hasj and hassle

After Malaga I tried to visit an uncle who lives in Fuengirola just south of Malaga. Unfortunately he just had moved within the same city. Both my brother and my father sent me his latest address unfortunately it was not exact equal but good enough to go with I thought. First setback was that the street did not exist only a name of builing in a newly developed area had close resemblance. I decided to go there but when I arrived the building was not even there. At the bottom of the hill they told me it is at the top, at the bottom they said the opposit. As it was very hot and I was carrying all my stuff up and down the mountain I decided to go to the beach instead. After some time I had enough of that and headed for the centre to catch a bus to Algeciras, the port to Marocco. The bus was about to leave when I arrived, but I did not yet have a ticket, I asked them to wait which they did to my surprise as my ticket acquisition did not go very fast. In Algeciras there were lots of cheap hotels and easy to find too. So I quickly could check out the centre. It was quite nice and lots of people in the street as it was friday evening. I sat on a plaza till 10 while I updated my logbook (this azerty keyboard in combination with arabic settings wont let me write all the symbols I want and once in a while it shifts to arabic I write this in wordpad by the way, no word on this machine) Sometimes I find a symbol by accident eg the ( is the symbol you get by pressing the 5 key at the top of the keyboard.

Ok after the short intermezzo I continue. The next morning I took the boat to Tanger, it was scheduled to leave at 11, but left at 12, was ok for me, but an American guy who just went on a day trip to Tanger was less happy with it. Then it also took 3 quarters of an hour to pass passport control, so he had to go back in just 2 hours to catch his 9 oclock train to Sevilla. I did not have that problem. As I bought a lonely planet of Morocco I did not even have difficulties in finding a good place to stay, a youth hostel this time. What they warn you for when you arrive in Tanger is people who want to guide you through the city for a certain fee of course. I met my guide right in front of the hostel, he said he was not guide, but wanted to offer me a good impression of Tanger as so many people where hassleing and giving a negative view on Morocco and Tanger. I was his student he said, a friend. Fine with me, but I told him that when we were done I would not give him money, he agreed. Of course 1 hour later when I had enough of it and said I would start exploring on my own, he asked for money. Then I reminded him what I had said earlier. Because he really had shown me stuff I would not have on my own I gave him something. This happens all the time in Morocco, people give you something that you do not want (usually a service) you do not ask for and then charge you money, very annoying. Apart from that, in Tanger I was asked every 50 meter if I wanted hasj, I felt like being back in Amsterdam. When I walked back after an excellent dinner for just 46 dirham (about 4.60 E) I was caught up by a very friendly guy, we talked a little and had a moroccan tea, which is very very sweet and has the leafs floating in the glass. He then told me he was a drugstrafficker and that his family had a hasj farm. He invited me to his farm to see what it looks like and maybe I could find some customers in Holland for him for a couple of kilos. I decided not to go although the offer obviously was tempting.

Instead I took the bus to Chefchaouen. This also was great fun. In Tetouan a man entered the bus with a huge bag full of Kif, I learned when he opened it to put it under the seats, also under mine as I was in the last row and in the overhead storage. When he just finished stowing it out of sight an other guy entered with even more stuff, this time in boxes. They could not really hide it but they put in on the bus anyway. They were a bit nervous and sweating but all went well. The moneycollector of the bus, wanted to be compensated naturally, which happened as with a man siiting next to me who had to hide a box between his legs. When we finally started moving again a girl in front of me was having problems with travel sickness. She asked for a bag which she filled in due course. However she threw away the sack, when she thought she was done. Unfortunately she did not ask for a new empty one, when the second delivery came all was spilled on the floor. No problem, the bus boy put a paper over it stepped a few times on it, no more problem, luckily I was at my destination in 10km.

In Chefchaoun I found a nice hotel in the middle of the medina. The first few times I had a lot of trouble finding it back. First time I wandered around for 3 quarters of an hour, before finding it. Now I know my way (a bit) in the Medina and it does not take me that long anymore, when I start at the Kasbah. Yesterday and today I did a trekking through the mountains. Was very nice again an uninvited guide walking with me for the whole trek, obviously he wanted money for his services. I did not want to upset him to much as I walked through the regions of his family and amigos. The first 4 hours of the trek were the hardest as I had to climb from 200m to 1800m, the last bit even through the snow. What was funny was that my wannebee guide was only wearing showering slippers on his feet, chilly. Going down was even worse as that side of the mountain is always in the shade, so much more snow. At 2 we reached at nice gite where I stayed and my wannebee guide aswell. The owner was very friendly and we spoke the rest of the day with hand and feet, in spanish, french and english. Good fun. Food was excellent as well. Next day no big climbs, mainly down. At one point I was scared shitless as I had to descend on a 20 cm wide ridge with next to me on my right 50m down absolutely nothing, this only tho get a beautifull picture of a natural bridge. After that just strolling to Achour where I shared (with 5 other passengers plus a little child) a grand taxi (old mercedes) to Chefchaouen, where I am now, staying in the same hotel as earlier.