11/06/2023 Bikepacking Morocco Day 90 : Crow’s Feet

Warning
For my vegan and animal lover friends, I have buried a few “explicit” photos further down and encourage you not to scroll if you think you might not like what you see.

Last night, I arrived at a house after dark, and the owner did not speak English, but his son did. He introduced himself as, “I am Ahmed, I am an engineer.” Like the hotel in Tetouan, they just wanted to make sure I was happy. I am getting used to expressing that I am happy. Very happy (and I sincerely was elated after the near miss with the kids’ rocks yesterday). The place was beautiful, overlooking the lake. Perfectly quiet and the kind of rest I love.

Departing today, rode a bit until I came to a cafe where the man had to light a fire with tissue paper to get the water hot. I went outside to the crumbling pavement - expecting little. It was time to call Janet right after she finished driving home. When the call connected, it was pitch black and she was outside checking out the garden. Delighted she made it home safely, I realized that she is going to have to buy some decaf so we can continue our virtual coffee dates; her bedtime is my morning. As we spoke, I heard all sorts of mechanical noises coming from inside the cafe. 20 minutes after ordering, the man miraculously brought out the strongest, tastiest little espresso I’ve had on this trip. How did it do it?!

Further down the road, I saw an intriguing scene; There were a bunch of men surrounding bloody carcasses splayed all over the hood of a pickup truck. I kept pedaling… but a few minutes later turned around to ask what the heck was going on.

I pulled up and acknowledged them, trying my various languages to engage them. One guy named Yahya spoke a few words of English, and slow enough French that I could ask him all of my questions. He said that they can hunt rabbits, pheasants, and ducks for these next 3 months. They camped out last night and now they stuff the insides of the animals with eucalyptus leaves to help preserve them. They will drive fast with the bodies spread all over the truck and the wind will help preserve them. As he told me all of this, he put his arm around me like we were long time friends… that huge smile the whole time. His face very close to mine. At least you don’t have to worry about drunk guys here - no one drinks alcohol, which I really like. Being so close, though, I worried I might have bad breath. If you saw us talking that way, you’d probably see my body language just slightly tilting my head away. I was a little uncomfortable being so near to a stranger, but in another way, I kind of liked it. This is how the guys here interact with each other… warm, friendly, smiling, and in your face. I try to imagine what it would be like if we were this close at home.

Each of the guys had something to say. One guy asked me if I spoke Russian. I said, “no, why?” He said that he was studying Russian. I asked, why? For work? He said “because it is cheaper!” I THINK he said he had lived in Russia to study, and that living in France is too expensive. In a few minutes, we were all best buddies, so they asked me to pose with some of their critters… and I’ll share a couple of these photos with those of you who aren’t squeamish. Each guy came to me separately and said, “welcome to Morocco.”

Another theme seems to be concerns about money. Elsewhere, a guy told me that “if you don’t have land here, you don’t have anything.” He claimed there are 800,000 Moroccans working in Spain. Without papers is better because you don’t pay taxes, and apparently in the last year, Spain has become quite amenable to this situation. Once I left the National park, the land became mostly cultivated with olive trees. People were working, plowing the land by hand or with animals - and beating the olives out of the trees with sticks onto a cloth tarp. I think about the above, and my friends who want to be “conscientious buyers” at home. Which is the “right” choice: , should you buy locally to minimize CO2 emissions? Or, should you support the way of life for 85% of the people who smiled and waved at me today?

The smiles… I can’t get over that. When someone smiles like the people here, I just inherently like them. And if they aren’t smiling, but have those crow’s feet that make them look like they are smiling - even when they aren’t, just as good. Why would anyone want to have crow’s feet removed?

The kids on bikes are my favorites. After what happened yesterday, I realized that you can’t throw rocks and ride at the same time. So far, almost all of the kids have been great - though I did narrowly avoided another round of rock-throwing today. Anyway, I stopped to talk to one kid because his bike was making a horrible noise. I thought, I’ll fix his bike for him; I have tools. We used the phone translate app (which by the way isn’t helping as much as I thought - I think Moroccan Arabic is different from Arabic). Anyway, the kid explained that he put this plastic bottle on his tire on purpose - so his bike would sound like a motor. He’s the first “motorized” biker that didn’t bow his head and say, “I know, I’m cheating..”

You guys know I wanted to avoid the cities, but I decided to go to Fez anyway. I somehow fell into the maze of narrow, noisy, and crowded streets. At first it was exciting, but then it became overwhelming- I felt lost and claustrophobic. The GPS didn’t work well in the tight quarters. I finally found my hotel with the help of 3 little kids. I felt like Indiana Jones slipping out of the street from the bad guys - exiting the chaos of the street, down a narrow alleyway, and suddenly though some doors where a polite man was offering me tea… one moment being touched from all angles, the next sitting on some pillows and rugs, surrounded by colorful patterns sipping mint tea.

It didn’t end there either… 3 broken ATMs (never found a working one) and a ton of wandering trying to find a low carb meal made for a very late finish. I finally got a guy to make me some kind of meat. I had him add in half a spleen (you read that right) because, hey, he had it there… and it sounded nutritious. Fingers crossed 🤞