I always enjoy sharing my story when I traveled to Africa.
It all started when I won a free trip to Morocco on Facebook through a company
called “We Love Spain”. After booking my free long weekend to travel to
Morocco, I was so excited to finally get another opportunity to travel to a new
country. What I didn’t realize was that we were traveling to Gibraltar is a
British territory located in Spain.
We spent a half a day walking around Gibraltar with our tour
group. We had the opportunity to travel up “The Rock of Gibraltar”, tour St.
Michael’s Cave, and visit Europa Point. It was neat to experience a piece of
England because I have never traveled there before.
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| St. Michael's Cave |
Beware of the wild monkeys especially on the “The Rock of
Gibraltar”. We were told not to eat anything near the monkeys because they
would go up and steal the food out of your hand. Needless to say, I panicked
every time I crossed paths with a monkey in Gibraltar.
Did you know that there is a Spanish city in Africa? I
didn’t realize this until I took a ferry over from Gibraltar to Ceuta on my way
to Morocco. Ceuta and Melilla are the two Spanish cities located in Africa.
When we finally crossed the border from Ceuta to Morocco it
was midnight and we still had a few hours to go before we reached our hotel in
Tangier. I remember driving through the country and noticing that there was
very little light and a lot of people walking the streets. Upon our arrival to
our hotel, we were told that we were going to have undercover police officers
traveling with us to ensure that we were all safe. The next morning, we went to
the coast of Tangier to ride Moroccan camels!
Did you know that camels stand up using their back legs first making it
an interesting experience when you are on top of the camel? Take at the
pictures below because I sure was surprised when I was on top of one.
My favorite city in Morocco that we traveled to was Chefchaouen, also known as the “blue pearl of Morocco”. Chefchaouen is a city located high in the
mountains in the northwestern part of Morocco. The city is filled with
beautiful blue buildings and alleyways where many families live. I loved
walking through the shops and taking in the culture. There were gypsies that
approached my friend and me when I was there and she gave me a henna tattoo
right in the middle of the street. My tour director kept warning me not to
sleep on my hand because many girls have done that and ended up with henna
tattoos on their faces! Overall, I really enjoyed walking around and soaking up
the architecture of all of the blue buildings in Chefchaouen.
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| Overlooking Chefchaouen |
The last city we traveled to was called Tetouan (one hour
north of Chefchaouen). There we went to an herbal doctor who shared many home
remedies and products that they produced. I noticed that there were a lot of
products that were being sold in the markets in Granada (the city I was living
in) due to the Arab influences!
Visiting Morocco was a very eye-opening experience in many
ways. Many of us read about diverse cultures across the world but to experience
those diverse cultures in real-life changes your perspective of things. I am
very grateful for the life I live here in the United States and I am so
fortunate to have the freedom of traveling alone anywhere as a female.
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| Moroccan Market |
