Blogs from Chefchaouen, Tangier-Tétouan, Morocco, Africa

We discover that the activity of choice for young Tangierians at 5am on Sunday mornings is to tear up and down the main drag outside our waterfront hotel with their hands more or less constantly parked on their horns. At least now we don’t need to worry about our alarm clock not going off. And whilst on the subject of clocks and time, what time actually is it? I’ve got three “devices”, and at the moment they‘re displaying three different times. My iPad’s synched to the hotel wifi, so we think that’s probably right. Our phone company doesn’t do roaming in Morocco, but our phones occasionally detect a network across the water in Spain, and when they do they revert to Spanish time, which is an hour ahead. ... and my Fitbit… it’s always been a ... read more

February 26th2020 Chefchouen Morocco “You cannot travel the path until you have become the path itself.” Gautama Buddha “Virtue shuns ease as a companion…It demands a rough and thorny path.” Michel de Montaigne "To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself." Søren Kierkegaard “....there's no need for turning back 'Cause all roads lead to where we stand. And I believe we'll walk them all No matter what we may have planned.” Don McLean From a previous blog ( https://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Tangier-T-touan/Chefchaouen/blog-1031614.html ) : Chefchaouen (35.1695 -5.2685) was founded in 1471 as a small kasbah fortress to fight off the invading Portuguese. It is 113 km south-east of Tangier and is nestled at the base of the Rif Mountains (bes... read more

Leaving Spain at the Ceuta border you are greeted by a mass of taxis, but they are not all vying for your business. They seem to have a co-ordinator who takes all the hassle out getting a ride, and there’s no haggling for prices – they are fixed no matter how hard you try! It takes about two hours to travel along the pretty coastline, past Tétouan, and up into the beautiful hills to the blue city of Chefchaouen, all for €50. Not cheap, but we couldn’t be doing with getting a taxi to nearby Fnideq, changing on a bus to Tétouan, and then changing onto another bus to our final destination, all to save a few Euros. We were deposited at the base of the medina where an old man led us up through the ... read more

Chefchaouen, Rif Mountains Morocco February 2019 “Blues is a tonic for whatever ails you. I could play the blues and then not be blue anymore.” B. B. King “No water, no life. No blue, no green.” Sylvia Earle “The birds they sang at the break of day, Start again I heard them say. Don't dwell on what has passed away. Or what is yet to be.” Leonard Cohen, Anthem Chefchaouen (35.1695 -5.2685) was founded in 1471 as a small kasbah fortress to fight off the invading Portuguese. It is 113 km south-east of Tangier and is nestled at the base of the Rif Mountains (best known as for the production of Moroccan hashish). After the 1492 Spanish expulsion, many Jews settled in Chefchaouen. It was also part of Spanish Morocco from 1920 until the independence in ... read more

The Blue City of Morocco is truly one of the most interesting sites in Morocco. This is for several reasons. First of all, as the pictures will show you, the city is really Blue. The labyrinth that makes up the old city (created in the 1400s) is painted in blue. Apparently the color comes from the Jewish communities who settled there after being expelled from Spain. As for the meaning of the color several theories exist, including it's being a spiritual reminder of heaven and earth or keeping the mosquitoes away (there were no mosquitoes in sight). Second, the city is in the Northwest part of the country and as such is this incredibly mixture of Arabic, Spanish, French and Berber communities. Here my terrible Spanish was just as useful as my terrible French. This city ... read more