Hotel El Yacouta Tetouan

... They speak Arabic, French and then are learning spanish.   In Tangers: -Brief shopping excursion/free-time -Visit to an center for women who've suffered domestic abuse/having a hard time.  Here they had weaving, sewing and craftsman type skills that the women can learn to obtain a job else where and a store where they sell the things that they make.  There is also a place to learn reading and writing in various languages.  

... 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. :)

... was time to get on with the cooking duties. With such a simple meal to prepare and cook the four of us hooked in and it took about an hour to prepare and cook. As it turned out we over catered on the rice but all else was good.


After dinner most of the group stayed up and had a few drinks before retiring for the night. Luckily our group were advised that we would not need to get up early in the morning as we were having a bit of a sleep in.

... which included a band that you could play with, a man that danced to a drum and clicked his finger tambourines, and a fire twirler that could do tricks with a candle. After lunch we went to a traditional market where you could buy rugs, ceramics, instruments, knives etc. that where all hand crafted and the best part was you set your own price. Haggling is a part of their culture so it was fun to play the game. I bought a bowl for mom...asking price was 45 euros, I bought it for 20 ...

Bus out of Fes to the village of Chefchaouen saw us leave the desert dry and surround ourselves in lush fertile mountains and the infamous Rif (they´re not famous for growing tomatoes here!). Adopted by local lad who was happy to help us to our accommodation in the hope that we`d make a small purchase of contriband. Hear those alarm bells? Hotel was a nice blend of zellij tiling, raised bed and a familiar lack of right angles. Staff ...

... in pinnies greated us, but language was an obstacle and obviously not many tourists visit this Hamman. Through sign language we indicated that we wanted a Hamman, but we didn't really know what this meant; would we just have a shower or would we be scrubbed clean by these matronly women, as described in our guidebook? We stripped to our underwear and I stood there in nothing but my pink thong, whilst everyone else was wearing their sensible Bridget Jones style knickers (Mum found ...

... think we prefer them in that order. The views from the terrace at our hotel are wonderful (we continue to maintain balance - the view from our crummy little place in Rabat, where we stayed for one night en route to Chefchaouen, was of the taxi station). We're taking it easy. We took it easy as well in Essaouira, a beach/port town on the Atlantic coast. Days were spent on the beach and evenings within the medina, the market ...

... 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 ...