Blogs from Chefchaouen, Tangier-Tétouan, Morocco, Africa - page 4

Hello..?? is there a taxi in the house? Obviously not, or not enough anyhow. The quick CTM bus trip from Fes left us at a building site in downtown Chaouen. The local chaffeurs hadn't been briefed on the location of the new Gare Routiere and it took us the best part of an hour to hail one to get us up to the Hotel Tabouta. A bad start got better though as we discovered why this small Rif valley town has become a bit of a haven for backpackers in recent years. I would liken it too Pai in Thailand for anyone who has been. The slow pace, low hassle vibe was just what we needed after 3 big cities on the trot. Hotel Batouta wasn't a bad start. It was cosy and had a nice ... read more

I have now officially been to 4 continents! I doubt I got the full scope of Africa, but it was a start. At the beginning, on Friday, we left Granada around 1:30 in the afternoon to drive to Algeciras where we caught the ferry to Ceuta. Ceuta is right across the straight of Gilbralter (we saw the Rock) and is technically still Spainish territory. Interesting Factoid about Ceuta, it is where Franco declared The Spanish Civil War: we saw the building (from a bus) Anyway, once we reached the continent of Africa, we still hadn't reached Morocco. Customs took forever; they are very stirct. Its one of the political problems plaguing Spain at the moment (immigration, etc) If you need an analogy, think Cuba...except Spain trades with Morocco. Anyway, we finally got through cutoms and reached ... read more

We both actually managed to get up at six thirty and surprisingly our first argument wasn't until much later on. We caught a petit taxi to the station and the driver tried the usual tricks of 10dh each for baggage even though the journey only cost 10dh itself. Due to the early morning I wasn't feeling up to my usual heated argument, so I told him he could take 14dh for everything or nothing at all. Maybe he sensed that to mess with me first thing in the morning was a dangerous thing, but he accepted with little protest. With the taxi antics dealt with, we went inside for a breakfast of pastry and juice. The bus journey was longer than I had believed it would be, so we didn't arrive in Chefchaouen until nearly one. ... read more

Starting to Explore Morocco As most people do, I took the ferry from Algeciras to Tangiers. After inquiring about times and prices I thought it was worth it paying a bit more for the fast boat, cutting the trip short from two and a half hours to one hour. Little did I know that the boat would be over an hour late and the trip would take two and a half hours anyway, most of that time spent balancing on a shaking hall, queueing up with other two hundred people to have my passport stamped. 'At least I won't have to queue up again' - I tried to make myself feel better. The immigration and customs in Tangiers is the worst imaginable caotic scene I could ever think of. Once more I had to queue up ... read more