Wait,…… what? Morocco?

Yes, Morocco!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we had been staying with our friend from the Camino, Renae, at her apartment in Marbella, Spain. She had been trying to put together a trip to Morocco and needed a few friends to join her and to help defray the costs of the trip. She had already planned much of a two to three week action packed itinerary with visits to Tangier, Fez and Marrakech, topped off with three nights of luxury camping in the desert. We readily agreed to join her, and so did Trinity and Jan, two other Camino veterans who were still in Spain.

We knew we wanted to go to Tangier while we were on the Iberian peninsula, and had tentatively planned to take the ferry from Tarifa, Spain. However, because of Covid (and political differences between Spain and Morocco) the ferries weren’t running. Renae told us we could still enter Morocco, but only by flying. The five of us all booked reasonable flights (just under $300 roundtrip for Carrie and I) and here we are!

Flying out of Malaga, Spain on Air Arabia was interesting and made us realize that we were departing Europe and entering Africa, with all its varied languages, cultures, religions and people. On the flight, the flight attendants spoke to the passengers in Arabic, French and English. An Islamic prayer was presented on the tv monitor to all of us (and then followed up by a Roadrunner vs Wile E. Coyote cartoon!).

As we passed through customs at the Tangier airport the agents asked each of us several questions, one of which was where we were staying in Tangier. We each gave different answers, such the name of the Riad we were staying at, or just an Airbnb rental, or a non specific address in the Medina area. All the agents accepted those answers except one, who retained Renae, and sent her to security because she couldn’t give a specific address of our lodging. Luckily, our tour guide was close by and was able to rescue her and explain in Arabic where we we headed to.

We are staying at a Riad, which was once a private home, which has been renovated and turned into a rental unit. These are located throughout Morocco but are especially charming in the old parts of the city such as here in the Medina of Tangier.