Up, close and personal

Yep. Morocco. My first time in Africa, as well. I went there with some friends via plane to Melilla (BTW, how expensive can such a flight be!) and rented a car to do a round trip. The itinerary was -more or less erratically- Nador-Fez-Volubilis-Meknes-Fez-Azrou-Taza-Debdou: basically, the north.

North Morocco is quite similar in landscapes to Andalusia. The best part to visit would be the west, where the ancient cities are. It would also be better to rent the car in Spain and cross via Ferry, as it is cheaper and leaves you in the interesting bit of the country, but they would not rent us a car for Morocco. Which I fully understand after seeing how they drive.

A warning to the traveller. In popular places, you will not be able to be left alone by the local "guides", guys who pursue you all the time, move you around the medina -whether you like it or not- and try to make you buy at their relatives' shops. They are unavoidable, so better pick one and go with it. But try your best to set your own pace even if it means forgetting about manners. The must sees are the mosques, the tanneries and the zocos.

Volubilis turned out to be an interesting surprise: a full roman village in the middle of the mountains. The conservation of the place was not too good, but they had the most amazing color mosaics almost everywhere! Too bad I did not had Augmented Reality googles to check how it was in the past. Not even an illustration in the ruins, either.

Food was mostly okay, but water was obviously not.