MAKING THE MOST OF IT

The view from our balcony.

If you tuned in for the last installment of our adventure, then you know that Morocco wasn’t exactly what we were expecting. Such is life, which is a phrase that’s been turning in my head a lot lately.

The road to our place :)

Right now I’m writing to you from my favorite coffee shop, just a quick jaunt down the hill from our apartment. A super chic place called Nour, with the friendliest baristas and the best iced americanos in town (the competition is fierce, believe it or not).

Today is our last day in Morocco, we fly out in the morning for France, where we’ll spend a few weeks in a tiny town in the Pyrenees, recouping, hiking, and hopefully getting a bit more work done than we have here.

Neighbor’s hibiscus

We did make the most of our time here, fighting through a funk that settled on us like the smells of Agadir, and we found some things to pull our focus.
We shopped at the local souks, and made friends with all the shopkeepers in Tamraght. We get waves and high fives from the locals who see our faces trudging around each day.
We set up base at the coworking space near our apartment, and have spent many afternoons in there hiding from the heat in our ergonomic desk chairs and A/C.

The same place that has coworking does a surf camp, and we fulfilled our goal of surfing in Morocco. Seven days of getting chewed up and spit out by the ocean, and I’m proud to say that we’re marginally better than we were before.

#couplegoals

The highlight of my time here was on Tuesday, when the instructors took a small group of intermediate [beginners] to spot up the coast called Tamri, a little village that Nathan and I had our sights set on for weeks.

As we made the drive north, the sun broke through the dusty haze, the town and people and litter faded and gave way to clear, gorgeous coastline. As we got further and further from Tamraght, and we wove our way around the mountain road, the surf down below got bigger and more beautiful. By the time we reached Tamri Beach we were all glued to the west-facing windows, watching huge aquamarine waves break towards gold sand.

Not Tamri Beach, but our favorite sunbathing spot in Tamraght.

We had finally traded the crowded, juvenile beach breaks for something resembling our surfing goals.

Now don’t get confused, this isn’t Chasing Mavericks, and we were only dealing with 3-4 footers, but by golly did that surf day churn us up like fresh butter. Nathan and I, and our new French friends from the surf camp were paddling for our lives just to get past the point break and into calm waters to catch something. It was arduous, it was ceaseless, it was utterly exhausting.

But it was so exhilarating.

I probably managed to catch a handful of waves, and a lot of them I had to wait until they broke and pushed me out, cause I was simply too tired to paddle with the strength that those big waves needed.

When I did manage to stand up, and feel myself drop a foot or two down the wave, and turn in the surf to ride the churning wash for 30, 40, 50 meters…I was hooked. It always gave me enough resolve to turn my board around and paddle back into the chaos for the chance at another go.

So yeah…it wasn’t what we were expecting. But we don’t travel because we know it’ll be easy, and comfortable, and fun all the time. That’s what vacations and resorts are for— and they definitely have their upsides for those reasons.

We travel to discover something new, to challenge the way we see the world, to reignite dormant curiosities that bubble up like boiling water when you’re exposed to unfamiliarity.

So I’m very grateful. Both to have been here, and to be moving on.

Lau <3

p.s. a big gratitude shoutout to my other half, who experiences and loves and cherishes me in all my negativity and hard days and funkiness (as there’s been plenty lately) so that I can wake up with enough resolve to put a positive twist on my letter to you guys x