WRECK THIS JOURNAL #1

I lived in Maine, USA, for one year. During Winter time is cold, cold like 30 negative degrees brrrr!! Me, je, moi, a girl from the South of Portugal who's surrounded by beaches and only seen snow once or twice in her life had to deal with digging herself after a snow storm to reach her van (!!!). 

I had a great year but a lot of indoors activities was going on during Winter 2008 which I don't mind at all... for one year! ah! I love sun, hiking, outdoors but when all you have is cold and snow we better deal with that the best way instead of being depressed all the time. 

TIPS TO HITCH HIKE IN MOROCCO

When planning my backpacking trip to Morocco I didn't think about hitch hiking because mass media and society made this stereotype that Morocco is a dangerous country to travel, so imagine get in a car of a stranger...

It's true that transportation is cheap and generally (out of touristic spots) Morocco is a cheap country to travel but if we can save money and travel longer, if we can meet more moroccans and exchange cultures, why not?! 

As soon as we arrived we felt safe. We asked several locals we made friends with and everybody said is safe to hitch hike in Morocco. So, what are we waiting for? Let's do it! By my 5 weeks experience I can tell you is the real adventure, you never know what will happen during and next the ride. Read the tips, if you have any question please ask in the comments so everybody can acess and we can start a discussion. 

SPRING HANDICRAFT MARKET IN TAVIRA

Long time ago I used to sell in Craft Markets my polymer clay necklaces and later on my fabric handbags. It was a positive time of my life, because I had no job so decided to create with my hands and sell out to friends and mom's shop costumers. I was busy, creating and using my brain, all good.

As soon as I heard about this Market I asked mom if she wanted to come, because she's an artist crafter and love to attend this kind of events. Also it was in Tavira, one of my fave towns in Algarve. It's small and historical with a river along. Beautiful!

CHEFCHOUEN - BLUE TOWN (PART II)

I decided for a Part II for Chefchouen just because these pictures I took are so pretty that have to be shared. Chefchouen is a most go in Morocco but we were unlucky to be there exactly on Easter Vacations so the place was crowded with international tourists (especially spanish) and moroccan tourists. Did I mention before that I don't like to travel in places packed of people?

RUTA INTI IS ORGANIZING A CULTURAL EXPEDITION IN MORROCO

When traveling in Morocco I met Ricardo, a spanish pro active guy who was traveling solo in Morocco to organize an expeditation from July 10th until July 25th in Spain and then until August 15th in Morocco. 

"Ruta Inti is a cultural and social project for young students from all around the world. The focus of the project is the expedition itself, which will tour different countries each year with a history that gives a background to the idea. The expedition will take them on an educational journey in which they will have the opportunity to make contact with the social, cultural, historical, and human reality of today's world."

HAPPY FREEDOM'S DAY

Today we are celebrating 40 years of freedom in Portugal. On April 25th 1974 the Estado Novo (current government) fell through military coup and civil resistence. Portugal was living in a dictatorship since 1933 and it was about time to change for a Democratic Regime.

The most beautiful part is that instead of guns and blood this revolution day was pacific with people holding carnation flowers in the streets to celebrate the end of the dictatorship and war in the colonies. That's the reason why we call "Freedom Day" as the "Carnation Revolution". [photo source]

Today my heart is with all portuguese people from North to South of Portugal and also the colonies who lived before April 25th 1974, you guys lived hard moments of pression and you are still today here to tell us the stories. Much Love!!!

It's holiday here so me and the girls will spend the afternoon playing mini golf :)

Have a beautiful Friday xx Marta

ARE TRAVEL GUIDE BOOKS TRAVELERS BIBLE?

Happy International Book Day! As a book lover I had to post about books but actually this post is more a brainstorming and discussion about the so well known Travel Guide Books.

How many times we are traveling and someone has a travel guide book in their hands? Tons and tons. Seems that for some people every time they travel they need to buy a Travel book which is quite expensive, if you travel often to different countries.

Nowadays we have Internet and you can find all sort of information you need there. But you cannot walk around with a laptop, you can have internet acess in your tablet or smart phone. However many people prefer to read the book just because either they are used to or don't know how to use internet.

STREET ART WITH MENAU

Menau is this guy who born with a gift: making and sharing creative art. We are childhood friends, probably met eachother when 6 or 7 years old, those happy times when you used to play free in the street with other kids and go barefoot to the beach (when tecnologies didn't take place, besides watching Dragon Ball Z and play Super Mario in the oldschool Mega Drive).

CHEFCHAOUEN - BLUE TOWN [PART I]

 Remember when I said that would stay one month in Morocco? With 300€ I could actually stay at least 6 weeks. Moroccans (especially from the South) invite you to sleep in their houses, feed you and even give you money (!!!) but we don't accept, that's not the point. When you hitch hike and Couch Surf you save so much, enough to travel much more.

But I'm tired of Morocco to be honest. I mean, I'm having a great time but there's no fix price, you even bargain for food, seriously! Also there are many moroccans out there that seem to be your friends but in the end all they want is to sell you something. Worst! They can give you something as a gift and in the end they ask money for that. Very important: Not everybody is like this, we met many many nice, kind and friendly moroccans. Feels that in the South people are nicer maybe because is far from big cities?

SAHARA DESERT EXPERIENCE

Being in the Sahara Desert was, without any doubt, one of the best moments of my life. The feeling of silence, of non life, far away from any electronics and the busy life out there was speechless.

We decided to go to Erg Chebbi Dunes in Merzouga to enter the desert. We knew we had to book a tour and be a tourist for few hours :D The agency we found was asking 400 DH (around 40€)

for the pack: riding a camel one hour in the desert until the camping site, watch the sunset from the top of the dune, have moroccan dinner, sleep with the stars and come back in the morning riding a

camel and at the same time enjoy the sunrise and breakfast in the hotel where we leave our backpacks. We bargained so hard that we paid 500 DH for both. It's crazy that we are spending around 5€/day and suddenly 40€ in one click. 25€ sounded resonable. Common! Being in the South of Morocco and not experience the desert? We'd miss something.

THE ROCKS HEAVEN

Asking locals or people who host you is always the best way to go to this treasure places you couldn’t find in Travel Guide Books. Tinghir was in our route but as soon as some moroccans said that Gorges du Todra (15 km from Tinghir) is a better spot to stay we changed our mind. And did pretty good.

AIT BEN HADDOU - TRAVELING IN HISTORY

Ait Ben Haddou is located 30 km away from Ouarzazate (known as “The Gate to Desert”) and part of UNESCO World Heritage, protecting those 500 years old mud made houses (kasba in Arabic) from erosion and destruction. In the past was the spot where caravans would stop when traveling between Marrakech and the Desert.

GOALS 2014: STEP BY STEP, A LITTLE DEEPER, A LITTLE CLOSER.

Heyaaa guys, what have you been up to? I guess it's about time to go back to my 2014 Goals List and check how I'm behaving during these three months. I think I'm in the way but I can always do better, I'm pretty sure by the end of the year mostly of my goals were complished. Let's take a look.

MARTA'S GOALS FOR 2014:

* Make a tattoo

I have my redwood tree draw done but it's big size so I'll need 3 sessions of 6 hours at least, means I need to settle down and have it done. In the meanwhile I had this idea of doing henna in my hand or foot and then make it a tattoo. Photo Source.

MAGICAL OURIKA VALLEY

After Essaouira we didn't really have a plan. When this happens we just let the Universe helping to follow our way. Zakaria suggested to hitch hike from Essaouira to Agadir, thru the coast and stop in 3 villages and after go to Paradise Valley. we thought it was a brilliant idea but soon we understood it wasn't the best idea because it's hard to hitch hike to the village which means taxi drivers trying to rip you off. I guess would be a good plan if you have a caravan or a car and camping tent.

Ourika Valley came to our mind. We left Essaouira (we went back just to sleep one night) and got a ride to Marrakech, the driver was heading to Casablanca but he was super kind and brought us exactly where we wanted. From Marrakech we took a dirty local bus to Ourika. It was dark already and the only Hotel was pricey for us so we asked a boy if he knew any cheap hostel. He called his father and among many arabic (or berber) words, he said "You are welcome in my house" Bonus! Thanks Universe :)