writer and photographer
El Murciano presents a tourist guide to the south of Morocco for lovers of the desert, archeology and ski-surfing
Gonzalo Sánchez, from Murcia by birth and Saharawi by adoption, settled in 2011 in the city of Tantán, in southern Morocco. He has published a book where, according to what he tells THE TRUTH, he shows the most unknown part of Morocco in Spain, “the southern part”, specifically.
‘Cultural Tourism in the South of Morocco’ is a tourist guide full of maps, images, contact information, addresses, history and places of interest to visit in each of the seven cities it contains (Guelmim, Tantán, Tarfaya, El Aaiún , Smara, Bojador and Dakhla) even on the way between them.
–How did this project start?
–I started traveling to the south of Morocco in 2006, when Alejandro García, professor of history at the University of Murcia, invited me to accompany him to make a report on the Sahara, because I am also a photographer by profession. As a result of this trip visiting historical places, accompanying Alejandro in conducting interviews and thus knowing many stories and the land first-hand, I returned several times on my own because I was struck by the tourist potential of those regions and the lack of knowledge that exists in Spain.
HISTORY
«The Sahara is an archaeological footprint full of cave paintings, petroglyphs, burial mounds and pre-Islamic remains»
–What was your motivation for making this guide?
–With the first trip I was already surprised to see the reality of the Sahara that has nothing to do with the stories that some people tell us. I think that if there is a way for people to change their concept and their ideas on this field, it is to travel to the area and get to know it. That is why cultural tourism is fundamental and necessary to dismantle prejudices, and the way that I found related to my work is through the elaboration of this guide.
–When did you decide to start this job?
–Before starting to do this work, I studied the travel guides or publications about Morocco and I only found one magazine where in its last pages it mentioned hotels in one of the southern cities: El Aaiún.
I started in 2011, when I settled in Tantán, because there is a national park nearby, a place of passage for migratory birds and flamingos that later come to the Salinas de San Pedro del Pinatar. From then on, I traveled all over the Sahara and published the first edition in 2016.
–The last edition is from 2019 and it is already the third.
–Indeed, the first (2016) was presented at Crans Montana, an international forum organized in Dakhla. The second in 2017. There are several editions in a short time because these regions have the peculiarity that they are in continuous development and very fast. For example, in recent years sports hotels have been created since there is a very important international area for ski-surfing in what was Villa Cisneros during the Spanish era. In general, tourist infrastructures have evolved a lot.
CURIOSITY
«The author of ‘The Little Prince’, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, worked at Tarfaya airport»
–Is it the first guide in Spanish on this area of Morocco?
-Certain. The guide has been well received at the national level, it has been highly requested in large cities such as Barcelona and Madrid. People are interested in traveling and getting to know that land.
–What does the book include about each of the seven cities?
–The book includes the history of each city, culture and traditions, typical food, places of interest throughout the marked route and many details. Although with technology it seems that everything is easier and the way of traveling has changed, there when you get off the plane you no longer know who to call. That is why, for example, I provide a list of phone numbers for car rental companies that are not as many as in the north of the country and that probably do not appear on the internet. Also telephones of hospitals, police, firefighters and hotels, differentiating which ones are sports. In addition, I have divided the regions between the coastal area and the inland area. The potential of interior tourism is archaeological. The Sahara is an archaeological footprint everywhere, full of cave paintings, petroglyphs, burial mounds, pre-Islamic remains and much more. That together with the ancestral and traditional cultures.
–This art is collected in another publication, ‘Cave art in southern Morocco’.
-Exact. That book was commissioned from the Ministry of Culture and the heritage department, which is carrying out cataloging and certification work for these places. The work took me three months of visits to each of the aforementioned sites, to later give it visibility in Spain since it has been edited and printed here.
Tranquility
–Currently, he lives between Murcia and Tarfaya. What has brought him to that city, after Tantán?
–The tranquility, because it is a small city, the culture and the historical imprint of European colonialism, not only Spanish, but also English. There is the famous factory of Donald Mackenzie, an Englishman who settled there in the 19th century. Many people do not know that the author of the well-known book ‘The Little Prince’, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, worked at the Tarfaya airport, and that is where he began to write it. And above all the proximity to the Canary Islands and at the same time the tourist potential that it has being the closest point to Spain and Europe in turn.
I was going to settle in Dakhla, which is more developed due to its tourist and industrial potential due to fishing, but it is further away. In Tarfaya life is very comfortable and I am able to develop my projects in a very good way.
What projects are you working on right now?
–When I settled in Tarfaya I created the company Ediciones FenecDesign. It is a publisher of books and publications, design and advertising that is still running. Now I am with another company called EcoSahara. It is a project paralyzed by the pandemic, but the idea is a kind of camp in the coastal area to spend the night, live an adventure in the ‘jaimas’ (typical Moroccan tents) and learn about traditions and cultures of a different way. Today it is possible to reach the Sahara from anywhere in Spain on the same day thanks to the new airlines between Las Palmas and Guelmim that have been established about two months ago.
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