Ismael, Anna and I had made plans to meet up with Anas and Haitem over coffee the following morning. Coffee, was a leisurely experience, as most of our mornings thus far have been, with different friends popping in and out to join us for a coffee. I think my favorite…
The second day of the music festival, we decided to go to Sidi Kaouki, which is a town near to Essaouira known for having a particularly beautiful beach. Youness is a surfer, so he goes there a lot and wanted to show us the area. His sister decided to join us, along…
Wow. Essaouira is so amazing! It’s been such a whirlwind since I arrived that I haven’t had a chance to write anything down and I have so much to say, but I’m going to give it a go! I’ve totally hit it off with Anna, the girl from Belgium who…
I arrived last night in Essaouira after a long, rather exhausting day of travel. I got up at 630 and left Chefchaouen (walk to square, take petite taxi to bus station). Then, I had a 6-hour-long bus ride to Casablanca. Partway through the trip, at one of the stops,…
I’ve really been enjoying my time here in Chefchaouen. I’m loving being in the mountains. I talked to Hanaa and ended up planning to stay another day. I didn’t want to have to get up and leave super early the morning after my hike in Akchour and I wanted to…
Akchour is, indeed, spectacular. I am so glad I went even though it took a bit of doing to get there. First, I walked from my hotel in the kasbah in Chefchaouen to the square where I could get a petite taxi to take me to the place where I could catch…
After an long bus ride, I just arrived in Chefchaouen, a town in Northern Morocco up in the Rif mountains. It’s a beautiful town, known for the way most of the buildings have been painted blue and white. It looks a bit like I’d imagine a little mountain Santorini would be. I…
Yesterday, after breakfast, Maia and I decided to go to a garden the French woman in our home recommended. She used to live here in Morocco, so she’s pretty comfortable here and knows her way around. Since the Jardin Jnane Sbil is relatively near to the Bab Boujloud (Blue Gate)…
I decided to take a guided tour through Fes. My host Aziz arranged it for me and Maia, one of the other women staying in his house, decided to join as well. She is half American and half Italian, so her English is perfect (as is her French and Italian…
When I first arrived in Fes, Aziz picked me up at the train station and took me to his house, a riad in town near the Bab Boujloud (Blue Gate) where he lives with his family. He has a couple of homes here in town which he rents outs to…
One of the first places I went to visit in Rabat was a little garden near Nuria and Tarik’s home. It was absolutely beautiful. The next day, I headed out to see some more sights in town. One of the more famous things to see in Rabat is the tomb of…
After arriving in Rabat by train, I haggled with some taxi drivers for a while before finally finding one who only overcharged me a little bit to take me to the kasbah gates where I was going to meet Nuría, my hostess for the AirBnB place where I am staying.…
So I arrived safely in Casablanca, Morocco. I had scheduled a couchsurfing stay with a guy named Anas who goes to university in Casa. He told me that I should take a train from the airport to a station nearer to his apartment. I managed to do that without too…
So, it turns out that my layover in Qatar was rather long. And it also happens to be a fact that Qatar Airlines is pretty awesome. When I arrived in Doha, I found out that the airlines would spring for me to stay in a hotel for the night…
I have to leave the Maldives today. I am very torn about it. I had a wonderful time here. I enjoyed the restful time I had, and loved the scuba diving. I liked the people I met and the experiences I had while I was here. I’ll be really sad to…
Today I went for another dive. It was a bit further out, to Angothi Thila, a reef known for having sharks and a lot of marine life, and it’s supposed to be worth it. It was. I had decided to rent an underwater camera they have available. It takes underwater…
Wow, those boat dives this morning were phenomenal, to say the least! I literally saw half of the cast of Finding Nemo down there! (Sharkbait, wooh ha ha!) I saw a couple of turtles and a couple of sharks. Also, the coral was incredible. I wanted to float down there forever. We took…
