Berber Whiskey

Last night we went out with a bang in Spain. We attended a flamenco show up in the caves of the Medina. I must admit that until last night I had not realized the main focus of flamenco is the rhythms and beats. It reminded me strongly of stomp. There was a little background guitar music, but the rhythms of the stomping, clapping and snapping overpowered it all. Of course the graceful hand movements, flowing dresses, sangria and yells of "Ole" reminded me that I was still in a Granada cave, not a New York alley.

We left Granada early this morning-well, early by Spanish standards... The drive south to Algeciras went through hills of olive groves. The port city was not quite as picturesque. The ship rocked heavily on the way across the straight, but the trip only took 45 minutes or so.

My first question in Morocco was, "Where are all the women?" In the small towns we went through on the way to Tanger, men sat lazily outside cafes or walked leisurely along the street, but seeing a woman was a rarity. It was almost like Michigan Tech as a country, except that I knew there were more women somewhere.

We have arrived in Morocco at the tail end of Ramadan, which means no dinner until it is breakfast time, which means the setting of the sun and the call to prayer, or 7pm. I waited impatiently until this time. We walked the city streets, but it was hard for me to be observant since I hadn't eaten since Spanish breakfast that morning. What I did notice was this: Tanger was a bustling city-fair amount of traffic, shops open everywhere, people walking, buying, talking, and yelling. Then, while standing in the main square, the call to prayer rang out. Almost instantly the streets were quiet, shops closed, and the only people in sight were sitting at tables in restaurants. Breakfast time.

We headed to a restaurant at a more leisurely pace, and for the first time in my life, I broke the fast-well, technically I hadn't been fasting, but I was hungry enough to feel as though I had been. So I had the traditional Moroccan breakfast-dates, a hard boiled egg with salt and cumin sprinkled on it, a slightly spicy tomato-noodle soup, some deep fried bread-like sweet things, and an avocado banana smoothie. After breakfast I had a cup of tea, grean tea with fresh mint leaves in it. It had a pleasantly sweet minty flavor. "Berber whiskey," my assistant director said and winked at me across the table.