My African Spring Break

Hey everyone! As some of you may know I've been studying abroad for the past 3 months and after much anticipation, Spring Break finally came around and I got to spend it in Africa! Alright so maybe it wasn’t the “Africa” that comes to mind with lions and tigers and bears… oh my… (it just flowed I couldn’t help it) but it’s still another continent that I get to add to my list of places I’ve traveled (5 down, 2 to go).

And even though I wasn’t surrounded by wild animals and jeep safari rides it certainly felt like Africa. After weeks of pulling out hair over pages and pages of papers, it was definitely a treat to plunge into 90-degree weather, wearing flip-flops and shorts in the middle of March!

Now I know that many people (including myself) have a problem with motion sickness, but if you can find enough Dramamine and suck it up for a week of beautiful scenery and weather, I highly suggest taking a cruise to … anywhere!

If you’re only making one stop on your vacation and don’t necessarily want to see anything else, a plane would probably be better, but if you’re like me with only a week and the desire to see as much as possible with you’re allotted time, an island cruise is the way to go. I chose to get out of the cold for a while and took a trip around the Canary Islands, Portugal and Morocco.

Right off the northwest coast of mainland Africa is the Spanish island of Las Palmas Gran Canarias, a hot, very beautiful, and tourist filled place! The island is quite small actually, enough so that everything is in walking distance (it takes a total of about 30 minutes to walk from the north to the south ends of the island) but completely different from one end to the other.

You have the choice of making your way into the city (which is pretty much closed down for “siesta” till around 5) and stopping at the market place in Triana, or you can choose to walk in the opposite direction and find yourself in the middle of some random desert! And of course you can join the locals on beaches (topless of course because it’s the Spanish) of orange and red sand.

The best part about being around all the islands was that sunset began at 7:30 p.m. every night. So if you begin your day early enough (my days usually started around 8 a.m.), by around 3 or 4 p.m. the sun is at its hottest and you’re probably exhausted from walking for hours in the sun (vacationing can be so tiring) you can make your way back to the ship and still manage to relax and get some color for a few hours. The ship departed at around 11 p.m. from each port and you would wakeup the following morning in your next vacation spot.

Next Island, Santa de Cruz! This takes the cake for one of the most beautifully breath-taking places on the planet in my opinion. If anyone has plans, ever, to run away from the crazy lives we all have and become a banana farmer on an island where you can be in the mountains surrounded by dormant volcanoes on your left and then suddenly feel the desire to cliff dive into the bluest of waters on your right, please find your way to Santa de Cruz so that I can frequently visit.

Right, now once you’re away from the ports you can again visit the markets and have traditional Spanish foods with an island twist or you can be a little more daring and take an “off-road” quad ride around the island. You start at the lowest part of the island near their international airport (which has a whopping total of 3 planes and one runway) and within an hour you’re on a narrow dirt road at the top of a mountain. If you want to see the true culture of the island, what better way to do so than on a 4-wheeler?

Once you’re away from paved roads and resorts (by the way the largest resort on the island has about 10 apartment style suites, just to give you an idea of the size of some of these places) you begin driving down tiny, rocky roadways through fields of literally thousands of banana trees and petite, brightly colored concrete homes with lines of freshly cleaned clothing stringing from one tree to another with clusters of bananas directly underneath. The entire ride is two hours, and after the first hour your guide brings you to the very edge of the “road” where you’re standing on rocks of cold lava and black sand overlooking one of the most spectacular views life has to offer.

If you look straight ahead, out towards the direction of the sun, you see absolutely nothing but clear blue water. And if you look down off past the edge of your feet you see naturally placed caves and boulders submerged in water so pure you can see the bottom no matter how deep it gets. The whole island is incredible really; if you ever find yourself forgetting to appreciate the world we live in, the serene ambiance of Santa de Cruz certainly reminds you to take it all in.

Enough of the sappiness! If you want to do something crazy and fun filled, the next place to see is the Island of Madeira, Portugal. Aside from being famous for its Madeira win and cake, the island has so much to offer. If you can deal with heights, take a cable car up 2,000 feet to the top of a mountain where you’ll zip past houses that literally look as if they are hanging off the edges of cliffs, where you can make your way to the only coffee shop/bar/restaurant available.

If you’re lucky, you can sample a taste of the celebrated rum infused, nut and fruit filled, black Madeira Cake (which locals claim tastes better when aged). It tastes a bit like black liquorish to be honest, not my favorite flavor for a cake but definitely worth trying! Once you’ve had your beverage of choice and feel your stomach is content (which never seems to be the case when you’re on vacation) you can take in the magnificent areas of the Botanical Gardens where you’re surrounded by vine infested stone walls, unique trees and beautiful tropical flowers like the well known “birds of paradise."

So now that you’ve made your way to the very top … how ever will you get down? You then have two options, you can play it somewhat “safe” and take the cable car back to the bottom, or you can experience what Madeira is best known for and slide down through narrow roads of the mountain on a toboggan ride. I chose the second one … sorry Mama.

For those of you who don’t know what a toboggan is, it’s a tiny wicker basket once used by farmers who lived in the mountain tops as a way to transport their goods to the center of the city.

Now it’s the Madeira’s claim to fame in tourism. You sit, IN this tiny wicker basket, and are literally pushed and steered down the mountain by two men dressed in white “sailor” looking outfits with straw hats as they run with you and the basket down the mountain, flying past main roads with your eyes closed praying you make it past the intersection before the next car does! And once you’ve finally made it down safely (hopefully without tipping over) you can refill your empty stomach (you know since exhilarating experiences like those can make you hungry…) at the farmers market.

You can take your pick of bakeries with freshly baked Portuguese rolls and meringues or try numerous amounts of tropical fruits from twelve different flavors of passion fruits to custard apples and green honeycomb looking bananas that taste like pineapple. If you’re like me, you can wonder for hours throughout the market going from stand to stand pretending like you’ve never tried fresh sugar cane or Surinam cherries to get free samples (my Jido “grandpa” taught me well) until you make it to every stand. The Portuguese definitely know how to eat so if you want fun, beautiful weather and great food, Madeira should be high on your bucket list.

After an entire day at sea, I finally arrived in the city of Agadir, MOROCCO! Now this was real “Africa hot” weather.

First things first, if you’ve never been on a camel, walk around the beach for a while until you find a security guard and try to explain in English, broken Arabic, and the only two words you know in French, that you’re looking for a place that offers camel rides … wait a little for him to get out all his laughter, and then once he realizes you’re serious you’ll be on your way with a friend (because everyone is friends with everyone in Morocco) to your first camel for only 25 Euros.

Make sure you wear long clothing despite the heat, I know you’ll be sweating but once you’re two hour camel ride through the desert is over and you’re bug bite and rash free you’ll be thankful all you had to deal with was your own sweat.

After getting your camel fix (by the way if you aren’t into heights, rocky motions, extreme heat and profusely drooling animals I wouldn’t suggest it) you can take a shot a haggling your way through the largest market on the southern coast of Morocco called the Souk-al-Had.

Filled with clothing, food and jewelry for as deep as four miles you’re bound to buy something. I found myself spending all I had (which wasn’t much to begin with, I don’t suggest carrying large amounts of money seeing as that it’s one of the most famous places for “pick-pocketers”) in the spice shop and drinking freshly made tea with the owner … of course.

The only downside to a cruise is that you only get about a day in each place so you never seem to have enough time to do everything. Unfortunately I never got the chance to visit the world famous markets of Marakesh, but if you ever find yourself in Morocco and you have time for a three-hour drive to the north end of the country I hear it’s a beautiful place!

Hopefully I’ll get another opportunity to experience it. I know this was a lot of reading but I hope you found it easy, enjoyable and worth your time! I try to bring you all as close as possible through my writing so sorry for all the details!

Anyway … My next trip is to Scotland; I hear it's full of mountains and snow … yay! So hopefully I’ll come back with lots to write about. I hope you’ve all enjoyed my first post on Patch! Until next time…

Jay

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