9 Lessons Learned from Traveling to Morocco with 9 Girlboss Women
<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=314&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Facanelaexpeditions%2Fvideos%2F358298988369365%2F&show_text=false&width=560" width="560" height="314" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe>9 Women, 9 Cities, 9 Lessons Learned
I just finished one of my favorite trip experiences of the year – an incredible 7-day expedition with 9 incredible women to Morocco. This trip I was joined by:
Preethi
Sangita
Meghan
Emily
Srujana
Rashi
Gillian
Brenna
Reggie
These 9 incredible women are doing amazing things in the world and I learned so much by spending a week with them and exploring a stunning country. While you may not have had the chance to join us this round, let me share with you some of the things I learned from these incredible Girlboss women in Morocco:
- Exploration is Innovation
Many of the girls in our group had never been to Morocco, and as we saw how people lived, worshipped, ate and loved – our eyes were opened to new ways to approach challenges and opportunities. Your learn new ways to innovate when you explore.
- Life takes Grit
Life will throw many punches and obstacles your way and some can knock you right off your feet (like jetlag when you step off a 14-hour flight). You can persevere through almost anything so long as you have enough grit and passion to fuel you!
- Understand your Purpose
Learning the history, culture, and traditions of people around the world helps us to understand them better and motivates us to seek out our purpose in life. Lifelong goals can lead to lifelong outcomes when it is anchored in a purpose – understand it!
- Failure is necessary
Little did people know that Rome tried to Conquer Morocco many years ago over and over again, and they failed each time. While I’m sure defeat wasn’t the objective – we learn a lot more from our failures than we do our successes – so fail daily! It is okay.
- Find a mentor
Having someone to rely on who has walked your road ahead of you is an incredible resource. With anything in life – learn to rely on those who have gone ahead of you and learn all you can from them.
- Be vulnerable
While on this trip we decided to visit a traditional Moroccan Bathhouse with the local women; traditional means no swimsuits or covering and no judgement. Throw your insecurities aside and embrace yourself.
- Get out of your Comfort Zone
Great things never come from staying comfortable. It is at the edge of your comfort that you learn and grow. Kind of like stepping on a plane to fly over 10,000 miles to travel with a group of women you hardly know.
- You can’t do it alone
If you know me – I’m a LONE WOLF in how I work, but what I’ve realized is that you can only get so far on your own. You need people and you need a pack.
- Build a Community
Spending a week hanging out with such incredible women gave me new friends and mentors to turn to… over the years I’ve become obsessed with Peer to Peer learning because I’ve seen it completely change the way I travel, the way I grow my business, and the way I approach my life.
So the next time you are stuck in life, that career change, or you just don’t know what’s next… take a “Girlboss” Trip to a foreign country you’ve never visited before and take a moment to learn from those around you – it can completely change your perspective on life.
Grab your backpack there is more to explore!
If you are curious what our itinerary looked like, keep reading:
Day 1 – Casablanca
Today we were in Casablanca and we arrived at the airport for transferring to robot such a beautiful drive.
When we all arrive from the airport we met in robot a beautiful little city actually the capital city Morocco that’s on the northern coast we stayed at a beautiful hotel and our first activity was going to a traditional American restaurant for dinner. We tried couscous to Jean lots of Moroccan salad‘s and lots and lots of bread and it was an incredible meal and even better conversation. When you get 10 women together in particular 10 girls are swimming together the conversations are endless and the lessons learned are incredible. On night when we went to bed at a decent hour so we could wake up early the next day and hit the ground running. On the itinerary is to visit Magness verbalists and onwards to fez my favorite city in all of Morocco. I’m so excited to be here with such incredible women traveling teaches you lots of things from the local people local community local food but also being able to learn so much from the Travelers that you’re traveling with is priceless. On the trip we have nine women myself PreethiSue Jana Sangita Rashi Emily Brianna Megan Jillian and Reggie. Let the good times roll.
Day 2 – Casablanca to Fes
Date you I woke up to a beautiful sunrise outside our window which opened up to a giant pool in the courtyard area of the Riad. It would’ve been a little warmer I would’ve had my swimsuit on and would’ve been watching the sunrise from the pool. But even from watching it from our glass door windows it was super incredible. We went and enjoyed a delicious breakfast at the Riyadh before setting off for a first for David hunters first stop hitting the highlights of robot including some of the famous masks the Kasbah to moms and beautiful old Medina‘s which essentially means that all center of the city we have Reggie and incredible photographer with us which makes it so fun to not only explore and learn about the history talk with the locals and experience the culture but also to be able to capture the moments of everything that’s happening the laughter the smile’s the local interactions and of course all the beautiful and unique doors that make Muraco so unique. After visiting Rebecca at we continued on to macula‘s for lunch and a midway stop to visit some of the beautiful markets and Medina and caused by or castle of the city. One thing that I and all the girls loved about morocco is how many cats there are in particular how many cuteAdorable little fluffy kittens just walking in every single corner of the city.
After Meknès we continued on to phase it’s several hours drive in between cities in morocco which gives you a lot of wonderful moments to be able to talk with each other which is great when you’re traveling with a group full of girls. So many stories to share and so many lessons to learn. I’m going to have to dedicate an entire post to just the lessons I learned from these incredible women on the trip. We arrived in Fez just in time to check into our beautiful cozy little Riyadh in the City Medina Center, Medina and go to have some delicious dinner. This was also the first night that we hosted one of our girl boss workshops I I shared about how to build your personal brand and how to monetize your passion and we ended up chatting until past midnight not only did I share about my experience but I also learned so much from the experiences of each of the women.
Day 3 – Exploring Fes
Today is our first full day in fairs arguably the best city in morocco and definitely my favorite. Why do I like fez so much? Well because it’s full of so many diverse people local artisans call and corners in the Medina that are just filled with interesting things such as shops little restaurants or riads warmer or mansions and hanging lanterns everywhere. Our first stop was to a ceramic workshop where we had the chance to make our own jeans or other items out of ceramics and Clay. If you’ve never thrown a pot before it’s actually really really hard but really fun at the end of the workshop we have the chance to walk to the gallery and see how all the different artist since painted tiled and assembled so many incredible dishes and fountains and different artist and good that you find in morocco. After the workshop we headed into the Médina on the way we stopped at if you look beautiful view point to see the city and then we had it straight into the old city to be able to walk through the markets and really experience says. When you walk into the old Medina one of the first things you will find is a sheep head and a camel head hanging from the wall don’t let the scare you it’s just a way to welcome you to the interesting corners of the city you can try she brains and you can try camel hump meat if you really want to it’s not bad I may have tried it once. When you first enter in Madinah you enter all the streets filled with food and it’s really incredible to see the diversity of the dried fruits and nuts interesting animals the vegetables the fruits the delicious desserts and fragrant to jeans really it’s a kaleidoscope of smells and things that you just can’t take your eyes offf. After walking through the food section you went through one of my favorite sections of the Médina which is the artist in section where people are working on metal projects sharpening knives making lanterns weaving carpet‘s making Shaws and even tanning leather. One of my favorite places to visit in phases the leather tanneries which art world famous and is one of the reasons why faces UNESCO world heritage 30. It’s also UNESCO world heritage city because it’s the largest city with no car is allowed you can only walk through many of the parts of the old man do you know which make it a very interesting place to explore. We spent all day in the old Medina how we didn’t end up having lunch until about 4 PM because we were so enthralled but everything there was to learn. We stopped at a communal bakery and tried delicious bread honey straight from the beehives goat cheese freshly made and then we continue to see the leather tanneries and the carpet workshop and even the weaving shop where they take cactus or agave to make silk scarf’s. Overall it was a busy day and we ended up at our we had late at night absolutely exhausted yet energized from the incredible day.Tomorrow we head to the blue city of chef showered and we’re all so excited so for now let’s go get some dinner and try to get some sleep. Every night we all gather in one girls room to talk about the highlights of the day and share some of our photos and videos and memories, it’s definitely a highlight of the trip.
Day 4 – Fes to Chefchaouen
Bright and early we’re up having a traditional Breakfast of lots of Maroc in bread honey is jams cheeses all lives and pretty much any bread topping you can think of. Also have I told you about the orange juice and the mint tea. Wow. Yep it is incredible as they tell you. Did you know that Locals when they welcomed me to their home raise the tea kettle high above their head as they pour the mint tea into your glass. Legend has it that the higher the tea kettle is the more welcome you are, I think we are pretty welcome to because sometimes the teakettles were so high that you did not even make it into the glass. Ha ha we set up for step shift we set up for Shasha in early in the morning a 3 to 4 Hour Dr. from Fez that takes you through the roof mountains a very beautiful drive along the way we stopped at some of the old Roman ruins that are in morocco. A lot of people don’t know that the Romans were in morocco but yes they were and it’s really incredible to see the impact that they left. We ride and shave shower and in time for lunch which we enjoyed at a local restaurant with a beautiful view overlooking the blue city. If I could buy a house anywhere in morocco it would definitely be a chef showered. Then for the rest of the afternoon we took a guided tour through chef shower and to learn about why the city was blue and also some of the secret local gyms such as the Hammam communal bakery that’s orange juice stop and of course the bluest corners of the city. We spent a lot of time taking photos in the afternoon I mean how could you not in a place so cute and charming. Once again in the evening we were tired to our Riyadh to enjoy some relaxing time as well as an incredible workshop. Also last minute we were invited by some Moroccan women to join them in the local hi Mom. If you don’t know whatever Mom is it’s a traditional Maroc in bathhouse where the Moroccan women goGo to bathe but more than that they go to hang out and talk and chat and be with their friends. It was pretty cool to be able to experience this and also was a very vulnerable moment in our trip because in the moms there are no bathing suits no clothes no underwear and just Acceptance and friendship. Even though that her mom was not an original part of our itinerary it became a highlight for many of the women on the trip because we were able to spend an evening with the local Maroc in women outside of how we normally see them, often very covered and very serious. Not often do we get time to just sit relax and build friendships and this was an incredible evening.
Day 5 – Chefchaouen to Tangier
On words to Tangier. Well after of course another morning taking photos and enjoying the markets in chef schauen. Says sit Tangier is our 2 Hour Dr. N. of chef schauen and is the northernmost city in morocco you can actually see Spain from Tangier as it sits right along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Tangier is a beautiful little city it feels more European then African and even Maroc in, but it is a little bit more rough around the edges so we were able to stay at a boutique hotel in the middle of the Medina and spend the evening really exploring and enjoying the local culture. It was a great day and we really got to explore a lot.
Day 6 – Tangier to Marrakesh
This time we had a route was a little unique for the trip that we are on we flew this morning from Marrakesh on a very early morning flight so we could spend a full day exploring Marrakesh. We visited there but tentacle Gardens the Mejena the markets and ended up at a beautiful boutique hotel where we could relax and enjoy our last day together. Some of the girls back carpet lanterns Shaws so many unique ceramics and beautiful things to be able to take home with them after their trip. We had one of our last meals together and a delicious sure shawarma shop yes even though Shawarma is technically from Lebanon Syria Egypt Area we still decided to stop and try some delicious Middle Eastern food since some of the girls have never been to enervate country before. Was also Brenna‘s birthday today so we celebrate her 30th all together and it was really incredible way to end the trip. I’ve learned so much from these women it’s going to be really hard to leave tomorrow but I know that we will come together again for another trip. When you meet people and travel together more is family than friends, you know that it’s not the last time. I’m already looking forward to their next trip together, and I can’t wait to see where it takes us
Day 7 – Depart
Today we departed Casablanca for home; it’s been a great trip and I can’t wait until the next one!
