Day 13- Tangiers

Today we woke up at 10:00am. We always need to recover after a whole day of traveling, plus I was awake for a while after the call to prayer at midnight and then again at 5:00 am. I have to say that it is very impressive to hear the prayers so loud and clear, almost inside my window. At first, I had to get up and check on the children. I was mostly worried about Daniel because yesterday when he heard the prayers for the very first time, he said he was scared. And it makes total sense, considering that they had never heard anything positive about the Islamic religion. Sunshine was asleep, Daniel, awake. When I asked him if he was ok, he said he was a little scared. I told him that it was actually really neat and special that people were called to pray, to remember that God should always come first. I think this helped him, or maybe it helped me. I went back to my room, looked out the window at the illuminated mosque and prayed my mantra: "You and I are never apart". I went back to bed and slept happily.

After I woke up, I went to check on the kids and Daniel was already playing his games on his iPad. Sunshine was asleep. We honored the kids' desire of doing nothing today and we went to the beach. First, we went next door to the same cafe where we had dinner last night and looked for breakfast. I was starving so I just went to the pastry counter where I ordered pastries and yogurt for me and the children. Gregory is pickier and tries not to eat bread. I just wanted to secure food. I should have waited because when we sat on the cafe to order coffee and fresh orange juice (when I was little, I told my mom that I wanted to be rich so I could drink fresh orange juice every day!) the waiter brought the menu and I read: petit dejeuner. Gregory ordered his cheese omelet and we all ate it!

Gregory, Rachid and taxi driver negotiating prices.

After that, we contacted our host Rachid, who called a taxi for us to take us to a nice beach at Saqar. The driver named a price and Gregory said it was too expensive and then Rachid started the negotiations. This is very common and expected in Morocco. It is funny to see how men touch each other when they are negotiating. The price came down to 250 dirhams, 50 dirhams less. Gregory said that it was still a lot. Rachid said it was fine. I told him that we trusted him and he said that the fee was fair. Gregory still felt he could get a better deal. Sunshine and Daniel said that there were ok with walking to the local beach so we all agreed to that. Plus walking is the best way to see, hear and smell the city. 
We walked about 20 minutes to the local beach (on the way, Gregory asked the fare to Saqar and got an offer of 100 dirhams). Of course, Sunshine and I were wearing t-shirts and pants and still got stares.

The beach was huge. I looked around and it didn't look like a touristy beach, many locals and most of the women were all covered and not wearing swimming suits. We walked some more and settled next to other tourists, probably Spanish, who were wearing bikinis. It is funny how I felt like a naked foreigner. I did not like the way the local men were looking at Sunshine in a bikini. We swam in the cold water, rested in the sun, watched people and enjoyed ourselves. The highlight of today was to observe two kids of different nationalities, cultures playing together. I knew it was a Spanish child because I had heard the mom and I could tell that the other kid was Muslim because his mom was covered. The two children just started playing together, splashing each other and laughing. When do we teach our children to be judgmental and to notice our differences?

After a while, Gregory was ready to go. Sunshine and I could have stayed longer but the boys were ready to go. We decided to walk home taking a different route through the medina was neat because we discovered a lot of different alleys and stores selling all sorts of products and souvenirs.

Local beach, notice the background

We made it back home to shower and rest some more. Around 8:00pm we went out for dinner at a very nice restaurant called Hamadi. Daniel said it looked very touristy but too me, it looked very clean and pretty! We had a good meal of chicken, lamb and vegetable couscous. We had a very good time. The children were laughing at me because from my seat I could see into the apartment across the way where there was a family gathering (all women, it seemed). I was fascinated observing them. Sunshine warned me not to stare but it was right in front of me so I couldn't help it. Finally, one lady got up and closed the curtains. Nothing to see here, move along!

Family dinner at Hamadi

After finishing dinner at 10:00pm we went for a walk on the main street, where our apartment is located. The streets were full of families and groups walking. It seems that most of the locals do their shopping at night time. I could tell we are staying in a safe neighborhood because there were women walking alone, families sitting on the benches and little children playing everywhere. We never expected so much movement at night. We would have walked longer but Daniel was very tired at 11:00pm! We have decided to stay two extra nights in this beautiful place, mostly to relax a little bit longer and to enjoy their culture and food!

Ali Gregorio the market!