Back across the strait of Gibraltar

As-salamu alaykum! Another trip to Morocco!
This time I went for the weekend with my interest group (Cultural Expressions) from CIEE. Very  early on the morning of April 10 we took our bus down to meet the ferry. The waves were say worse than my first trip across the strait. SO many people were getting sick which was pretty unpleasant, but I was fine. We arrived at Ceuta, a Spanish town on the coast of Africa. Through the gates and we were in Morocco. To be honest, I was kind of disappointed by the organization of the trip. Before we left, we were warned that we would be moving nonstop from Friday morning to Sunday, but in reality there was a lot more waiting around. After devouring as much couscous as our bodies could handle and waiting around for a bit, my group started out by going to an arts school in Tangier.

 After waiting around for our guide, he rushed in saying he didn't have much time but led us around to several workshops including woodworking and tiles.

Then our guide sat us down in front of a video that seemed to be advertising Tangier as a tourist destination... even though we were already there. Plus it definitely did not look as clean and sunny and beautiful in real life. Next we went into the upstairs art gallery to watch a rehearsal of a group playing Moroccan music. It was actually quite good! I enjoyed it. The players all seemed to be having a lot of fun and communicated well.

The next day, we started out with a tour of Tetuan. We saw people setting up produce stands, mounds of dates and nuts, chickens stuffed into small wire cages next to their headless friends (these guys smelled so bad), so many stray cats, food vendors, and sacks of powder paint.

One of the most interesting and most revolting parts of the day was the tannery. They passed out mint leaves that we held to our noses to block out the smell. There were skins and soggy wool everywhere.

After that appetizing experience it was time for lunch! And then we were off to Tangier to ride some camels, have a short tour, and then free time in the town. We got this amazing cross between a pancake and a tortilla slathered with peanut butter and it was so so good. I hadn't had peanut butter in so long!

The last day I finally brought my camera for our trip to Chefchaouen. We had much better weather for this trip and it was beautiful. We actually had the same guide as I had with Discover, but we had a more in depth tour of the town.

Where is that barking from? Oh hello there.

After the tour, we had some free time before lunch and our ride to the ferry to go home so we wandered around a bit, looking for blue doors to take pictures in front of and I bought a hand of Fatima. We saw these turtles and starting "aw"ing over them and this guy comes up and is like, hey you should try turtle soup. I don't think they understand that we don't want to eat what we aw over. (Same thing with the camels! Aw look at the cute baby camel! Guy comes up with handbags "camelskin bags!" yeah right)

Anyway, we were wandering around Chefchaouen and we got very turned around... We were completely lost. And out of nowhere these three dogs show up. They were the cutest little trio and were so friendly. They followed us through the windy blue streets and, I swear to god, they led us back to the city center where we needed to meet the rest of the group. Once we found the right street, our doggy guardian angels disappeared down another alley. I'll never forget those guys.