Blogs from Chefchaouen, Tangier-Tétouan, Morocco, Africa - page 3

After Assilah, we took a private taxi 3 hours east through the arid interior of Morocco, up into the hills to a small mountain village called Chefchaouen. The entirety of the tiny village, perched on the towering hills, is painted a pale shade of blue, leaving you with the impression that you are actually under the sea, rather than high in the mountains. Chefchaouen has many of the staples of a backpacking town – lots of small shops selling Moroccan handicrafts (mirrors, lanterns, carpets, homemade soaps, hand knit hats, etc), a multitude of restaurants vying for your business, and the usual backpacker types with flowy pants and prayer beads. It is also the “kif” capital of the world, a fact that the locals are very proud of, and liked to remind us of literally every few ... read more

Day 6 and we are at last in Morocco! Uncle Ray picked up the tickets yesterday so we only had to get on to the ferry, which is more of a job than you think. First the tom tom tries to send you down a service area which is locked, and then when you enter the port there’s no sign for Tangier-Med only Ceuta and Tangier. We followed the signs for Tangier and joined a queue, which turned out to be for the wrong ferry company, who were 3 hours behind. Once through the check in, there are absolutely no signs for which ferry is where are what lane you should be parked in! But with bit of trial and error, we parked up in front of our ferry, just in time to watch all the ... read more

Chefchaouen (hereafter referred to as Chef' as I'm tired of writing it in full. That AOUE thing is a chore somehow) is located on a Rif Mountainside about 4 hours drive North from Fes. You can take a bus for 70 Dh from Fes or you can opt for a driver if you plan to stop along the way. In that case you will pay 800 Dh. Our driver was a Berber from the Sahara who had swapped his camel for an old Mercedes 240D. Morocco is not what we expected. It is as green as Ireland and as fecund as Vietnam. Vast fields of food crops tended to by men, donkeys and dogs. Beautiful rolling hills covered in fuzzy, silver-green olive trees. People along the road man large produce stands that hold the largest strawberries ... read more

We were invited last night to take a trip with the young French couple staying in our hotel. Silvain and Delphine are from Grenoble and are in their late 20s. They have a rental car and were going on a hike to a natural bridge up in the mountains an hour's drive from here, in the Talassemtane National Park. We left around 9:30 and met the guide they had hired at the beginning of the trail. We could go on the mountain trail that came out above the bridge, or the river trail, where we had to cross by wading (we understood we would cross once...hahaha....). We decided on the river trail, and hiked above the Gorge de Farda, then beside the river, then in the river...really in the river....! At times we were thigh-deep in ... read more

We arrived here today after a gorgeous bus trip across the plains and into the Rif mountains... A strangely wonderful moment was Macklemore playing "Can't Hold Us" on the bus radio....! (A Seattle based band...) All along the road were carpets of wild flowers....lots of olive trees and wheat being grown in between. Much of the harvesting, including wheat, is done by hand, although we saw several small combines. Donkeys are used for plowing in most of the smaller fields, and used for transport to and from the fields. The main crop of this area is still kif, and while it is illegal in Morocco, obviously there are ways around the laws. This town was a backpacker hangout for years, but has now become more mainstream. It is touristy, but not overly so yet. Prices for ... read more