Morocco At A Glance
Morocco is divided to the Atlantic side and the Rif mountain range in the north, the Atlas (the main and highest mountain range), the desert on the west of the Atlas mountains, the middle part and Western Sahara.
The food is almost always excellent and cooked in the national tajine (meat, fish and vegetables in a ceramic or steel dish) and couscous with similar ingredients. And the mix of spices will always remind you that you're not at home. And if you wish to bargain with the Berbers in the Atlas mountains for crystals and fossils (they're absolutely beautiful), bring some of your old clothing, shoes, pens and even candy to trade with!
In order to travel to Morocco, a little bit more of time and preparation is needed. Ferry boats have departures from Genova in Italy, Sete in France and the southern tip of Spain, where you need to cross the Straight to Gibraltar.
I chose to take the ferry from Algeciras in Spain to Ceuta, still a Spanish town on the northern tip of Morocco. I read a lot about the chaos on the border, but to my surprise there were only a handful of vehicles there. Lucky me!
A few things to remember before you travel to Morocco... Border formalities are another thing. French is widely spoken by the Moroccans and English is something from another world. Well I don't speak French so you can only imagine how the whole thing looked like. A lot of body language kind of thing, if you know what I mean! Lot's of paperwork, even more stamping and running around from one window to another. One thing I do remember is that I was given a document for my van, which I had to show again upon leaving Morocco. So keep it somewhere safe.
