Devil's Apple (S. linnaeanum) from Bni Bouayach, Morocco

I took these pictures an year ago during my visit to Morocco. While the quality is not great, the plant itself is interesting. I stumbled across few of these just outside of the village Bni Bouayach. The temperature was around 46C and the ground was completely dry and burning hot, but seems they were thriving there. I would assume it is a Devil's Apple (S. linnaeanum), but I am not 100% sure, so if I am wrong, correct me, please. It looks a bit like spiny tomato and is pretty easy to be mistaken with the wild eggplant, which is actually closely related species. Also it is worth mentioning that the species is poisonous, so be careful if you come across one.

Devil's Apple (S. linnaeanum) from Bni Bouayach, Morocco

Devil's Apple (S. linnaeanum), closer view

A few more pictures from Tangier

I have a few more pictures from Tangier, which while are not the highest quality photography may happen to be interesting in general.

Cannon at the Tangier's beach

Tangier's Beach

Another view of the Tangier's Beach walkway

One of the main streets of Tangier

Cafes in the Tangier's Medina

Some older (rather not maintained) parts of Tangier

Tangier, near the coast

Small closure with very tall orange trees in Tangier

Typical cat from Tangier, skinny and with strangely shaped heads

I always assumed that the stray cats around the world in 21st century are already very mixed and uncharacteristic, but from what I've seen recently, that is not true and there are a lot of regional races, some of which have striking and particular looks. One of these interesting types of cats I've seen in the northern parts of Morocco. Obviously most of these cats are undernourished, but even these that live close to fisherman's areas and are rather fattish exhibit similar looks, light bone structure, wide muzzle, etc. The cat on the picture is stray from some market in Tangier and came to see me while I've been buying food. It was skinny and a bit cautious, but piece of meat helped to gain its confidence, so I could take the photos.


Fishers in the Tangier's evening

Evening walk along Tangier's coast

View from my window in midnight

Travels through Morocco - Tangier

So happened that last summer I had a chance to visit Morocco thanks to friends of mine who went on holiday  there and invited me to travel with them. All I can say is that I was very pleasantly surprised by the people, nature and country in general. Now, an year latter I decided to share this experience I had and show you few of the things I've seen there.

First we traveled from mainland Spain to the Spanish enclave Ceuta with the ferry and then we crossed the border between the countries. The ferry itself was a bit of hassle, mostly in regard to finding cheaper tickets and more convenient times, but otherwise it was relatively fast and pleasant trip. After that he crossing of the border was relatively fast too, it took maybe no longer then 2 hours and it felt as a minor inconvenience and there were few things which could've been done better by the authorities, but at the end it was still far better then what I expected.

Once we entered in the country, we went to drive straight to Tangier were a friend of my travel-mates was waiting for us. The guy was a local dude, who generally speaking lives and works in Spain or France, but regularly comes back to his native country. Meeting him remained me for the dreaded African lack of any kind of punctuality. He said is coming in 15 min, but appeared about 2 hours latter walking non-nonchalantly and without showing any signs, that there something may be wrong. This was actually very good to happen to me the very first day, because it called my attention, so I can prepare myself accordingly and accept this particular quirk as inevitable part of the picture, just like the snow in the winter and so I can start enjoying even that. However the things with the lack of punctuality run much deeper and are probably rooted in the human biology, but I'll talk about this some other time in the future.

There is a lot that can be said about Tangier, but for now I'll mention only that my first impression was that this place is an even mix between the most modern and new buildings and infrastructure on one hand and old or plainly strange on another. For today I'll post few of the pictures, so everybody can judge for himself. Thanks for reading and I hope you'll like it.

Out of Ceuta

Tangier's beach

Tangier beach walkway

Tangier's centre

Tangier central place - view of the Medina's entrance

Tangier's Mdina

Tangier's Spanish colonial style buildings and cafes

Small walkway in the old parts of Tangier

Secret passage in the Tangiers Medina