TRAVELWITHZOE

My second Couchsurfing host in Morocco was based in the town of Er-Rich. I travelled there on what was probably my least favourite bus I took in the whole of Morocco. I can’t remember the name of the company (it wasn’t CTM or Supratours) but the bus was so packed and it felt like the same air was circulating for the whole 5 hour journey. It was super hot and the space between the seats was really small so my backpack couldn’t fit there properly, so I had to try and shove it there and sit twisted with my feet in the aisle (it’s hard to explain).

The bad part about having my feet in the aisle was that more people kept getting on the bus so there ended up being so many people standing in the aisles that there wasn’t really any space for my feet! The man sitting next to me kept showing me loads of photos on his phone of completely random things like different buildings and people (basically his entire camera roll) and we couldn’t communicate whatsoever. Even though we couldn’t communicate, he kept asking me questions and making statements and looking expectantly at me for an answer, so I had to just keep shrugging!

When I arrived in Er-Rich, my Couchsurfing host was waiting for me at the bus station with his dad. I felt very comfortable with them pretty much immediately, and they drove me to the family house in their car.

When we reached the family house at the other side of town, I met my Couchsurfing host’s mum and his brother. I managed to communicate semi successfully in French with the dad and the brother, and a bit with the host in a mixture of French and Google Translate, but communicating with the mum was the biggest challenge… I basically communicated with her via the brother.

I felt sure within a few minutes that I had made a good choice by choosing this Couchsurfing host! We sat at the table and the mum brought out loads of food, and she made extra salad because her son had told her that I’m vegan. Despite the communication not being the easiest, we laughed a lot together and spoke about lots of different things.

The host actually only had one other review before I went there, so it was a bit “risky” going to Couchsurf at his place, because usually it can be a good idea to make sure there are several positive reviews before deciding to go and stay with someone. Normally I try to do that, but sometimes I just get a good feeling about someone and decide to go with it, which worked out well this time.

My host took me for a drive in the evening and we had fun showing each other what music we like. We had another big meal when we got back, and then the mum asked me to try on one of her traditional outfits!

I slept in a bedroom by myself at their house, as my host had given up his bedroom for me which was super nice of him.

The next day, my host took me on a little road trip. I didn’t really understand the plan but I trusted him enough to just go along with it. We drove for maybe an hour along some very mountainous roads, and we parked up by his friend’s apple farm! Apples in Morocco are honestly some of the nicest I’ve ever tasted, so it was pretty cool to eat one right off the tree at this apple farm.

The apple farm guy invited us into his house to drink some tea and eat some bread (pretty standard procedure there, especially the tea). I had already eaten a lot of bread at breakfast, but in Morocco when someone invites you to their house and offers you tea or food, it seems like they really want you to eat/drink a lot, so I forced myself to eat as much bread as possible! Apparently the olive oil that was served with the bread was made from olives from the farm.

The friend also showed us his cows and then my Couchsurfing host drove us a few minutes down the road where we met up with an old man who had the keys to a really old library (that was what I understood at the time anyway). We followed the old man through some alleyways with some super low doorways which are apparently made like that because it forces guests to bow to the house owners.

After about 10 minutes we arrived at this supposedly ancient library, which must have been refurbished because it didn’t look particularly old. It turns out it’s more of a museum now. There were some local antique items in a display, and lots of old books, but there weren’t any information boards or anything so it was a bit strange. There was a sign on the cupboards indicating that photos weren’t allowed, but the old man opened one of the display cabinets to put an ancient hat on my head and get me to hold an old lamp!

We said thankyou to the old man and continued to explore the area a little bit. There was one part with some abandoned houses (well more like ruins of fallen mud houses) so we climbed around there which was cool (I love exploring abandoned buildings). When we got back to the family house, the mum had made another huge meal so we ate that and caught up with her about the day so far.

Later that evening, the mum’s sister and niece came over as they’d been at a wedding nearby. I used Google Translate to chat with them, and I feel like they were still feeling excited from the wedding, because they randomly suggested that we should put on music and have a dance in the living room. This sounded super awkward to me because I can’t really dance, but obviously I went with them.

Again I was given a local outfit to wear, and they played some Moroccan music through the speakers. The niece had a kind of belt with little things attached which shake around and make noise when you move (I think she was wearing it at the wedding), so she was basically the centre of attention because she kept shaking her hips with the belt thing on. I was very happy to just take the role of clapping while she was doing this!

Eventually it was apparently my turn to wear the belt thing, so I gave it a try for 5 minutes (obviously they clapped very enthusiastically when I did ANYTHING that could be seen as remotely close to Moroccan dancing) and then I decided it was the mum’s turn to wear it.

It was cool to meet the mum’s sister and niece and it was really nice that they tried to include me so much and that we had a bit of a laugh together. I went with my Couchsurfing host to drop the sister and niece home, and then he took me to a cafe he sometimes goes to which is actually at a petrol station but the tables are spread along the grass that surrounds the tarmac area, which was kind of interesting.

We just drank a mint tea in the cafe and then spent the rest of the evening with the rest of the family back at the house (obviously with another meal cooked by the mum, who every meal kept telling me to eat more even when I had finished, and I kept joking that I can’t stay there for many more days because she’s trying to fatten me up).

I left Er-Rich the next morning because I wanted to keep moving to cover lots of different parts of Morocco, but I would happily have spent more time with this family. My next destination was Fes/Fez (I think it has two spellings), which will be documented in Morocco diaries part 6.