Mon, 13 Sep 1999 08:24:38 PDT

Hey everyone, Sorry it took so long to reply. I did some travelling with Stephanie after stage to cool off before coming to Agadir. I didn't stop at an internet café so I'm sorry if I worried anyone.

We went to Tangier first. Quite a hilly city, reminded me of San Francisco. Except it had a Spanish architecture and culture(for obvious reasons). We hung out at a cafe, where the beat generation poets and authors used to hang. It was called Café Hoffa. It was on a cliff.....literraly. You went down these steep steps and there were random tables arranged on the cliffside. There were people smoking who-knows-what and drinking Kawa and atay (coffee and tea) looking accross the mediterranean at Spain....Pretty cool.

We next travelled to Tetouan. A small village just south of Tangier. It used to be held by Spain, but has returned to Moroccans. The surrounding Rif Mountains were beautiful, but Steph and I had a bad experience with the people there. There was one man who accosted us the moment we stepped off the bus. He asked if we needed a guide and we politely refused. He followed us for awhile and we were ignoring him. At one point, he grabbed Steph by the arm and I pushed him away. He went berzerk and started telling us he was friends with the police and he would have us arrested. The very next breath he told me he had a knife and he was going to kill us. We continued to walk away....Hoping that he would leave us alone. Eventually, another man came to our rescue and forced the man to leave us alone. This new guy attatched himself to us and self-appointed guide to Tetouan. He kept finding us throughout our stay and ended up leading us into a shop where they sold Berber Women's artisian blankets and other items. We got the full hard-sell treatment, but managed to get out without buying anything. Our "guide" also kept trying to sell us hash, from his family's farm, but we respectfully declined. As we were waiting for our bus to leave, we were sitting in a café, overlooking the Rif, when.....lo and behold.... here comes our killer. He walks up and says " What your problem yesterday...you no like me guide you?" I responded angrily after he stood there gabbing at me for ten minutes or so, "Shnoo b'riti?"(what do you want) He again started threatening me and telling me he was going to call the police because he KNEW I had bought kif from Mohammed (our guide) I snorted and said "Go ahead" He got really pissed off then and puled a knife from his pocket and flipped it open........ Now try to picture this situation.....I'm in a café, there are probably 30 or so other patrons, almost all Moroccan, This guy is leaning up against this guard rail, behind of which is at least a 50 foot drop. I'm sitting with my legs propped up on the guard rail. Steph had gone to the bathroom, so I was sitting alone.

There are stories of forenji's (foreigners) ALWAYS being blamed and at fault whenever something bad happens, I'm wondering what will happen if I defend myself and kill this guy.... I'm also wondering if I can run very fast, trying to carry my bag and Steph's bag. Well.....He chose to go storming off ranting about how he was going to bring the police back to arrest me.....But they never came.

The next town we went to was Chefchaouen. Absolutely gorgeous town in the middle of the Atlas Mountains. Very mellow town with a bunch of hippies. (It's kif central) Steph and I loved it there and spent an extra day. I'll be sending pictures for the website.

The next town was Essuwaira, a beach community and very touristy. We hung out there for three days and had a good time. There are ramparts with cannons and castles all along the beach. The opening scenes of Othello were filmed there and Jimi Hendrix used to hang out there. We ate fresh fish everyday and the art and woodwork is incredible. There are more tourists than Moroccans, and that made it a little weird....But fun none the less.

Now I'm in Agadir and trying to get all my stuff in order. There are a few options already for places to live, so I don't think I'll have a problem. I'll hopefully have a cellphone tomorrow and I'll send the number to you guys. Be careful, according to my Mom, It's SUPER expensive (ghrali bezzef) to call here from the states.