Devon Travels to Africa!

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.

  

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.

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.

Moroccan Market