11/20/2007 – Tangier - Day Two

"He's got a two day head start on you, which is more than he needs. He’s got friends in every town and village from here to the Sudan, he speaks a dozen languages, knows every local custom, he'll blend in, disappear, you'll never see him again."

One of the things I forgot to mention in my day one report was the discussion about hashish. It seems that Morocco is the number one world producer of hash. Here it is called “chocolate” and if a guy on the street asks you if you would like any you should run in the other direction. The issue here is that the state has absolutely no control over the hash trade. Its use is allowed in prisons to make the inmates more docile and because of the high unemployment rate, the use of hash by those without a job is overlooked. Considering the tacit approval by the state of its use, I think the lack of control of the manufacture and trade of hash could be by design.

Today we take a walking tour of Tangier and then do some shopping. We started in what our tour guide called, “the Jewish business section”. This was basically the Jewish commercial district before they left Tangier.

The next stop was the Tangier legal quarter. Divorce laws in this Muslim country have changed in the last several years. Previously, a Muslim man, famously, only had to publicly say, “I divorce you” to his wife for it to be so. Now there is a whole process for either a man or a woman to file. There are two separate cooling off periods and if one is granted the woman typically gets the house, half the assets and the kids. This has been very controversial and these new laws were one of the primary reasons behind the 2003 Casablanca bombings by Al-Qaeda.

Legal Quarter



Next we went to a store to see a Moroccan carpet demonstration. This store sold not only carpets, but also every other kind of North African knick-knack you can imagine. From swords to water pipes to djellabas it was all here. They filed us into an upstairs room, showed the different types of carpet made in Morocco and gave a brief explanation of each. They explained that each one was registered with the Moroccan government as a piece of art and they were given a state-issued orange label. When the presentation was over the really uncomfortable part of the Moroccan visit started. It was from this point that men trying to sell us anything and everything accosted us. It began in the carpet store. The men working there could only be described as high-pressure shysters. One guy actually told me that I had to buy something because he needed money. Maybe there was something lost in the translation but I don’t think so.

Carpet Demonstration



When we finally left the carpet store there were about ten guys waiting outside carrying watches, carved wooden camels, bracelets, wallets and every other manner of cheap crap. They came right up to you and practically forced this stuff in your hand trying to make a sale. Keep in mind that there is a group of eighteen of us walking through some very tight walkways and you can begin to imagine how claustrophobic this was.

Streets



We made our way as quickly as we could to our next stop. This turned out to be a Moroccan herbalist who gave us an explanation of different types of herbal remedies they used and, of course, he had available for sale. There was the mosquito repellant that you rubbed on your wrists. The herb used to clear your sinuses. The root used as “Moroccan Viagra” (“one piece and you will samba all night”). And the green lipstick that is actually red. When his presentation was over, his assistant gave each of us a plastic bag, reviewed each of his products and their prices, and asked us as a group “who wants to buy this?” By about the fourth product he told those of us not buying anything to not waste our time and leave. Most of the folks in our group took off. Of course as soon as we stepped outside there was a mighty yell “tourists!” and the street vendors were on us again. We walked through the winding streets for about ten minutes until we made it to the bus. The entire time we had to keep yelling at these guys to back off.

I tried to go into Morocco with an open mind. I still think that some of the things I found unsettling such as the economic conditions causing the expanding rich-poor gap and the State acceptance of hashish are just cultural differences and I shouldn’t judge these things through western values. The last part of our tour, however, was just inappropriate. It had nothing to do with a lack of understanding of the Moroccan ways and everything to do with our local guide putting us in a bad situation for some sort of personal ends.

We took the bus to the port to catch the ferry back to Tarifa. It was pretty windy on this day and our scheduled departure was cancelled because of the weather conditions. We went for a bite to eat and waited for the next one to see if it would go. Fortunately it did and we made it on because we heard the late ferry was cancelled as well so we would have either been stuck in Tangier another night or we would have had to take a much slower boat to Spain.

Off of the ferry we met our regular bus and driver and started toward Torremolinos. Along the way we passed large windmill farms on the highlands and through the hills. It seems that in recent years there has been a large push toward wind energy in Spain. While the preservationists and environmentalists don’t like them because they ruin the landscape, they have actually integrated well with the cattle and other animals that roam the territory. They are also a very impressive sight.

Windmills



When we arrived in Torremolinos we were on our own for dinner. We ate at an Italian place across the street and then it was back to the hotel for sleep.