Shivers of emotion and the warm flush of meaning washed over me as I stood in the 1,000 year old synagogue in Toledo, the first capital of Christian Spain. The white washed columns, carved pilaster arches and clam shell niche emanated a soft calmness that overtook the throngs of visitors swirling around me. After…
After seven months on the road with her parents touring the Western U.S., Europe and Morocco, Mali headed back to the United States to resume her young adult life. She was interviewed by her parents as an exercise to attain some closure and a touchpoint for reflection before embarking on the next chapter of…
When we first arrived in Morocco, I was uncertain what to expect for food. I had heard of tagines, and had made what I thought was couscous at home, but beyond these vague notions, I really had no clue. Fortunately, being an adventurous sort who is open to trying lots of different foods, I was…
Each new country we explore affords us the opportunity to examine, “What is culture?” What are the harbingers of differences between humans around the world? Food differs despite the same ingredients, but that seems to be a result of cultural differences, not a core game-changer. Many on both sides of the globe would argue that…
Partaking of a country’s food has always been one of my favorite parts of traveling, giving a sense of fully connecting me to a place and its people. Breaking bread is a universal experience that brings people together, and cuisine is a strong expression of culture which is infused with the rhythms of daily life…
Images of camels crossing sandy deserts came to mind when I thought about Morocco before visiting this magnificent country: the reality has superseded this stereotype! 40% of the Morocco is covered in the Saharan desert or flat rocky pre-Saharan called the hammada, 28% is covered in plains, 20% is farmland, and 12% is forested; however,…
This article is dedicated to and inspired by our dear friends Gretchen and Rodrigo who are intrepid travelers currently on their own journey with their family (check out www.learnlivetravel.com). We have spent many hours in deep discussion with Gretchen and Rodrigo regarding what constitutes art versus craft and how we identify and value each. …
Like Steinbeck’s novel “Travels with Charley”, our journey is unique: Some would say that we are well-travelled. :) Aaron and I have been on six continents, and Mali five, we’ve had short, intense travels to countries near our own, and long draw-out adventures to multiple continents. In all these journeys, we have never done any…
As intrepid travelers, our Moroccan journey has had a loose itinerary. The fact that my mother-in-law Susan would be joining us part way through our three month sojourn and we’d be seeing the primary points of interest in the interior with her, we decided to start by making a wide circumnavigation around Morocco in…
Traveling in developing countries has always shaken my Western sensibilities in ways I never anticipated. The last several weeks traveling through Morocco has provided a plethora of thought-provoking moments and impressions that are a kind of “stretching exercise” for the patterns in my brain that I think of as my mind-set. From the moment we…