Hotel El Yacouta Tetouan

... Muslim area but I think he was catering to our English speaking group. They actually gave out free massages to demonstrate the massage oil. It was pretty hilarious watching the volunteers be instructed to take off their shirts and let some random guy massage them in front of the group. Other audience involved demonstrations involved a green lipstick looking thing which was placed on all the girls’ hands to see who was the hottest. It wasn’t me. (oh darn)

... and from Tangier was just amazing. We could see Spain on the drive, which made me both glad and sad. I've never been to Spain, and it's one place I've always wanted to visit. We are so close, but won't get to see it. But I guess that will give me an excuse to come back and maybe visit Spain and Morocco together? We ...

... the river, down past the rough stones for washing, and then the pools for rinsing. A pretty cool sight! Overall a sweet city, we were ready to go, but in typical fashion our bus to Tangier was 2 1/2 hours late due to a "flat tire." But we made it out, and after a mellow night in Tangier we are flying out early in the morning. Goodbye sunshine, delicious fruit, and general craziness. Hello Europe. Fun, but predictable. :)

... other 6 were international students from Germany, England, and Poland. We had a 2 hour bus ride from Seville to the coast. From the coast we took a 30-40 minute ferry ride and we arrived in an area that is still controlled by Spain so it was hard to tell that we were even in Africa because everything was still in Spanish and everyone was Spanish. From the coast we took a bus to the boarder, which was an experience in itself. People fighting the boarder patrol, people trying to run ...

Our first stop in Tangier was at the Grotto of Hercules, a cave whose inside resembles the Mediterranean region and which has a hole looking out onto the ocean that's shaped like Africa, but backwards. Afterwards, we drove up the mountain past many popular beaches to ...

... here the calling of the mid day prayer to the mosque!!! It was awesome!!! The bus ride back to the port took around 3 hours and then again a quick ferry ride to Algeciras and a long bus ride, 4 hours, to Granada!!! Overall, I loved Morocco!!! I think it was great to learn and experience a completely, completely different culture, based almost entirely from their religious beliefs!!! I would go back again, but for now, this weekend was plenty!!! Adios!!!

... as it has been awhile since we did not have to pack up and move to a different place. We had a nice leisurly breakfast/lunch and went to explore the city. Wer first had to walk to the bus station to book a bus for the next day. The bus station in down a huge steep hill and it was tough to walk down it without backpacks let alone when we have to do it tommorow with them on. After getting everything set, we headed back through the nice blue ...

... ountains of Morocco and realizing we would be on that side in less than 24 hours. The mainadvantage of the rock is that the view from above covers up all of the ,adness and tack that is Gibralter, making it seem misleadingly calm and peaceful. Once we had tired of monkeys chasing people and stealing candy fro, bratty kids (although do you really ever tire of watching that?) we descended and made our way out of this weird little place, returning to Spain ...