10 days in Morocco

Ok I'll try to make a list of all the unique experiences that we had in Morocco over these 10 days:

-      We have seen a predominantly Muslim country during the last days before Eid (the end of Ramadan). Prayers and fasting  and break of fast at sunset (with all the activities momentarily coming to a halt) during the days before Eid. I had no idea that Eid is not a fixed date, and people find out when it is only the night before!

-       We've experiences 3-hour trip in a taxi colléctif, with 6 people in the car and the driver smoking a joint, making a phone call and texting at the same time, driving recklessly on a very hilly and bendy road (yes, I did think I was going to die and yes, I have been praying a lot to some many different Gods!)

-       We've been stuck for a couple of hours in a remote, rural countryside town called Ouazzane where no tourists were to be seen  (due to the disruptions caused by the end of Ramadan and the changes of timetables).

-       We've both suffered from the typical travellers’ diarrhoea, which basically made reduced in a vegetative state for about three days, with no strength whatsoever, and the only option left was to sit by the pool.... and wait!

-      We have spent one night in the desert, under the stars (how beautiful was this?) and I must mention that we reached the place on the back of a camel for about two hours.

-      We have had so much local, authentic couscous and tagine and... that was very tasty indeed!

-      We had made friends with two very friendly fellow travellers from Columbia, that we kept in contact with for several years after and we also went to visit.

And amongst the highlights of our trip (all of which we strongly recommend to visit) were: 

Tanger

Chefchaouen

Fez

Merzouga

Agadir

Marrakech

And... what about Gibraltar?

So, instead of flying directly to Morocco, we stopped in Gibraltar first for a full day, as I have always been fascinated by this British city on the Mediterranean coast! Our Airbnb host was really kind to us she talked to us about the peculiarity of the Gibraltarian culture (and language, we found out!): it is so weird to see a place which is pretty much the same as England (shops, pubs, post offices, letter boxes, Wetherspoons, the currency, and so on) but it's very hot and lush,  a bit like a corner of the UK on a tropical island! 

In Gibraltar we saw the monkeys in the National Park on the rock (the very highlight in my opinion) and we saw the Hercules' pillars.

The next day we had breakfast with Connie, we had a nice chat with her and then we walked across the Border (I had only seen something similar when I was in Nicosia in Cyprus). 

Once we were in Spain we arrived in La Linea, where we could catch the ferry to Morocco: although we had not booked it earlier, we managed to buy a ticket on the spot! The ferry was full of mainly Moroccan families that were waiting at the at the station to embark: the place was so busy!