A week in Morocco

While studying abroad in Bilbao, Spain we had an opportunity to travel from Seville to Morocco for a week.  We began in Seville and stayed up till 4 am waiting to get on the bus to the border.  We arrived to our hotel only to be amazed that our school had reserved a 5 star hotel for us.  We got settled in and slept for the night.  We woke up the next morning with many fun adventures ahead of us.  The school had set up a tour guide, who we later learned was part of the sales scheme.  He led us to certain places that wanted to sell to us and he got part of that commission. For the first part of our trip we went to the Sahara desert and stayed a few nights in tents on the sand.  We slept ate and were awake with Moroccans surrounding us for meals and for morning prayer. Many of them wanted to sell to us but that is just part of their culture.

We visited a fabric making place where they sold scarves and blankets and Moroccan outfits that came right off the loom.

We later went to a place of pottery where they made tiles, plates, bowels, vases, etc.  We walked around the dusty shop outside and watched men design plates in such an intricate way.  Using a small paintbrush, moroccan men painted a design on the plate with such steady hands.  We saw many tiles and other pottery in bulk, this place was extraordinary.

On the way to our next place I saw a guy with a lamb and snapped a picture.  I thought the dynamic was funny and the lamb was adorable. The place we went next was a place with spices, oils, lipstick, etc.  where this Moroccan man was showing and selling them to us.  He showed us all of these spices like saffron so pure and so native to the country we were in.  He gave us Moroccan oil for our hair, moroccan oil you cannot get in a bottle in the US.  Next he showed us this lipstick that was green.  The lipstick however only tinted your lips a red pink based on someones individual pigment.  Everyone who uses this lipstick will get a particular color tailored to his or her own pigment.  Here is a picture of him showing us all the things he wanted to sell us.