Tetuán

We left the blue city of Chefchaouen and headed to Tetuán, expecting to find the same colorful markets and quaint buildings tucked on a picturesque mountainside. However, we were in for a shock.

We entered through the city gates and the first thing we came across was hundreds of pale yellow chirping baby chicks, selling for a euro a chick. The sound was overwhelming. We followed our guide through the cities, which perpetually smelled like rotting fish, to see archways that looked like they were going to cave in on themselves, buildings with peeling paint and markets of junk. At that point all of us couldn't help but think-- is this real life?

Hundreds of chicks

One of the first places we went was the restaurant for lunch, which was surprisingly pretty nice. The carvings on the walls that reminded me of the Moorish palace in Granada (I should know the name for those carvings, I'm sure it's on my Spain and Islam test next week, but it's escaping me.) All hundred of us We Love Spain kids took up the entire restaurant. We served ourselves from a a platter of chicken and olives-- much like the same food as we ate the night before. The chicken was different from chicken we were accustomed to eating in the U.S. or Spain-- not nearly as much meat so each of us pretty much got our own chicken as opposed to our own leg, or breast or thigh. After we were done eating we noticed chickens waddling around outside. It made some girls a little sick. It made me realize just how much that we, as Americans, are accustomed to having distance between our food and we don't think of meat as an animal. It also made me think of those cute little yellow chicks we'd passed when we first entered the city.

At the end of our meal a rather pathetic belly dancer who looked like she could be somebody's mom performed for us, then a man who danced with a tray of candles on his head.

Our table-- we (5 UNC kids) sat with some girls from Costa Rica and practiced our Spanish a little. They were some of the only foreign students on our program-- most were from the USA

Candle tray dancing man

We left the restaurant-palace and continued on our tour, which like Chefchaoen had a much-too-large group for one tour guide. We went through the streets and the guide explained that in Tetuán the city was organized by markets-- it had a clothes market, a gold market, etc.

But these were completely indistinguishable. All it looked like to me was a market of junk.

The city of Tetuán is like a garage sale from 15 years ago. I think it must be where Goodwill sends its crap that no one wants to buy. Gone were the pretty scarves, tea pots, lamps and jewelry of Chefchoen. And since the markets don't really have buildings all of it was just sitting out in the dirty street, collecting dust. I couldn't believe they were actually trying to sale that stuff. Who on earth would want to buy it, and why would Tetuán citizens need VHS tapes, PS2 games or 20-year-old TVs?

Some pictures:

Outdated and used cell phones and electrical appliances

Fish for sale on a blanket in the middle of the dirty street

I guess this was the clothes market-- different from all the robes for sale in Chefchaoen. Much of this clothing looked used.



Random toiletries for sale on the street

The people, however, were interesting to watch:

This was in the "gold market" where women find dowries to give to their husbands-to-be. I saw many women intently staring in the shop windows at the gold trinkets.

We went to a pharmacy where the pharmacist told us different types of natural remedies and displayed how they work, the offered them for sale. It was interesting, though the end was a bit like an auction, with the Costa-Rican girls buying nearly every herb.

Another interesting part of the tour was when we got to the main square, which was an open area in front of the Royal Palace where the king stays when he comes to Tetuán. We couldn't get very close to it because it was roped off with policia standing all around, just in case of a threat of protest. If there were to be a protest, that big plaza would probably be the place for it. As we stood in the plaza with our guide explaining something or another, we heard the call to prayer. The adhan, as it is called, happens five times a day. It's one of the five pillars of Islam. Our guide explained that the same statement is repeated over and over: There is no other god but Allah and Mohammed is the messenger. It came over the loudspeakers from two different mosques, and the way it was chanted sounded almost eerie.

We walked to the streets again and about 10 minutes after the call to prayer men emerged from a mosque in front of us, putting on their shoes in the streets.




After our tour ended we were given 45 minutes of free time, and we were told that this would be the last place to shop in Morocco. SO disappointing! I wish they would have told us that in Chefchaouen, where there were such pretty things to buy. We didn't want any of the junk here, and I had been looking forward to getting some cheap and different decorations for my house next year and a glass for tea. We also didn't want to venture too far from the group-- the city was a little intimidating.

I think we all were a bit relieved when we finally left the city.

More to come!