photos, thanks for sharing
Hi, I see you found Paradise beach..How did you get to hear about it? I’ve been soing there for 20yrs now. A perfect hid-a-way to chill, surf and be at one with the ocean and Morocco. And you’re right, vendors leave the place in a mess. There were no vendors up to around 1999 but people can’t keep a secret for long and sooner rather than later two week tourists come, ‘do Morocco’, take countless photo’s then put them on the web so hoards of other tourist’s can come, attracting more vendors…..Have you been to Thailand and seen what has happened to that once beautiful place? Some things are best kept quiet and when I find a new hide-a-way, a place to go to escape the swollen middle classes and everything I despise in the western world, I’ll keep it to myself. Wil you be doing the same. Thanks.
That’s cute! awesome city !!!