January 2014
On January 7th, my cousin Ismail and I left Casablanca to backpack the northern region of Morocco to see Tangier, Tetouan, Chefchaouen, and help me research food insecurity around the country.
Ismail and I before heading north.
On the very cold train to Tangier.
Mint tea and msemmen
Camels on the beach
Mediterranean Sea
Left my mark at the beach in Tangier... which got retweeted by the official Husker twitter account, resulting in 37 retweets and 142 favorites from Huskers around the world!
In my element at the beach!
Catch of the day.
Cave of Hercules
Atlantic Ocean
This was during a time when very large waves (8 meters-26 feet) were hitting the coast.
These were the biggest seen in
17 years.
Holding the world on my shoulders like
Atlas.
What.. was I going to miss the chance to make a mythology joke in Hercules Cave?
Bisara, North African split pea soup.
Fnideq
We walked from Fnideq to Ceuta, about 3 miles.
Ceuta is a Spanish territory. My cousin didn't have the right visa, so we walked 3 miles back to Fnideq.
We took a bus from Fnideq to Tetuan and a taxi from Tetuan to Chefchaoen.
We got out of the taxi and hiked up the hill in the dark.
This is where we ended up pitching the tent.
View of our camping spot 3 miles outside of Chefchaouen.
On our walk into Chefchaouen, we found this cactus which we ate the fruit of. It was delicious, but I could have done without the needle in my tongue!
After what seemed like days, we finally made it to city limits!
Zwina [beautiful]
Oops.
After days of hiking, I was getting tired and moving slowly.
My cousin joked that I "would never pray at there, because it is in the middle of the hill and far away".
Ironically, we ended up hiking on a path to the place 'I would never pray at'.
This is the panoramic view from the hill of Chefchaouen.
Near Chefchaouen is the wonderful Akchour
Crystal clear waters of Akchour
Scary hiking trails..
Iconic blue doors of Chefchaouen.
From Chefchaouen, we took a bus back to Tetouan.
While waiting for the bus back to Casablanca, I learned some Arabic with a side of Moroccan mint tea.
After packing all this excitement and adventure into 6 days, we ran out of money and headed back to Casablanca on a night bus. We arrived in Casablanca at 7 am on the 14th. Exhausting, but totally worth it.
My stats as of January 2014:
4% of the world visited
Estimated mileage: 62602
been to:
5 continents
11 countries
- 11 states
