International travel with all the excitement, all the intrigue—without the wheelies, without the passports, without the hassles.
Colorful Open-Air Markets
Beautiful Flowers
Entrancing Patterns
Exotic Destinations
Peaceful Courtyards
Mystical Labyrinths
Travel with us to Morocco on a quick, fun trip—Andalusian legacies, languorous gardens, ancient medinas and markets—colorful, exotic markets. These tales bring Mediterranean life to the comfortable home of the armchair traveler.
No, no, no—it’s not the evileye. Couldn’t be. The landscape wouldn’t tolerate such violation, would it?
Living in Tangier, 2000, Christopher Janus, CJ, during his six-month term abroad design study, explored northern Morocco. But his geographic explorations were not the entire story. He was swayed—swayed? How? By what?
Unlike CJ had ever imagined, that geography throbbed with a much larger pulse beat—that of the northwest Africa landscape….
If you are:
-A nature lover or a landscape aficionado;
-Curious about all things green—the environment, plants, gardening, horticulture;
-Intrigued about the northwest Africa multi-cultural, mystical history of people and plants, and their arcane interactions with strangers, then…
NOW, FOLLOW THAT LINK AND PICK UP THE FREE EBOOK, CURIOUS TALES—NOW!
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You wonder… who is this CJ?
CJ is an American, born in the Midwest, raised in New Mexico—a hard worker who found his muse in the landscape.
At university, he grew to embrace music, literature and all the fine arts with humanitarian, environmental and spiritual sensibilities. Did that help him in Morocco?
Studying landscape architecture, CJ was into pedestrian towns and warm sandy beaches. For his last class, that term abroad design study, he’s been in Tangier, a town with sandy beaches on the Med and a historical pedestrian district, the medina. But CJ got more than he bargained for… and it wasn’t a suntan or a relaxing time.
These 43 curious tales were CJ’s final submittal for his term abroad design study. CJ’s curious tales highlight the strangeness of the landscape he encountered in northwest Africa and… what he learned.
On an early summer day in Gibraltar I was relaxing on a hotel terrace, shaded by wisteria, looking towards Africa, Morocco, Tangier. At a table near me, I met a grizzly old American landscape architect named Herb Striet. He talked about the geography at the Strait of Gibraltar.
Why was Striet in Gibraltar?
Striet was in Gibraltar because his old-time Lebanese friend ran the bank where Striet kept his off-shore accounts. “It’s convenient,” Striet said, “I can easily go back to my Tangier if I want.” Then the conversation got weird. I couldn’t understand. He twisted. I got twisted; but I listened.
“Heh, heh,” he said, “…if… if I want.” I didn’t really get the picture. He continued. I summarize.
All the while he had been working and living in the Arabian Peninsula, Striet said he had missed the freedom of Morocco, North Africa, the Maghreb. He had missed the accessibility of the Moroccan people. He had missed the intimate human nature of their medina public realm. He had missed life in Morocco, very real, just 100% Moroccans 100% of the time–Morocco, where daily life was not flash like the oil-countries of the Arabian Peninsula. He told me his daily public realm life in the oil-rich Middle East was awkwardly filled with contracted, sad-faced expatriate service people.
At the end, I finally understood, almost, that Striet had a love/hate thing with Morocco. So nice… but…
And all this is mellowed-out by C418’s cut “Door” on his Alpha album.
Curious Tales: The Prequel is free to read on Kindle Vella at this link: https://bit.ly/3Hv6p2p
And the story behind Curious Tales is Tangier Gardens and it is available on Amazon at this link: https://amzn.to/3HLrtyv
Curious Tales Ebook will launch 15April at a huge discount: Sign up here for details: https://bit.ly/3q5lcaq
