Rain Rain Go Away - journey to Chefchaouen

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Easter week brought with it a chance to travel, and Ben and I planned a trip to Morocco. Easter week is also very important in Spain with religious processions held daily, so I decided to shorten my trip to see some of them.

We caught an early bus from Cadiz to Tarifa, where bought our ferry tickets before breakfast and went on a brief tour of Tarifa. The beach looked lovely, the sea was calm and for once there wasn't much wind, but we could see ominous dark grey clouds gathering all the way out to sea. The area around the port was very heavily fortified as Tarifa has been a frontier city since before the 8th century. We saw the Guzman Castle, an old Umayyad castle built around 970AD, but it was closed while we were there. There were also many Arab style watchtowers and more modern looking bunkers dotted around the coastline. The skies were lead grey but we could vaguely make out the top of a mountain across the narrow stretch of water where you should be able to see the continent of Africa quite clearly.

The ferry trip to Tangier proved choppy with a long queue for passport control at the back. We arrived in good time and went through a security check so poor the metal detector failed to pick up the coke can in my hand. Outside we were immediately accosted by taxi drivers and the sounds and smells of Tangier. We were intent on walking to the bus station ourselves despite many suggestions to get a taxi. Two "friendly" local men tried to walk with us to "help" us, it starts already! We walked into a shop for directions, still speaking Spanish as our automatic foreign language, trying to remember some French (Ben) and Arabic (me). We found our way okay but started to rush when a clerk told us it was after 12pm - we were missing the bus! Luckily there was another bus going to Chefchaouen an hour later so we bought tickets and sat down in the cafe for lunch. Only then to realise that it was only 11:20 after all and we had missed nothing! Unwilling to throw away our e3 tickets (cheapskates) we decided to remain in Tangier for the later bus. We both had mint tea in the cafe, packed full of sugar, and a fried egg and cheese sandwich in a really large and flat bread roll - it was delicious! We tried to go for a brief walk around the area but it started raining, and besides Tangier was not looking promising, so we stayed in the bus station and people watched instead. The toilets were a hole-in-the-ground, with a tap and bucket nearby. They were quite smelly with no toilet paper or sink, and a man was sitting outside looking for tips for the wonderful service. We got talking to a man from Chefchaouen, who predictably started asking us where we were going to stay. Moroccan people oh so helpful!

The bus was due to leave at 1pm but there was no sign of it. The name of the bus company was different to the name on our tickets, and there were no platform numbers or any indications as to where it would be. One man told us to wait for a big yellow bus at one stop, while another man with two goats reliably informed us to wait a bit further down. Finally, 30mins late, our big yellow bus turned up, mounting the kerb as it turned and emitting an excessive quantity of black smoke! It was ancient! Inside the seats were all spread out randomly, we had loads of leg-room, but the couple opposite looked squashed. The seats were covered in oily looking pleather and the roof was peeling. Finally we were on the road again. We escaped out into the Moroccan countryside and climbed to some altitudes - clouds were rolling into the valleys below us and we could feel the air get a lot cooler. We managed it up the steep hills at about 10km per hour, with other buses overtaking us. We stopped at one point so that the bus driver could check out the condition of the tyres! But in the end we made it in about 3 hours, only for the bus driver to pull over just inside the town on the side of the road and tell us to get off! No bus station or anything! We had no idea where to go but with some guidance we found our way to the Medina (old part of the town). What a maze! Tiny narrow streets, stairs going up and down, paths petering out into dead ends or going into someones home - we naturally got a bit lost. Luckily we were able to enlist the "help" of a nearby loitering man and he brought us to where we wanted to go. We hadn't made any reservations - this holiday is all about winging it - but they had beds in their dorm. Yay!

The unique thing about Chefchaouen is that most of the buildings in the Medina have been white-washed with a blue rinse, by all accounts by the Jewish refugees who lived there during the 1930's. I don't know why this was but it makes the city very pretty and distinctive from anywhere else I've ever visited. It's a very popular tourist destination, especially for Spaniards, although it seemed relatively quiet in the rain. Nestled high up in the Kif mountains, it has quite a dramatic backdrop. Possibly another reason for it's popularity amongst tourists is the rife hashish business - cannabis is widely grown in the area, something hikers need to be aware of it they stumble onto a farm! The guy who led us to our hostel had offered us a few lumps of hash, something we saw a number of times on our trip. We didn't really have a lot of time to explore before it started lashing rain again, we took refuge in a very arty restaurant where we ate chicken with couscous and played card games 'til it was dry enough to leave!

The next day after a mint tea and pancake breakfast, we checked out of our cosy hostel and went for another walk around the town. It's a totally different experience without the rain! We were really able to appreciate the beauty of the place - the smooth lines and different shades and textures of the paint. We walked to the back of the Medina, picking up some deliciously cheap pastries along the way, and halfway up another mountain to a mosque for views over the city. It was even sunny! Then it was off to find the bus station, we managed to order our tickets to Fes in four languages which was partly necessary and partly showing off!

Overall I thought that Chefchaouen was a very pretty city, if obviously geared for tourists, and would be a lot nicer to explore in better weather. Definately will consider coming back if I can get some hiking in too to appreciate the Moroccan countryside.

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Photos

on the road!
Ben and I