Over the past month, I’ve been doing some hardcore nothing in
Morocco (yep, you read that correctly!), and it’s been perfect.
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| The Royal Palace grounds in Rabat |
When I landed in Casablanca a month ago, I enjoyed time in
both Casa (as it’s called here) and Rabat before heading to a small village on
the coast called Taghazout, which is located outside of Agadir.
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| Hassan II Mosque |
Exploring the Moroccan cities had been fun,
but I wanted to take some time at the end of 2014 to just sit still by myself
and reflect, especially after such an action packed November.
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| Wandering through the Kasbah of Oudaïa in Rabat |
Through an introduction by a friend from my travels, I was
introduced to Abdu, a cool guy who owns and runs
Ocean Surf House in the small
surf town.
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| Paradise Valley outside of Agadir |
My friend, Tatiana, is now
working in Casa, so when I was I there we were able to have dinner together,
which was an unexpected treat.
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| My first Moroccan henna |
Taghazout is a
very
small surfing village.
Think teeny-tiny
small.
Now, it’s smaller than that.
The closest ATM is a fifteen-minute ride
away, if that helps.
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| Lazy Taghazout afternoon |
Also, being a
small Moroccan town, you cannot purchase any alcohol (though it was imported
for us for the holiday festivities, thanks to Abdu!).
It’s been nice to have a “detox” from all of the late nights
and crazy adventures from the past year, though the fact that alcohol sales are
illegal made the cleanse slightly mandatory.
Regardless, my mind and liver have openly embraced the change. I have even started drinking tea instead of
coffee, which if you know me is a big deal.
I am fairly confident that neither of these changes will be permanent,
but both have been nice for my body over the past few weeks.
During my time in Taghazout, I have been reading (my
Reading on the Road list has exploded), exploring the surrounding region, chatting with
locals, celebrating the holidays with new friends, laying out and enjoying the
great weather, studying French (one of my 2015 Resolutions and
Bucket List
items), and reflecting on the past year.
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| A funeral procession for a famous Moroccan artist in Rabat |
On a more “productive” day, I forced myself to go through
all of my pictures from 2014.
Force is a
strong word, but I have been avoiding it for a while.
I had some technical issues in the fall (if
you know me, I
always seem to have
some technical issues…), and between that fact and being easily distracted, I
was shocked when I had finally organized and edited all of them.
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| Paradise Valley |
Sifting through the 4,000+ pictures was a
great experience.
It is a good thing
that there are only a handful of possible activities here, as well as a
semi-present language barrier.
I was
reminded of the absolutely incredible year that I had and all of the amazing
people with whom I was able to share it.
As I write this, I’m at my (yes, I am a local here now)
little café watching some surfers try and catch their last perfect wave of the
day while a local guy tries to coerce tourists into riding his camel across the
beach, all while the sun sets perfectly in the background.
Not a bad way to start 2015…
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