Blogs from Chefchaouen, Tangier-Tétouan, Morocco, Africa
May 22nd 2012
We set off for Tarifa, both now on F800GS, via the superb A-355(?) which swooped around the foothills of Marbella, winding slowly through its descent of the hills. As we approached the coast you were rewarded with pristine vistas of the med, dropping away far to your left in an azure blue sky and you could clearly see Gibraltar sat up proud and arrogant. Once we hit the coast motorway there was less interest until it again climbed near to Tarifa and at last you could see Africa looming as close as the Isle of Wight. Surely even Vince’s stomach would hold for that? Err no. We messed up the ferry times so had a 2 hour wait at the dock, but finally the catamaran got underway. Once Vince’s yawn rate exceed more than 2 a ... read more
Chefchaouen, cidade azul nas montanhas
Published: May 7th 2012Africa » Morocco » Tangier-Tétouan » Chefchaouen
April 28th 2012
O caminho a Chefchauen eh lindo. Rodeado de montanhas, ovelhas, muito verde. Chegando lah, encontrei meu novo host na estacao de onibus, ainda bem, pois estava chovendo. Ele mora com mais dois amigos, que sao bem legais, um nao fala Ingles, o outro sim. Mas na hora do aperto a gente se comunica de qualquer jeito. A lingua dos sinais funciona. Eles me levaram no topo da montanha para ver a cidade, abaixo de chuva. A chuva estava caindo devagar, entao sem problemas, mas estava frio... e eu achando que estava no Marrocos, calor, bermuda, camiseta, mas que nada... frio mesmo!!! A noite comemos uma especie de risoto Marroquino e assistimos TV. No dia seguinte, ficamos em casa boa parte do dia, pois nao parava de chover. A tardinha, quando a chuva parou, fomos dar uma ... read more
March 13th 2012
Tuesday Day three This morning most of us were woken by the first call to prayer. At 5am. I awoke in surprise but was content in my sleeping bag listening to the closest call, the mosque being just behind the camping grounds, and could also hear another call from further away, both combining to make a lovely melodious tune. It was a less hurried morning as we weren’t leaving until 9am which gave us plenty of time. The conversation was lively in the truck as we made our way to Chefchaouen which I hadn’t been to on the previous visit to Morocco and was very much looking forward to. Eventually I drifted off to sleep and awoke to winding roads which took us high into the hills to a campsite that overlooked the valley below. Tents ... read more
September 18th 2011
My last entry for Morocco and how to sum it up. If you have read my other blogs about it you can probably tell I love the country. If not you just may be a little dense. My words this time will focus on Chefchaouen. Picture a small and Arabic city nestled into the side of a mountain. The city's walls are painted baby blue and arsenic white. Its a city of music and art, where life slows down and one can take time to absorb the subtitles. From a giant bumble bee floating from flower to flower or a sweet breeze rolling in from Mediterranean from the north. Sitting, taking in a sun set wreathed by the milky way, covering every color one can see and ended with echoes of 20 men at their Mosques ... read more
April 24th 2011
The hotel breakfast was an ordinary, tasteless, carb-dominated affair of chewy roti, dry pastries and stale pittas - not impressed. The only things with any taste were some horrible olive-infused luncheon, hard-boiled eggs and some very salty olives. However, it was included in the price and I had a journey ahead of me so I force-fed myself as much breakfast as I could. The journey was one by bus from Tangier to Chefchaouen, a supposedly charming and picturesque town in the Rif Mountains. On arrival in Chefchaouen, my hostel directions say that the hostel is about a fifteen minute walk from the bus station - but it never said that it was a fifteen minute walk up. Looking at the very steep incline before me (as well as two stray cats shagging off the side of ... read more
April 18th 2011
Droga na polnoc dosc toporna,godziny wyczekiwania na stopa. I trafila kosa na Meknes pierwsze miasto gdzie po czterech godzinach poddalismy sie i rozbilismy namiot,nie chcieli nas w zadnym hotelu :( Rano poczulismy sie jak w Europie.Pojawila sie policja ale nie by nas pogonic jak to u nas bywa,ale by przestrzec bysmy tu nie zostawali na noc bo bardzo niebezpiecznie. Powiedzielismy im ze,czemu spalismy juz dzis i bardzo spokojnie bylo. No,ale my mamy super ochrone,ze powinni tez sprobowac , usmiali i poszli. Zawitalismy w miasteczku o dosc ciekawej historii,Szafszawan po berbersku "patrz na szczyty" i rzeczywiscie miasteczko otoczone poteznymi gorami Rif. Zdziwilismy sie troche, bo temperatura prawdopodobnie taka jak w Polsce nie przekracza 20stopni. Miasto zalozone pod koniec pietnastego wieku,zaczelo sie rozwijac wraz z osiedlaniem uchodzcow z podbijanej przez ... read more
March 14th 2011
I have to admit that I’ve spent the last three weeks attending school rather intermittently. My week is already only 4 days long and we were given last Monday off because Christmas fell on a Sunday last year. Yes, the Barcelona government felt they didn’t receive enough vacation time during the holidays this year (Christmas is huge here – they were celebrating their biggest part of Christmas when I arrived on January 6th) and was generous enough to declare a city-wide holiday last Monday. I didn’t mind. In the last three weeks I’ve found myself in Africa, Ireland, and the south of Spain. It hasn’t left much time for school, or blogging, but today I find myself back in Barcelona sitting in a café, sipping on my Café Jamaica (yum), watching the rain pound on the ... read more
March 11th 2011
SOLITARY CAT, CHEFCHAOUEN, MOROCCO Admiring this surreal image, viewers first think that the extensive Delft Sky blue has been achieved with a computer-generated program, realizing quickly that the cat’s fur, although not as white as it could be, certainly is not blue. Chefchaouen, the name itself extraordinary, is unlike anywhere else in the world. Although the blue is not restricted to Chefchauoen (also called Chaouen, Xaouen), nowhere else in North Africa is this dreamlike colour given such prominence, with such impact. The entire residential area of the medina, a walled city section featuring constricted labyrinthine lanes, displays spectacular hues of blue, a shadowy dark shade nearest the earth, fading in phases, with the upper walls a powdery blue-white. Sheltered by steep hills, Djebala tribespeople settled in this remote, isolated area in 1471 A.D. welcoming only Mu ... read more
From South to North via Marrakech
Published: March 2nd 2011Africa » Morocco » Tangier-Tétouan » Chefchaouen
March 2nd 2011
Exploring the South Highlights of our tour of the south of the High Atlas was a shortish stay at Tafraoute where we used the bike to visit some strange painted rocks out of town. This proved to be our most southerly stop and we then started our slow journey north to the ferry. We meant to skirt Agadir, rebuilt after the deverstating earthquake in 1962, but drove straight through the centre and up the coast. On to Essaouria a lovely resort of some age having been founded by the Phoenicians or earlier. A gull knocked over Lesley's wine glass while we were having a fish lunch as it dived for her food. We ate the food but left the plates early to move from the ogling gulls (and cats). Marrakech This city was a different type ... read more
January 6th 2011
Our ferry back to Spain inexplicably stopped at Gibraltar so I guess technically we’re in the UK right now, hoping that the next stop for this giant ship is Algeciras, where we were supposed to be heading. There was probably some fine print (or even large print with my suspect Spanish skills) that mentioned that the half hour Tanger Med to Algeciras trip was actually a four hour trip on Fridays. Ahhh…the daily trevails of traveling. Good thing we didn’t plan to accomplish much today. We’ll just glorify it as a 3-country day cruise: ‘See Morocco, England and Spain in a day!’ After arriving Wednesday in Tanger Med on the Moroccan coast we were met by our host Terry who came along for the taxi ride in order to hit the supermarket in Tetouan on the ... read more
