Life Unfiltered

Yesterday Marbella displayed life with glitz and glamour. Everything was shiny and new and filtered through the lens of opulence and money.

Today we're in Morocco and went out an hour from the city to a town called Tétouan. The town is a UNESCO world Heritage site because they have not torn down or changed anything from the past to improve it or make it modern. The same market stalls that were used in the 15th and 16th century are still here and still being used. All of the vendors work from an area about the size of a normal American bathroom. If everything yesterday was a filtered version of life, today's trip was totally unfiltered. The city was dirty and dusty, filled with litter and millions of cats roaming around. Plastic garbage bags were stacked ten-deep against the sides of a thousand buildings.

Walking into the souk was like stepping back in time. We like to brag about eating at farm-to-table restaurants. Today we saw the chickens roaming around on the floor in a stall while other chickens that had just been killed were lying dead upon the table to be plucked and sold. That's the part of farm to table we in the U. S. don't like to think about.

A friend of ours on a previous cruise told us that in some ports you have to go nose-deaf. You simply breathe in through your nose five times and then the smells around you aren't quite as horrible. Today, walking through the market, we smelled blood, guts, dead fish, excrement, urine and body odors. It was life at its most basic, and nothing was hidden behind a closed curtain. Excrement and blood from several different animals was deposited, tracked and smeared through the narrow alleys.

Today we witnessed the brutality and simplicity of life. Women were sitting on the ground, trying to sell their fresh herbs and beans and potatoes while cats roam looking for food anywhere they could find it.

It is good to be reminded that not everything is pristine and clean, and that for us to eat, something else must die. Meat does not come from a grocery store. It comes from the lamb that I saw being slaughtered in a stall as we walked through the market.

And yet in this world, there was kindness and graciousness and a willingness to help and to please. I've been on a mission to find a plate similar to one hanging in my kitchen for a friend. The shop that we went into with our tour group did not have anything that I thought was appropriate and so our little assistant guide Mohammed said that he would take me individually to some other shops to see if I could find the plate. I did not find the plate, but I found a world that even our tour group did not see. I saw a world of people doing everything they could just to survive and provide for their families.

After spending five or six hours in a country where basic cleanliness is absent, I truly do appreciate my house and my bathroom and my kitchen and my refrigerator and my grocery store. And I promise you that the next time I eat in a farm-to-table restaurant, I will remember the lamb and the chickens in the market here.

We travel to see the world, the beautiful and the brutal and the wonderful people who are simply going about their lives doing the best they can. Immersing ourselves in the culture of a country makes us a travelers not tourists. And that makes all the difference.Read more