Friday, August 24, 2012

Morocco is for Camels

This is part 2 of our adventures in Tangier, Morocco!  To read about our experience with Ramadan, our lovely hosts - Susan and Mimoun, and lots and lots of photos of the old medina and kasbah, go check out the "Getting Lost in the Medina of Tangier, Morocco" post. 

Our hosts/friends, Mimoun and Susan, were so gracious to take a half-day off to drive us out of the city center towards the Atlantic Ocean side of Tangier for some more amazing sites!

These are our adventures from Day 112 of our round-the-world trip...


Our first view of the Atlantic Ocean from the African continent.  Who knew there were so many trees in Tangier?  A really nice view of the Atlantic can be seen from a posh hotel, Le Mirage. 






Cap (cape) Spartel - where the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean meet.  It is the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, but not quite the northernmost point of Africa, as can be seen on the map. 



Next, we visited Hercule's Grotto (Cave)!  These caves have mythological significance as the legend goes, Hercules rested in these caves before attempting one of his twelve labors.  We couldn't go all the way into the cave because this was the day after Ramadan and everything was closed.  We secretly enjoyed being the only ones out sightseeing, and didn't feel too bad that we missed out on what looked like a major tourist trap.  






The highlight of our day was...riding camels!  Again, we were the only tourists so we got an extra long camel ride along the beach for only €10/pp!  Mimoun was our "official" cameraman, running alongside the camels and taking pictures of us striking a pose.  













On our last night, we went to a hotel nearby for dinner.  I think our hosts were disappointed that the Moroccan restaurant was closed due to post-Ramadan holidays, but the buffet outdoors was perfectly lovely where we sampled many different Moroccan flavors, drank mint tea (it was quite sweet, sort of like Wrigley's spearmint gum!), and had belly-dancing as entertainment.  





Well, that sums up our Moroccan adventures, and again, special thanks to Susan and Mimoun for your hospitality and private tour!