#ExploringMorocco

Seven days & seven Arabian nights, camel rides in the desert, experiencing the chaos and colors of Marrakech, getting lost in the Medina, hiking the scenic Atlas mountains, visiting the valleys where the berbers lived, chilling by a surfing village, getting sunny breeze. *Chufi! That was a hell of a ride.

@lachuff Instagram

The Moroccan code

Far from my reality, culture and religion, the cultural clash can make a place get really interesting. From the series of things I learned in this week trip, here I share some:

#everythingsmeansbusiness

1. Competition is loud — at the airport, yet before the arrival area, two currency exchange stands, same rate, calling for me from the glass window.
2. The Souks can be overwhelming — mastering the bargain it's key, "liked something?" think "How much I'm willing to pay for this?", the rest acts according to negotiation skills.
3. Service is fairly good, but slow — happy customer means returning customer, full house means good place to be.
4. Getting lost in the Souks is eventually going to happen — Google Maps doesn't reach that area. An advice would be to ask the shop owners and to not accept help from anyone else, as they'll ask for money.
5. Camel rides in the desert can be a unique experience, but also painful especially to…guys.
6. Movies and series like Game of Thrones and The Gladiator were shot in one Moroccan village, and some Desert tours make sure to pass by.
7. Tours can get "extra" expensive. For the non-inclusive meal expenses the tours usually take people to restaurants in the middle of nowhere that can be 2 to 3 times the average price for a meal. An average price is 50dhs-70dhs = 5 to 7 euros.
8. Yves Saint-Laurent has a tribute museum showing fashion in a way I never seen before and I highly recommend.
9. Traveling by bus? Make sure to get there before the scheduled time. I heard that buses will leave only when it's fully booked and it can sometimes take up to one hour— it didn't happen to me, but who knows.

#otherlessonslearned

1. "Chufi!” means look in Arabic and people say it frequently, it is also the last name of the author of this article :) “Is that your real name?”- I was asked.
2. Women have a dressing code — covering legs and shoulders it’s a sign of respect — in the cities is more restricted than in the beach villages.
3. It’s relatively safe — but be prepared to not see women on the street after it gets dark.
4. If random people tells you “there’s nothing over there” means “I’m just messing up with you”.
5. The currency is Moroccan Dirham. 1 euro is around 10dhs, so it’s easy to think when making conversion.
6. The language spoken is French and Arabic — besides the many dialects there are in the villages and remote areas.
7. For foodies, Moroccan tagine and couscous dishes are encountered in most restaurants. Peanut butter fans are in the right place. Avocado juice needs to be tried. Pouring mint tea is a performance.
8. There are many desert tours to choose from, and prices vary a lot — I'd also not recommend the 2 days and 1 night, it's too little time.
9. Wifi was terrible in all the hostels, restaurants and open spaces, so don't count on good connectivity.

The Moroccan travel diaries

Day #1–2 Getting to Tagazhout — the Surfing Village

From Agadir Al Massira Airport to the Tagazhout it was a 40 min ride and around 300 drh/30 EUR.

We arrived on a Friday which is their Sabbath. The village is known for surf and there're many places where we could get lessons. It has a lot of potential to be a beautiful place, but besides being underdeveloped, unfortunately it's not very well taken care either.

We stayed in an amazing hostel, with seafront view called Salt & Surf. L’auberge was the hidden gem we found for dinner while admiring the sunset by the beach and where I first tried tagine — the typical Moroccan dish, and where I saw the "pouring tea performance".

Considering my companions didn’t want to try to surf, we decided to get a feeling of the village walking through the coast till we reached the Anchor point. Typical white and blue houses, cactus everywhere, friendly dogs and sunny breeze along the way. By the end of the afternoon we booked a yoga session at the hostel, as most of the hostels there offer those.

Bye quite beach, Morning colorful chaos — Marrakech

From Tagazhout we took a taxi to the closest big city Agadir, and from there we took a bus for three hours until we reached the city.

Day#3 -Old town

Jemaa el-Fnaa is the main square, and the main Souk is right next to it and it is where most of the hotels and hostels are. The Souk for first timers can be a big labyrinth, therefore a great challenge to find the booked accommodation.

No cars are allowed in that area and Google Maps also doesn’t cover it. Knowing that, I got as much information from the hostel Equity Point webpage as I could, either way we got lost and some locals were trying to “help” us for money.

Once in the Souk, shopping is inevitable — countless souvenirs, bracelets, painted bowls and plates, bags, herbs and oils.

The real magic though happens at 6pm at the main square Jemaa el-Fnaa, the crowd and merchants starts showing up, people are singing, playing and dancing, some artists take their eagles, snakes and pets for a show.

Day#4 — New town

Next day we navigate through the newest part of the city Gelize where Majorelle gardens and Yves Saint Laurent museum are situated.

From the main square to Gelize it took us 30 min walk. You can recognize the region by it's salmon colored buildings and the non-touristy commerce.

There was a huge line for the gardens and the museum. Tip: If you wanna do both, you can buy a combined ticket for 180 dhs, and skip the line to the garden. Also a good move is to plan to be there at non-peak times.

The Yves Saint Laurent museum has amazing fashion exhibitions and inspiration stories from Yves, including the times he spent in Marrakech. It's a small museum, but as I'm into creative fashion the exhibitions drove me crazy. The garden is relatively small but beautiful and it has many species from South america and Asia specially.

We head back to the hostel and arranged there a 3 days, 2 nights desert tour for 800 dhs.

The Desert Tour

After some researching we decided to spend 3 days and 2 nights in this experience. The responsible for the tour came to pick us up around 7am at the hostel and later on we were divided into different vans and groups according to our tour package.

Day #5 — Atlas Mountains

The road on the way to Atlas Mountains was extremely beautiful and brownish green. We stopped for a walk at the Atlas Mountain and by the afternoon we visited Aït Benhaddou, a scenery fortified village in the middle of the desert — where many movies were shooted including Game of Thrones and Gladiators. Around 7pm the tour ended and we stayed first night in a simple hotel.

Day #6 & 7— Merzouga Sahara desert

Next day, we hit the road again early morning after a bread and jams breakfast. We stopped by a place near water drills where berbers and nomads have been living from agriculture and carpet making.

Insta @lachuff

Finally after so much time on the road and the anxiety to reach our destination we got to Merzouga desert, and for each of us there was a camel "assigned" by Said, our funny camel guide. All camels have nicknames, mine for example was “Crazy” and my friend's "Shakira". Not so sure how those animals are treated, but that’s the only way to get to the desert. It's an incredible adventure to ride in the dunes of Sahara though. For about 2 hours, which by the end was not so pleasant!!! According to the winds, the path to the desert camp changes and the guides need to make constant adjustments through the dunes. Our desert camp consisted of some tents, no showers or toilets, just mattresses — meaning we would sleep "sandy".

We couldn’t see the sunset from where we were but we definitely had a surprise overnight. When was about to get dark we were called for dinner and once we stepped outside the tent BOOM an explosion of stars. Never saw such an amazing sky. To add to that, we had a bonfire with locals playing tambourines and singing.

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Stargazing was one of the highlights of this tour. At 5am when the sun rises we had to wake up to ride our camels back to civilization and to get the van and return to Marrakech.

From 8am to 8pm we spend half a day in the van on the way back. It seemed like a never ending ride…

Day #8 — Agadir, time to say goodbye

It was a very intense week trip, and no doubts we were exhausted. There's still a 3-hour bus drive from CTM bus station to return to Agadir for our flight. Instead of a hostel, we chose a nice hotel Atlantic Palm Beach with swimming pool, room service and amazing breakfast

Without a doubt one of the most intense travel experiences I had, plus the feeling of accomplishment “been there, done that”! Morocco is a scenic country I’ve always have been wanting to visit. All my expectations were met, including the cultural clashes.

*[Chufi! That was a hell of a ride. ]