Day 13 - Rabat to Chefchaoun

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Everyone is very excited that we have our old driver back, especially Becs. Given it's a sunny day he doesn't feel the need to drive like a maniac so we have a reasonably leisurely drive to Chefchaouen. the only hitch seems to be that he has no idea where the town actually is. Luckily Constance and I spot a sign to Chefchaouen which avoids us ending up God knows where. As we get to the outskirts of town he starts to ask every one where Bab Souk (the gate closest to our hotel) is. And I mean everyone, in fact he asks one bloke twice. There are a couple of schoolboy errors you can make in Morocco, as follows:

1. Never get a map out. The minute you get a map out you will inundated with dubious offers of assistance.

2. Never trust children. Unless they are on the up and up like my good mate Mahommad

3. Never ask directions. Only ask directions from women or shopkeepers on their own (and therefore unable to leave the shop and take you to some dodgy place) and running a business in related to the place you are looking for (eg never ask another restaurant where a restaurant is.

4. Never believe anyone if they say something is closed. This is a common ploy, you are heading toward a restaurant, museum, mosque, tomb, shop and a helpful passerby will tell you it is closed, but his restaurant is open!

So our driver made schoolboy error no. 3. When we get to Bab Souk the guy he's asked twice is waiting for us and grabs our bags. When we arrive at our hotel he asks for 4 Euro. We get the Chief Negotiator involved and she offers him DHM4 (11/1 Euro). He is disgusted and we save DHM4. The new digs are pretty good, although Becs has booked a "suite" which really means all 4 of us are in the one room.

We head off for lunch and a walk around the town. We choose a restaurant out of lonely Planet called Monisco. When we get to the square we are approached by a number of touts offering restaurants like "Manisco", Monisco Twins", but we are too good for this! After lunch we have a stroll around the Medina/Souk. Chefhaouen is much more touristy than either Marrakesh or Rabat (we may have been a bit early in Marrakesh). The distinguishing feature is that every building in the medina is painted blue and white. There are also a lot of Moroccan/Muslim tourists as well as whities. After a stroll we decide that a drink is in order. There is not a lot of drinking done in Chefchaouen. The joint is filled with dope and hash but very little alcohol. We head to the Hotel Parador which has a "soul-less" bar. Sounds perfect. When we get there we have to go through security scanning and then we enter the bar. There are about 8 Moroccan men at the bar crowded around a mobile phone watching the soccer. Soul-less? what are those lonely planet people talking about. We had a round of Casablancas and then the vote was to leave (3/1).

Dinner at Restaurant Bab Sour which has a great anchovy tagine (so did Monisco), the waiter did try to sell Gus hash, but hey.

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