I blessed the rain down in Africa...

Not really, but I was singing that song as we rode the bus back from our excursion down to Morocco.  Since we are so close to our African neighbors here in southern Spain, Jon felt pretty enthused about making the trip, despite some of my hesitations and countless warnings from Alexa's friends about out it wasn't worth the trip to visit a dirty Moroccan city, we decided to head south to the City of Tangier, by means of a 35 minute ferry ride from Tarifa.

Mohammed explaining the details of the recent 

Moroccan revolution

Mausoleum inside the Kasbah

Rick Steves gave us some great practical advice, and since we were on a short schedule, we decided to hire the guide to show us around the town.  Our guide, Mohammed, who also goes by Senor Flores for his Spanish speakers, helped us get a taxi up to the top of the hill and walked us through the Kasbah and Medina (though a fight with taxi driver and the other people waiting for a taxi ensued).  From there we worked our way down the hill.  All the streets were super winding and narrow to keep in it cool under the hot Moroccan sun. 

beautiful carameled apples

Man baking fresh Moroccan bread

There was extreme poverty through the city, and not another gringo in sight.  We were hassled by all the street vendors, but our guide was helpful in keeping us from being followed. Multi-lingual children begged for money in the streets, first in Spanish, then French, then English before returning to play in the native language of Arabic.  From his tour we felt like we had a slight glimpse into the lives of people in Tangier.  Tangier has a crazy history of many different conquerors coming and reigning, from French, Spanish, Berbers and Portuguese...this port has had almost every influence of colonizers and empires alike.

I'm so glad we had the chance and privilege to travel down there, but Jon and I were so grateful to return with ease to Spanish soil.  Again we were reminded of how incredibly fortunate we are to travel.  Similar to many other impoverished nations, Morocco is forced to accept foreign visitors and entertain them all without any hopes of ever being able to visit them.

Here are a few more other glances into our visit:

mountains of olives in the market

super narrow streets

minarets, used for calls to prayers

safely back at the ferry, heading home to spain

 We're off to the white hills towns of southern Spain today! Hasta luego, besitos!!