golfkat Travel Blog

While on a nice trip to the Costa del Sol in Spain(Marbella, Puerto Banus), we decided to take a day trip over to Tangiers, Morocco on the high speed catamaran from Tarifa, Spain.  The city of Tangiers is about 700,000 and sits on the north coast of Africa near the Strait of Gibraltar.  The native populations are called Berbers.  They are identified with their long robe like clothing with soft vertical stripes.  Our good friend Ingrid was on the trip with us.  We had rented an apartment in Puerto Banus, and explored the region each day with a different day trip.
 
The Berbers go back to prehistoric times.  Their language is primarily oral.  They are a light skinned people, proud of their heritage.  Most of the 27 million Moroccans are Berber, Arabs, or Moors.  Berbers were originally nomads who crossed the deserts with camels.  Today, they are mostly farmers.  The Arabs conquered this area in the 7th century, hence the large Islamic influence in this and other northern coastal African nations.  France, Spain and Germany traded heavily with Morocco in the 19th century and tried various means to influence the Moroccans.  The French won out over the others, then led Morocco through a period of internal strife until WW2.  At that point, Sultan Mohammed V inspired independence, later became king in a constitutional monarchy, and is now succeeded by Mohammed VI, in a fairly progressive regime.  Hence it is officially called the Kingdom of Morocco.
 
They say the strong ties between the police and mafia make it a dangerous place to visit.  It is unsafe at night, the beaches are filthy, and crafts cost more in Tangiers than other places in Morocco.  But it was the lure of being in Africa that drew us to its shores.  We were in a group tour of about 12 people with a Berber guide, and it felt very safe.  We did not see as many beggars as we have here at home.  The local currency is the dirham, but we used Euros with no trouble at all.  Bus stop spruikers (a particularly pesky species of hustler endemic to Tangier) and the like, make a living by pickpocketing. 
 
But it is the liveliest of cities, that attracts and frustrates at the same time. The medina is where the shops and restaurants are located.  Prices are 2 to 5 times higher here, and they do not like to barter.  The streets are narrow, cars are forbidden, people live and work in the same area.  The Gate to the medina is located near the Great Mosque.  Morocco was also the first power to recognize the United States as an independent country.  As a result, an American Embassy was placed here in 1777.  The economy can be considered stable, but not prone to growth, due to internal energy issues, lack of education, and infrastructure.  Its other claim to fame is the large production of hashish, as well as being the transit point for cocaine from South America, heading on to Western Europe.
 
Anyway, we went through immigration in Tarifa, and boarded the catamaran/ferry to Tangiers.  Since I am not a good sailor or cruiser, I was a little worried about the rough seas of the Mediterranean.  Many people were getting sick, but my combination of seabands and motion sickness patches (Transderm Scop) kept me well.  We tried to brush up on our French on the way over, since our Arabic was nonexistent.  But we were very excited about the unknown.
 
We landed in Tangiers and found our guide and our bus nearby.  So far, so good. We boarded, and quickly met some other Americans travelling here.  Our first stop was a camel ride, which we skipped.  They were sad looking animals, filthy and stinky, and prone to spit at us.  The second stop was a botanical garden that looked like the desert.  Our third and final stop was at the medina.  It is here we found our first snake charmer.  We also saw fortune tellers, acrobats, street hawkers, and magicians.
 
The first thing to remember in Tangiers, is that everyone is trying to make some money.  So, if you want to take a photo of the cobra, or have it placed around your neck, it will cost you.  We headed into the shopping areas of the medina.  But all the guide books told us not to buy anything.  The narrow walkways were more like corridors than streets.  They were relatively clean, but crowded with people going about their daily activities.
 
A curious thing we observed: women were not out on the streets.  They were positioned high above the corridors in their homes, talking to their neighbors, probably about us tourists.  It is very unusual for a single woman to be out on the streets by herself, even in daylight.  The single women in our group must have felt a little conspicuous.  One young American woman was sticking close to us.  She made the mistake of buying a white shirt for her boyfriend.  She draped it over her purse so did not have to carry it.  That signalled to all of the hawkers that she was a buyer.  From that point on, she was the target of their sales effort.  Sheri and Ingrid stayed close, and pointed to me whenever someone got a little too pushy.  I did my best imitation of a Japanese tourist.  We also dressed very conservatively.  Some of the American young women wore short shorts that provoked alot of attention from the locals.
 
We finally got hungry and thirsty, so they took us to a good sized casbah upstairs in the medina. Everybody told us not to eat or drink anything except bottled water, soda or beer.  But we decided to go ahead and try the food.  Most people just sat there and had a Coke.  We tried the rice and chicken, along with a few other sides dishes.  It turns out that none of us got sick.  Plus they had a real toilet with running water.
 
They also provided some native music in the form of four old men playing Moroccan instruments, and a very overweight dancer.  They expected a tip for this fine entertainment.  We did try to interact with some of the local staff and musicians, but their English was marginal, at best.  Then the real show began.
 
We were led to a series of shopping venues, that included a carpet dealer, a handicrafts store, a pharmacy, a furniture store, and a fresh food market.  Again, we did not buy anything.  But if you showed the least bit of interest, they were like flies on sh_t.  In fact, one of our friends got very interested in a carpet, but the price was outrageous.  When he said no, they started to really hassle him.  It was not pretty, so we got out of their quickly.  It appears that our guide gets a piece of the action whenever we buy anything.
 
Actually, we ended up buying some herbs at the pharmacy.  There was a Berber pharmacist explaining the herbs on the walls behind him.  He also showed the ladies a spice rub for meat that went over really well.  Most of us bought some, then wondered on the way home, what it really was.  We threw it out before getting back home, since we did not want to get arrested in customs.
 
Morocco definitely had a different feel to it than anywhere we had been.  It created an uneasiness or apprehension that we could not overcome.  We were on guard the entire trip, just because it was such a unique place. They had a recent terrorist attack, killing 33, in 2003, thought to be led by al-Qaeda.  We got so many stares from the locals.  We were approached by many street vendors, just begging for us to buy something.  Was it mystical and romantic, this gateway to the Arabic world?  Not quite.
 
We did drive past many homes that would qualify as mansions.  We also drove by wooden shacks the size of an old VW bug.  The old homes near the medina had great views of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.  In general, it seems cleaner than SE Asian cities like Bangkok or Saigon.  Would I recommend a visit?  I think the day trip provided enough insight into their world.  We are just not equipped to function in this environment for very long.