Location: Bouznika, Morocco
Date: July 23, 2008

Local Temperature: 78 degrees Fahrenheit

Total Journey Mileage: 1,700

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We are back online (sort of) and are trying to catch up on posts. These events took place a few days ago on July 23, but we hope to get you all up to speed on a few of our adventures shortly!

So, now about our first day in Africa!

Arriving in Tanger we are whisked through customs with Aparna’s masterful use of French and the ingenious placement of passport control on the boat! Anxious to get on our way further down the coast, we quickly drive through this Moroccan Tijuana, stopping in the outskirts only to get a bite to eat, some mint tea and a new SIM card for our cellphone.  We make what is supposed to be a brief stop at a Meditel booth, hoping to add minutes to our Moroccan SIM card.  The people we meet there turn out to be a good indicator of the interesting and generous people we have been meeting along the way.  The Meditel employees speak several languages, and a long conversation that flows through Jessie and Aparna speaking French, Spanish and Arabic with the odd confusion in English with the Meditel employees results in lots of smiles, a new SIM card, new friends and new Sandbox Savants fans. 

Hoping to have time to spend in Marrakech, we decide to make for “campsites” along the coast between Rabat and Casablanca. As night falls we pull into a roadside restaurant serving meals cut directly from the fresh whole goats hanging from the wall behind the counter, this time for dinner, mint tea and directions to the nearest campsite.  We ask the waitress for some help, and she tells us that another restaurant patron sitting nearby is willing to guide us there.   However, because there are only three seats in the car, Aparna and Jessie have to wait at the restaurant while I and the man who only speaks Arabic venture out into the night to find the site.
 
Two windy dirt roads later we pull up to the back yard of a nice beach rental home, where I meet the proprietor of the house, who also only speaks Arabic, two of the current vacationers, who only speak French and Arabic.  After a long, difficult conversation with the man from the restaurant, his friend and the two current vacationers, again spanning many languages and accompanied by lots of pointing, we have secured a small square of this yard that is being rented to vacationers.
 
When I go back to pick up Jessie and Aparna, they are delighted to meet our “host family”, who has not only agreed to let us set up a tent in their back yard, but also provide us with great conversation over some delicious food  (I tried camel for the first time) and mint tea.  We had a great time with Jiad and Faty and their wonderful family, and hope to see them all again sometime soon.

We lost our photos of them in the tent incident, but hope they send us a copy that we can post soon so you can see our generous hosts!

More posts coming soon! This one coming to you from an internet cafe in Dakhla, Western Sahara. Mauritania tomorrow!