T.I.A (This Is Africa)

I have been in Morocco now for 24 hours. To me, a guy from a Western 1st world country, being in Morocco is like being in another planet. This is the town of Larache, where I am racing tomorrow.

The scenery is beautiful, but it is spoiled by rubbish and half finished structures.

There are bins around, but their use is unknown to the people who live here. There is wonderful architecture, but it seems people the buildings have been forgotten, and everything is decaying.

The roads and streets are filthy and in ruins, and there doesn't seem to be anyone willing to fix them.

There seems to be no employment here what so ever (apart from merchants and fisherman), and everyone just hangs out with nothing to do. People sit in cafes with no food or drink in front of them, but yet, there are ATM's around everywhere.

Even all the animals are cruising the streets, dead and alive.

I have heard great things about the Moroccan cuisine, but I haven't seen much evidence of that. All there seems to be is bread, and the fish markets. The fish markets credibility is questionable, I was told this Shark has been for sale for 2 days now.

There is seldom any police, it seems things just go by the order of chaos. I'm sure in a place like this, it's survival of the fittest. Even windshields are surviving by any means possible.

In my opinion, bliss and void are inseparable in this place. It has not been my intention to show the worst of Morocco, but to suggest that if an ITU triathlon can be held in a place like this, its evidence of how global our sport is, and that there are no limitations as to how far our wonderful sport can go.

Viva la Morocco.

Josh