Two Months Living & Volunteering in a Moroccan Surf Hostel
Here's what two months in Anza looked like
After what felt like dozens of applications to hostels across Morocco, Jordan and I finally secured a two-month volunteer spot through Worldpackers at a surf hostel in Anza, a quiet beach town just north of Agadir. At first, we had mixed feelings. We were pumped to have finally gotten a position (we had started to lose hope), but part of us wished for a bit livelier of a town. All I can say is don’t judge a book by its cover. Anza turned out to be the perfect spot for us, easily accessible to the larger and more chaotic towns, but still our own little sanctuary
[Want to know more on how we applied and got the spot? I’ve got a whole post about that here!]
Ramadan
We actually arrived to Anza on the first day of Ramadan, arriving on the doorsteps as the first fast of the month was broken. The stillness of Ramadan allowed us a few days to get settled into a rhythm at the hostel without anything being too crazy. It also made the town of Anza seem a lot quieter than it is for the rest of the year. At least once during the month, every single one of the volunteers fasted to try to experience some of the culture. After Eid, things sped up in Anza a bit, there were more hotel excursions, more people out and about on the street and there were way more restaurants open after. If this interests you, I actually have a whole blog post up on my experience with Ramadan, Eid and my whole two days of fasting [read here]
Hostel life
One of the most amazing things about volunteering at a hostel, or even just staying at a hostel, for so long is the amount of people that you meet. Guests, other volunteers, locals or random people that show up. I have a theory that its really easy to click with other volunteers because there is a certain set of life decisions and personality choices that have led you to be at the same place, doing the same thing, at the same time. Not to mention you are stuck in the same place and situation for a few weeks, which makes bonding basically inevitable
The work around the hostel wasn’t too much either. We had one five hour shift per day, we worked six days a week, sometimes we had to answer questions from guests while we were on shift. But other than that it was mostly just hanging around the hostel, going to taghazout with friends or other volunteers, doing a bit of other work, or hanging around with the hostel’s cat and kittens.
Surfing
The surf culture in Anza was really interesting. Most tourists really only come to Anza for the surf, because theres not much else to do in the area.That being said, the surf in Anza is good. Usually pretty big. Sometimes huge surf schools would come to the beaches of Anza because when there is no surf elsewhere, we still had waves in Anza. That means when there was surf everywhere else, the waves in Anza were often too big for beginners. Once Jordan finally got the hang of surfing though, he would head out to the lineup and most days the surf was fantastic for him!
For me, the surf was all around too big. I think I would have excelled if the waves were like one foot high to begin with, but they were usually closer to a meter. Even though I mostly stayed in the whitewash waves, they were just so big and I couldn’t handle it. I went surfing about four times before deciding that I wasn’t even having fun. From that point I decided to just have fun on the sand, and every once in a while dip in the ocean.
The food
Jordan and I have decided that Moroccan food is the best cuisine that we have tried thus far. The only close second would be fish and chips. Anza had fantastic traditional moroccan restaurants which had the classics: tagine, couscous. The town wasn’t big enough for there to be restaurants that also served classics like rfissa and pastilla, but we managed to find some in other towns nearby [like Essaouira ;)].
One of the main industries in Anza was fishing, so you better believe that had good fish restaurants! You could go to a fish place that has fish on ice, you order it and then they grill it up, or there are also places that do fried fish which I really enjoyed.
But my favorite food to eat out by far was seafood tagine. Any time you ordered it, you knew that you had to plan to be there for at least an hour and a half, because they put the tagine on the fire when you order it. About halfway though waiting, when you’re nice and hungry, the smell of fresh seafood, butter and garlic wafts over to you table and you begin to salivate. Finally, when the chefs are done taunting you, they bring out a beautiful display of seafood, garlic and cheese. The only acceptable way to eat a seafood tagine (well really any tagine for that matter) is with your hands and some bread, and so I did. Many, many times.
I also did a lot of eating in. As good as all of the tagines, fish, shwarmas and French tacos were, sometimes nothing beats a home cooked meal. And seeing as I finally had access to a kitchen, fridge and pantry, I made a lot of food at home. The hostel we were at was just a few minutes walk from the local soup, where you could get fruits, veggies, spices and just about anything you really needed to make a dinner. [Find four of the recipes I made often here]
Not everything was perfect… but it was close
In two months a lot of good happened, but I won’t lie and say it was all smooth sailing. Jordan and I had a seemingly endless cold that just wouldn’t go away. Jordan was so sick for a few nights he couldn’t even sleep in the bedroom because it was too stuffy and he would cough all night long. I only managed to go surfing four times because I was so afraid of the big waves. Despite all of this, our time went by too quickly. Somehow two months felt like two weeks. I had two months to enjoy in Anza, I wasn’t worried about doing everything all the time. Until one day, it was our last day and we were getting in the taxi, to go to the bus station, to go to the airport.
Final Thoughts
All in all, my two months volunteering at the surf house are probably the two best months that I have spent traveling thus far. There’s something about slow travel and actually living and fully experiencing a new environment that is so incredible. All of the people I met were amazing, I would live this experience again at Anza Surf House 100 times over again.
If you ever decide to to something like this at a surf hostel, anywhere in the world not just Morocco, I do have a few pieces of advice:
Apply early and to as many places as possible as surf hostels (and hostels in general) are a very desirable place to do a work-stay trade. You may not get the first one you apply to, but if you stay consistent and you are committed to finding a position, you will!
Keep an open mind to where you’re going, a hostel is a hostel and even if it isn’t in your dream location, you may just have a better time than you would have thought.
Always say yes! Whether it’s to surfing, or to a group hangout or excursion, because no matter how many times you go, you’ll never regret doing more.
xx abby
I love your “always say yes” advice. To experience your sites like a local is what it’s all about. And saying “yes” to what they do is key. It takes us outside our comfort zone - but makes us feel alive. I’m so happy for y’all!