A bad day at boilers cuts and all beats a great day at work

 

Left heel

 

Still smiling wounds and all...

Boilers and Friends in the water, goatman

For some reason today is a Moroccan holiday where they slaughter goats and run around in goat outfits and hassle any foreigner for DH. Something related to Abraham and the bible...go figure. These dudes are wearing fresh goatskins and smell absolutely disgusting. All the shops are closed down and they have been chasing the kids around in the streets for about 4 hours. The little kids are having the time of their lives and it is very entertaining to watch. From everything I've seen Morocco would be a pretty cool place to be a little kid, they pretty much run free and get into whatever mischief suits them.

I am surprised that dogs have not set upon these guys in Goat outfits and ripped them to shreds. Entertaining as always.

Good day at boilers, I finished a Wilbur Smith Novel which one of the waiters gave me. At first I thought he was setting me up with some harelquinn novel after I read the first few pages, but book is actually ok for vacation reading. Soren now wants to borrow it. He apparently is a big fan of Wilbur Smith.

We took Carl, new Swedish guy up to boilers where Jarond had another incident with a guy in the water (chuckle). Waves were good 2m, looked much better after we got out as on off shore started to blow and compress the peaks. All bad blood in the water was solved when the guy came by after and apologies were made and everyone was happy.

Soren spent the day in Agadir drinking beer and watching the Man U game while Samuel had an adventure up in the hills and ate goat lungs, and heart. Soren verified that Agadir was actually the Miami of Morocco until 9/11 then tourism completely dropped off. We still have yet to make a night trip in to hit the casinos and have thus far been able to keep ourselves busy with reading, movies and "Texas hold'em" Norweigan style.

New guests, the Land rover is busted and I anticipate a slow day on sunday. Will try to catch up on blogging.

Big Day 11-23

First big surf day 3-4m and heavy. In search of an uncrowded place we went all the way to issomune (sp?)
This is what it looked like from the road on the way down, but the tides were off and there really was not any good surf to be had,this is allegedly where you can get the 1km long rides. 

1+ hr drive and were totally disapointed. So on the way back we stopped at Desert Point, easy entry big waves. We were getting clobbered by the current but got a couple of good waves, was exhausted. Got caught on the inside a couple too many times and called it a day. On the way I cut the crap out of my feet again, this time on the top vs. the bottom so I can walk but getting out of the water it looked like I fought an alley cat with my feet and lost. Covered in blood, Portugese guys were cracking up watching me curse and hop around on the rocks on the way out.

The crew

Another day of foot injuries while surfing in Taghazout, what is new.

Day trip to secret spot

The surf was poor in and around Tagzhout, so we caravaned a couple of cars and set off for the "secret spot" down south.

secret spot

A couple things I learned today
1. Pomegranate juice does something to your hands to make them turn a crazy yellow when you get back in saltwater. 
2. Fruit is incredibly cheap Morocco.I think I got 2lbs of bananas fro 30 cents.

3. I will hold my tongue in making fun of french vehicles in the future. We had a very impressive performance by 1.6L Peugeot in deep sand today.
4. It takes about 20 people to fix headlights in a Land rover.

Leaving Secret Spot

We also had a interesting time solving a broken headlight issue on the Land rover. Apparently the lights on the Defender don’t work so we have to take off immediately at sunset, get lost on the way back. Try to find a mechanic, so we stop at a bike mechanic shop. They give us haphazard directions to the real mechanic. We take the one car with functioning lights and go in search of a car mechanic. So we roll up to some Moroccan back alley, I've been in sketchier situations but this may have been in the top 20, looking for a mechanic. 6 guys are huddled around an open hood of a car, bingo mechanic. 5 min later this guys is in the peugots back seat rolling with us back to the Defender. I guess this is SOP in morocco, you need a mechanic, you go pick him up and bring him to what you needed fixed.

 

When we got back there was quite a little scene going on surrounding the defender and western girls. We have about 5 Moroccan guys crawling all over the engine compartment and we have 5 other "assistants" helping the 18 yr old mechanic diagnose the problem. I think the volume of assistance was directly related to the number of blond Norwegian girls in swimsuits in the vicinity. One of them invited us, (ida and frida) to spend the night if we couldn’t get the car working. I was crying laughing with the Norwegian guys. Lights fixed, car won’t start, battery is dead. So we give it a running start. So defender is started, lights work, 8 people pile back in we drive the mechanic back. The whole deal for pickup delivery mechanic service in morocco - $13USD. Overall all the Moroccans were super nice and very helpful, I almost wanted to take the guy up on the free place to stay for the story.

An incident to remember.

Taghazout

My plug for Lapointe so far these guys are awsome. Food is great, guiding is great, excellent accommodations.

We did a morning session at the beach break than another session at banana beach. I am not catching many waves on the short board in small surf. It is lots of work and I wish I was on a long board, I will be better by the end of the week, I just need to get conditioned. Had dinner with a Scandinavian couple, who had some fascinating stories. They have been together for 7 years and have been traveling for 6 years. By traveling I mean 10,000 km from western Europe to China on bicycles. As well as all around S America on bicycles. They had amazing stories, the best I could do was show them photos of burning man.

Everyone complains about the dogs. I have dreams that include constant dog barking. I can only dream what my father would be doing under similar circumstances to quiet the dogs down.

On to Taghazout

11-15

Marrakesh to Agadir, woke up at 8 am, 30DH taxi to the bus station. A bottle of water and a couple of croissants to go and I was on my way with a 4 hr bus ride to Agadir. Hot very hot, just going through the desert which didn’t look that different than Nevada. I did see some goats in tree’s…crazy. Then waited in sweltering heat and had to negotiate my ride to Tagzhout. 120DH I got a grand taxi to Tagzhout. I had no idea where I was staying and just walked around with all my stuff for about 5min until some surfing looking Moroccan guy came up and asked if he could help, he guided me over to a cafe/hotel and set me up with a Norwegian guy in his mid twenties who runs a "surfcamp"

Lapoint which is basically a bunch of rooms above a restaurant in the middle of town. For a really reasonable price I get lodging, breakfast, boards, suits and transport to the breaks. Walked out to anchor point with my rental board and it was cranking 1-2M tricky entry and exit, I am way out of shape. Cut my foot on the way out. And was in board shorts, water is high 60's. Air is mid 80's. Just like muslim version of Mexico in the summer.

Photo's courtesy of Samuel

Had dinner with everyone who is staying here, everybody is very cool all Norwegian or Swedish. All speak English. Sleeping proves difficult due to high frequency of hellatious (sp?) dog and cat fights out in the street. Once the sun goes down roving gangs of dogs control the streets and bark all night as if it were the dog equivalent of the wild west and spring break combined.. You would think they were boozing, they fight so much. An occasional cat fight occurs as well. Surprisingly the dogs and cats get along well....

 

Marrakesh Baby

Ok, I spent 36 hrs in Marrakesh and though I used the NY times "36 hrs in Marrakesh" as a guide, aside from touring the Medina, I had my own agenda. I showed up late night after a 7hr train ride from fez. It was a weird train train experience - aren't they all? I was the only English speaker in my compartment and of course an argument aka fight broke out somewhere in the vicinity of Casablanca due to new arrivals and disagreements over who's seat was who's. I said nothing and stayed put and feigned ignorance...always a good strategy. I kept my seat....

Marrakesh is really what I expected to see in Morocco, a crazy labyrinth of streets in the Medina and then some organized chaos in Deb-aj Jenna (sp?) you have all the open stall foodies peddling their shishkabobs and meats on a stick and all the assorted crazy snake charmers, monkey trainers and other assorted acts. Prices are much more expensive than Fez and Tangier, however I am not the only European around. One out of five in tourist areas is probably a tourist.

Barnes and Noble Moroccan Style

 

Cobra's

Moroccan Traffic Jam

In search of a drink I spent day two at the pool at the Sofitel...

Tangier to chefchauen

I met Ed, Jess and Phil at the bus stop in Tangier and we decided to team up in Chefchauen. The bus ride was uneventful. Four hours with a beautiful view of the country side, Morocco seems pretty arid down low, but once we started to get up in altitude there was a ton of farming. Much more greenery that I expected but I think about 50% of the economy is based on agriculture so this starts to make sense.

Got to chefchauen, after the grueling 15 min hike up the hillside with my 25kilo bag we got to the hotel dropped out stuff off and grabbed something to eat in the town square. Food was great and cheap and then we set out to see the town. About 3 hours later we were all still lost and had to pay a 5 yr old 5DH to lead us back to the main square. I should have paid him more, that was the best 5DH I have spent in Morocco. We were so frigging lost in the Medina. Chefchauen is a really cool little town with these amazing colors, they have this really deep blue that they paint on all the walls and when the light is right the whole town kinda glows with crazy blue/neon energy.

Sunset from out rooftop, Jess, Ed, and Phil

Also it is really cold at night, I think I was seeing my breath when we went to bed, thank got I was lugging around the north face parka.

Spain to Morocco

Up early , went to class and decided I was getting out of Cadiz, living with the Italian guys is great. We have wifi and Eugenio is a great cook. However Cadiz is cold, there is not much to do and I need to get some sun. So off to Morocco, got a ride to Tarifa and took the high speed ferry across to Tangiers.

View from my blackberry

Hi rises on beach in Tangiers

I arrived in Tangiers and got the hustle from one of the guys that waits for you at the port, even though I got a lower exchange rate with him at the money place he directed me to a pretty good hotel. I declined the city tour and guess what the next morning his "brother" was waiting for me out front of the hotel to give a tour of the medina.

Tangiers is a good start to Morocco but its pretty seedy and everyone is hitting you up for something. Less than 24hrs and I've seen enough. on to Chefchauen.

Cadiz Sunset

Cadiz at sunset

Cold and windy, I snapped this shop on the boardwalk. reminds me of VB in the fall/winter.

Please Excuse Typos and Brevity
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld

Carrefour Seafood

Seafood section in carrefour
Please Excuse Typos and Brevity
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Spanish school

View of Cadiz church from the boardwalk...


So on sun and Monday I frantically did some web based research on Spanish language schools in Cadiz and Seville. I wrote both of them and surprisingly received answers from not one but two via the mobile devices the same day. I picked Spanish in Cadiz. SIC.



I was feeling a bit nervous because they were outside the center of town and were about 50E cheaper on the week's package. But once I walked in and saw the setup I was relieved. I checked in and filled out the registration paperwork. Photo registration and a passport check are now mandatory thanks to the Madrid bombers. Apparently the Madrid bombers were aspiring Spanish students. Anyways within 30 min of arrival and a quick online test which I am sure I performed questionably on I was thrown into a basic Spanish grammar class.

The conversation level is fast an furious and I am stammering to keep up. In my class I have two Italian guys, and a Danish and Italian girl. The guys are in their final year of law school but are studying in Spain in so they can take the bar equivalent exam in Spain. Apparently you have ONLY two chances to pass in Italy, France and Germany and the pass rate is like 20% - somewhat unbelievable. If you don't pass you don't become a lawyer. Well thank god for our friends south of border, if you take the same exam in Spain...you have unlimited chances. Everyone says it is a loophole that will soon be closed, however my colleagues are smartly hedging their bets. Conversation is lively and is remotely Spanitalian, that is Spanish with an Italian cadence.

Cadiz

Ok, so I got out of Seville just in time to hit the cool weather in Cadiz. Not my intention. Seville was literally sweltering, I would equate it to palm springs in the summer with a little more humidity in the city. Is all old stone buildings so of course everything acts like a heat sink and absorbs the heat during the day and then does slowly cools at night. Lots of white stone so high reflectivity. At least I was able to sleep without many incidents, 3 Mosquitoes gave their lives in the process.

I took the 1pm bus, very easy, from the Prado station in Seville to Cadiz. Nice ride and I got to see some of the Spanish country side and the windmills. It is crazy over in Europe, France generates 80% of it's power via nuclear. Spain on the other hand, is the third largest power generator by wind. After the US and Germany, Spain generates 16,800 Megawatts of power via wind (wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Spain). I'm sure they are second on the per-capita numbers after Germany. So anyways I passed many windmills on the way down to see Cadiz and saw the Atlantic up close for the first time in few years. Also many traditional Spanish farms, they are really like old school compounds, and some have some Moorish architectural influences.

Cadiz thus far is a pretty cool little town. I walked then ran the perimeter battery on Monday night. Not many joggers in Spain, let alone ones doing wind sprints and push-ups. Seems a little slow however Monday was a national holiday and everything was closed I was lucky to find a place open to get some tapas at around 8pm.

Stuck in Seville

If you could only tell how hot it is from this photo...

I am stuck in Seville today, it is sweltering I was a sign that said 40C, so double it and at 30...that is like 110F. Sunday and I thought I was going to get a ticket and see a bullfight unfortunately the bullfights ended oct 12th. So I got another night at the place I'm staying...which is a whole other story.
One guy in the room had the worst sleep apnea I have ever seen. He would literally stop breathing for 1-2min then let out a lion like roar/snore and catch up with his breath. He is like 65 and romainian and I am now convinced he has brain damage because I talked to him the next day and he is clearly a little off...anyways rough night last night and a dead day today. Good chance to catch up on planning and email.