We stirred from our restless slumber...
]]>We stirred from our restless slumber as the coach jolted its way through the narrow streets leading to Marrakech, Grace brushed her waves of auburn hair out of her face and I checked my watch: It was four in the afternoon. We grabbed our board bags and flagged down the latest in a long run of drive by taxis and headed for our new abode.
Once in Marrakech, our driver signaled us to follow a lingering youngster to our Riad (a Moroccan guest house). Considering we'd just arrived and had no map or sense of direction, we had very little choice in the matter. We followed him through shadowed alleyways, abruptly stopping before each one and telepathically expressing our unwillingness to get mugged. Hesitantly, we strolled on and soon arrived outside a door at the bottom of a passageway with the name of our Riad tiled above it, Riad Selouane. Relieved, we dropped our luggage and rang the bell.
]]>When I booked my trip to Morocco...
]]>When I booked my trip to Morocco, I had only a few notions in mind: good surf, good food and a drastic cultural change from my humdrum winter in England. It was a bonus that landing in Agadir only took a four-hour flight from London, but what I came to discover during my 12-day trip was far more than what I expected.
My girlfriend, Grace, and I first arrived in Taghazout, a small fishing village in the south west of Morocco. It was originally inhabited by the Berber people, who used the village to store their fishing equipment, as they preferred to reside in the foothills surrounding the village. With the ever-growing presence of the Spanish in the 19tth century, the village expanded with factories, mosques, and housing for the Berber people. Fishing for seafood is their main form of income (followed by the production of Argan oil,) with a rich current of fish and shellfish swept to their shores by the mass of the Atlantic Ocean. But the ocean has provided another form of income for this tight-knit community of humble residents -- the Dirham brought by surfers.
Click here to view the rest of this blog, courtesy of Adam Williams.
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