Chefchaouen: Round Two & the Cannabis farms

Last weekend I decided to go back to the Blue city. It's such a stunning city and I wanted to go back and see the cannabis farms that the region is oh so famous for. The Rif Region of Morocco is famous for hashish as it produces nearly half of the world's hashish supply. Pretty amazing. I've heard that people in the region even tried to grow other products for agriculture but the only plant that would grow well was cannabis. So funny. So for this reason hashish has become such a strong part of their culture and has a huge impact on its economy, that the hashish culture is tolerated here by the Moroccan police.

Anyways I ended up going again and I went with another exchange student friend and we ran into two of the Italian exchange students, so we ended up traveling together and getting an apartment together. It worked out really well!

We got there late Friday night and spent the evening finding an apartment and exploring the medina a bit. And just like last time, there were numerous hashish dealers wandering the streets. You could find one at the turn of every corner. It is amazing to me how much it is a part of their culture there.

Saturday we called up one of the guys we met Friday night who said he owned his own cannabis farm. We had breakfast, and afterwards he gave us a tour of his fields and he even showed us the process of making it. The fields were mostly bare since it is nearing winter and they had already collected most of it. We went into one of the farms buildings and there were just piles and piles of weed everywhere. The entire room was full of it. He then picked some out, brought it and us to another room where he showed us how to make it.

These are photos of the cannabis fields and the process of making hashish. In the end we ended up learning to make it ourselves and of course we were served Moroccan Tea :)

After our tour of the farm, the guy took us on a hike through a trail in the mountains nearby. We saw a lot of beautiful waterfalls, and we made stops along the way for food. It was beautiful. It was amazing to me how clear the water was. But it was too cold to swim in. Anyways, I always enjoy hiking :)

We finished the hike when the sun went down. We headed back to our apartment and relaxed for the rest of the night. 

We woke up Sunday morning and just explored the medina. The others that I had come with had not been before so I ended up revisiting a lot of the same parts of the medina. We shopped a lot. My exchange is coming to an end in less than a month and I'm constantly worrying about Christmas shopping already. 

Most of our late morning and early afternoon was spent shopping. Then we caught our bus back to Fez at 3pm and I worked on my paper for a Politics class on the bus ride. I suppose we could have stayed later in Chefchaouen, but I had to guarantee I would be back before midnight to submit my paper. I cut it close but I got it done and submitted it five minutes before midnight when I got back to Ifrane. Success!  

I still can't believe my time here ends in less than a month. There have been a lot of ups and downs, but now I don't want to leave. In the past two weeks since I have not been hanging out with other international students, I've been feeling a lot more grounded here in Morocco. I realized I was doing my exchange completely wrong. There is no point in studying abroad if the main people you hangout with are people from your own home country. It was stupid, and I regret my decision for doing that before. Even though I have plenty of Moroccan friends, continuing to hangout with fellow Americans all the time makes you view Moroccan culture as a touristic/foreign perspective. Since I've been mroe on my own in the past few weeks, I've been spending all my time with only Moroccans, and being the only foreigner, people will speak less English. If there is a huge group of foreigners people will speak english. But because it has just been me they will speak their own native language. In the past few weeks I've learned more Darija (Moroccan Arabic) than I have in my entire semester her thus far. With it being just me, assertive Moroccans teach me how to pour the tea, they wont just serve it to me. 

That's the difference between really immersing yourself, and just living here as a tourist. You can sit back, speak English with fellow native English speakers and observe the culture (the fact that tea is important for example) from a foreigner perspective because you are only conversing and analyzing with other foreigners, OR you can put yourself into the culture and be taught how to pour the tea. You wont just sit there and have it be served to you, but you can learn HOW to make it and HOW to pour it. Another example is attire. Foreigners can sit back and observe how people dress here, possibly even make fun of it. I know that I thought peoples attire was interesting and strange, but once you put yourself in the culture you understand Moroccan perspective and WHY people dress he way they do. These are the slight differences. Between observing, and understanding how things are done. 

I'm not really sure if this all make sense but my mind is also sort of all over the place. Overall I'm feeling a lot better about myself and my time here in Morocco. Before I was so homesick, but now I only wish that I could stay longer. Now that I'm understanding more, I'm learning more and I feel grounded here. Morocco has become more of a home to me now in the past few weeks than it ever did before. Before, I was just living here. That does not mean it's a home. A place where I understand things and local cultural habits feel right. Does this make sense?

Anyways, I'm off to write a paper. I'll write more soon! Ciao ciao 

Lost in the Blue City: Chefchaouen

This past weekend I traveled to Chefchaouen, the Blue City. This city is known for being beautifully blue and picturesque, along with fields and fields of weed. So although weed is illegal in Morocco, it has been a part of the culture in this town for such a long time, that it is tolerated by the local police. Chefchaouen is in the middle of the hills with lots of beautiful hiking around it.

The trip was originally a small group of my friends and I, but others who I'm having some problems with (stupid drama stuff that happened over Halloween weekend) invited themselves. I tried to remove the negative from my life, but they just keep pushing themselves in my face and back into my life. My time abroad has become a bit stressful. I hate drama, and I've realized that some of the friends I once had really were not real friends and it's hard realizing that at the end, especially when there is still a month left here. Aside from friends issues here, my homesickness has gone away. I think it's because those friends were really mistreating me which made me sad, feel alone, and become homesick. But now they are mostly out of my life (except for this last weekend) and I'm feeling so much better. It's mixed feelings about my time here. I'm happier now that we're no longer friends, but since we started the semester together and made all the same friends, it makes social aspects of my life a bit difficult sometimes. I as an individual am happier with myself, but sometimes time goes by slowly.

Chefchaouen was beautiful, but it was an interesting weekend because I planned this trip but they invited themselves. I've never met anyone so obviously rude like that before.

Anyways, We left Friday afternoon and took a Grand Taxi to Fes, then a four hour bus ride to Chefchaouen. When we got there we didn't have any solid plans of where to stay. Luckily we ran into some local guys who showed us an apartment that we ended up staying at. Along with the landowner, another guy came with him trying to sell us weed. The guy showed us the apartment and it was perfect, blue, good sized, and had a view of the town. We sat down and the two Moroccan friends who came along with us began bargaining. We got the apartment for 400 MAD per night. That's like $45, and between the five of us that really wasn't much. After bargaining the price for the apartment, they began bargaining for the price of weed and hashish and all. It was really fascinating to me that this was just so casual and along with the landowner a weed dealer came too. So hilarious. In the end we scored good deals and spent the night just relaxing and going to bed early.

The next morning I was the first to wake up. I took a shower and climbed up to the top of our apartment roof and just enjoyed the view. Everything was so blue, it felt like being in Santorini except the city looked over a valley, not over the sea. I sat there waiting for the others to get up. Once we were all up and ready, we wandered our way through the town to eat breakfast in the town square.

The view from our apartment rooftop

Coffee and Moroccan tea at breakfast

On a side note about Moroccan tea, people here are obsessed with it and it's basically normal Green tea with mint leaves and a lot of sugar added into it. People have it with practically every meal and when it's served often times they're served in small cups that kind of look like shot glasses. Often times even if it's tea for just one person you will be served two small cups so that you can pour some in one, then pour it between the two glasses. This way you cool it down since the tea comes served so steaming hot. 

Anyways, after breakfast we wandered for about half an hour getting lost in the old medina. The skies started to clear and we decided to go hiking. We went back to the apartment, changed and brought our swim suits, and took a cab to the start of the trail. I can't tell you how much I missed hiking. At home in the summer I hike at least once a week, and it was such a good feeling to be in the mountains and in nature again, and FINALLY getting some exercise too. 

The beginning of the trail

On the hike we were hoping to get to the cannabis fields. We didn't make it because we didn't have enough time and the sun went down behind the mountains real fast. But the hike was still beautiful. People were smoking all around us the entire time. The entire hike was gorgeous. We followed along this river and stopped at an area where we went swimming. 

It was freezing cold water so I didn't go all the way in and swim, but I waded a bit. It was fun and really relaxing. I just loved being able to be in nature again. I missed it so much.

The sun was going down so we headed back to the apartment. We took showers, went to eat dinner and spent the chilling. It was peaceful (despite the negative people around me) just relaxing on the roof top under the stars. I think I only survived this weekend with the negativity around me this weekend because Chefchaouen is such a calm and chill environment. 

The weed dealer from the first day kept coming back to sell. So funny. 

Sunday morning rolled around, and again I was the first up. I took a shower and once all the others were up we began packing our bags and cleaning the apartment. We headed out of the apartment just before noon and spent the remainder of our time in the town wandering and doing some shopping before we left to head back to Ifrane at 3pm. Overall it was a good weekend. Chefchaouen is one of the most beautiful places I've seen in Morocco. If you ever come here, you should visit this place. I really could get lost in this town despite how small it is. It's so blue everywhere, everything kind of looked the same but different. I could get lost. But I enjoyed it, I saw so much beauty. I've really never seen such a magical and picturesque place. Here are some photos I took while wandering in the old medina. Enjoy!

Under the stars in the Pre-Sahara Desert

Time is a weird thing. Sometimes it goes by really fast, and other times it goes by extremely slowly. But it's all measured the same.

Halloween weekend was one of those slow times. Nothing happened on Halloween. I just learned who my true friends were. I really wasn't feeling well, so I stayed in bed most of that weekend and the days to follow it throughout the week.

November 6-9:
This last weekend was sort of a long holiday, there were no classes on Thursday so a lot of people just ended up skipping Friday. One of my Italian friends for his entrepreneurship class had to plan a vacation trip. He ended up organizing a trip to Merzouga, a city at the foothills of the Sahara Desert.

On Wednesday morning, the day before the trip it snowed. Just a little bit, but it snowed. Winter is coming and the wind in the mountains of Ifrane blew really strong that day. I'm usually pretty tolerant of the cold but that morning was too much for me. It's crazy to think that this small town really is part of Morocco.

From the mountains in Ifrane to the desert in Merzouga, we traveled driving through the Atlas Mountains Thursday morning. It was an absolutely stunning ride. Car rides are always easy for me to fall asleep on, but I never want to sleep because you can see so much just from driving through. It's amazing what you can miss in a split second driving through a small village and seeing the people.

We went through both the high, and low Atlas Mountains, and saw some areas (high Atlas) where there were even significant amounts of snow. When we arrived at that point it was hard to believe we were even in Morocco.

We made a few stops along the way like at this lake (above) and at a canyon and some other great scenic places.

Lunch: Meatball Tajine with egg

The Ziz valley

Souvenirs shop in Riassi

We finally got there at around 8pm in Merzouga. We hopped off our buses and walked into this beautiful riad. Riads are buildings that are constructed like a palace with a courtyard in the center for a fountain or garden sometimes, and the house is constructed around the courtyard. The only different between Riads and Moroccan style palaces is that they;re smaller, and they are generally homes, but extremely elegant homes. We walked around and checked into our rooms, it was a beautiful hotel.

The hotel was right at the foothills of the Sahara. This was the view from our backyard for the weekend. 

We were all pretty much super tired from travelling all day so most of us just ate dinner, and went to bed soon after that. The following day we woke up, had breakfast and some free time at the riad before we left on our camel adventure into the desert. Some of the other guys went swimming but i just layed out in the sun because the water was wayyy too cold. After our free time we ate couscous, since it was friday. It was DELICIOUS. I love couscous so much. I want to eat it all the time. At the restaurant we just all ate sharing the massive plate of food with everyone who was ate your table. it was one plate per table. And although there were half exchange students there in the group, there were also half Moroccans too. Some guys tried to dish some up and serve themselves on their own plate, but the Moroccans were always scolding us, saying, "no, no, no, that's not how you do it. You must eat with your hands." I love it here. The food culture. Everyone shares and we just reach our hands into the one plate and eat our fill. I was so yummy.

At around 3 that afternoon, we were all packed and ready and boarded our camels for our camel adventure through the pre-Sahara. The hotel owns its own camels and we just met them in the hotels backyard. So convenient. I ended up getting the largest camel of the bunch (30 or so camels). I named him Steve, and he was awesome. He had a really derpy face and Mohammed, our camel escort, made him the line leader. Every time someone dropped something and Mohammed left Steve on his own, Steve just would look arond for any bush of grass he could find, and start eating. And he dragged the rest of the camels in our line with him. He was the best, derpy and hungry.

After about an hour of traveling through the desert on our camels, we stopped to watch the sunset, which was gorgeous. Afterwards we continued on for another hour until we arrived at our campsite in a niche in the dunes. We stayed there for the night. We unloaded our camels and pretty soon after ate a dinner which consisted of a soup, a meat tajine, fruit, and of course Moroccan tea.

Following dinner, our guides took us outside and made a fire. Everyone surrounded it and the guides began playing music on the drums with traditional Berber drums, and they began to dance. It was a fun night, staying up for hours singing and dancing. One of the girls even brought her guitar, so after all the dancing the mood calmed down a bit, and we sat around the fire playing the guitar and singing. It was really beautiful and so much fun!

Mohammed, my guide, sat down and talked to me a lot of the night. I learned that he is from a small town near to Merzouga, and the he learned to speak Japanese, English, some Italian, very good Spanish and French, all from just working with tourists. He told me, that us tourists were his professors haha. Mohammed was cute.

That night it was difficult to sleep, it was too cold. We all had our own tents with thin mattress pads on the sand. It was comfortable, but soo much colder than I had expected it to be. I slept a little, but not much.  We got up early at 6am so we could climb the dunes and watch the sunrise. That was an amazing sight and I’m so glad I got up for it. 

Before we headed back to the hotel in Merzouga we ate a nice breakfast with coffee and tea. Breakfast is my favorite meal, so I was content.

We headed back on our humpy ride to the hotel. Literally, it’s a really humpy ride. Your given a saddle sort of thing which makes you be able to stay on well, except the camel’s hump really shoves up in your crotch area, and even more so when they’re walking down in the dunes, sliding and shifting their weight. I felt bad for all of the guys, I couldn’t complain.

Exhausted Steve

We got arrived back at the hotel. I said goodbye to my escort Mohammed, and my camel Steve. They were the best.

Then we had some free time until we had an SUV excursion. No one really had any idea what this meant but we saw some SUVs driving in the dunes and just thought that was what we would be doing. Since I was not prepared I didn’t bring my camera, but I took a couple on my phone. Driving through the desert was madness. Our group fit in four different cars, and our drivers decided to race. At each destination that we had, the drivers tried to race one another to it.

Our first stop, was a viewpoint from which you could see the Algeria-Morocco border. That was really cool to see. Then we were explained that because of the civil war going on in Algeria, there are a lot of people moving to Morocco, a place of stability, and nomads too.

At the mountains there ahead is the Algeria-Morocco border

Second, we were taken to see an abundance of fossils in this one area of rocks. We were explained that long ago many of todays' deserts used to be part of the ocean. We stepped out of the cars and they showed us alll of these marine type creature fossils. It was amazing. I could not stop staring they were so beautiful. These are actually a really common souvenir in the area.

The third stop was a nomadic home. We saw so many small really empty looking structures around in the desert. It was fascinating. We got to take a look inside a nomadic home which was a bit awkward because it was someones home but our tour guides told us to so I’m not sure… But the homes were very empty. We also learned that nomad homes didn’t have electricity until just 5 years ago. That was really interesting to me.

Driving through the desert we also saw a lot of roaming camels. We thought they were free camels but then we were explained how expensive camels are, and so no camel is a free camel. There must have been their nomadic owners nearby somewhere. 

It's fascinating to me that there really are people out there who live nomadic lifestyles, and just move around with their camels. Before while we were traveling through the desert we saw other people with camels. Some were tourists, but there were others who were the owners of the camels. They were just there trekking along, just chillin'. 

The fourth stop was at an old French quartz mine. In the early 1900s the French came and began mining quartz, but then they were kicked out and local Berber people took it over. It's pretty much a ruined village now with only a couple functioning buildings for those who still work there. It was pretty neat though! We walked around and climbed to the top of the hill. There we ate out lunch with a view of the desert. So breathtaking. Oh yeah, I also took home some pieces of quartz :)

Lunch spot view of the quartz mines in the middle of the desert

Our last stop was a lake. It was a small lake just fifteen minutes outside of Merzouga. It was pretty,but normal to me. But I guess it's a big deal because we were in the middle of the desert. I'm not sure. Afterwards we headed back to our riad hotel where we had some relaxing time before dinner.

That night after dinner me and a couple friends decided to take our wine, and bring it with us and drink in the middle of the dunes out in our hotels backyard. It was only right, since it was our last night in the desert. We just sat out there all night, drank our wine, and relaxed. I can't even explain to you how magical it is being in the desert. The sand is so soft, and being in the dunes is so relaxing. Just opening your eyes and seeing the dunes as your surroundings, its so colorful and calming. It feels like there is so much space and time out there, I just wanna go back already and spend my time playing around and rolling in the sand, and even sleeping there it's so soft and comfortable.

Even though we didn't really do that much, that night was magical. Laying there under the stars and in the soft sand of the Pre-Sahara with my friends and some wine. Simply magical.

The next morning our group took a group photo, then we headed out back to Ifrane. Without stopping the drive should be about six hours, but we made a couple stops along the way at some scenic viewpoints and at one place where a village man took us through his forest of produce and shared with us his work. There we kinda just wandered and got lost in his forest of palm trees. I've never seen so many palm trees in my life than I had there in the desert and the south.

We made a final stop about an hour and a half away from Ifrane. Dinner. We had bomb kefta which is beef prepared in, actually I have no idea how. But I do know it was delicious. After dinner we were headed back, and that was the end of our trip. The moment I arrived back on campus and in my room my body was exhausted and cold (still snowy in Ifrane) and I just headed to bed.

I'm sad the Merzouga trip is over. I loved the desert. Everything was so simple, calm, and peaceful. It was a much needed break from all the social and schoolwork stress I have going on at school.

Sorry I posted this a week late by the way. I hadn't found time between school work and the internet being down (internet here on campus is terrible). I'll post about this current weekend later this week. Now it's late and I just got back from a trip. So tired.

Good night!!