The Blue City and Waterfalls

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From the start of our researching this trip, Chefchaouen, also known as the blue city, has really appealed to me. We had it as a stop on our tenative itinerary, but after all the windy mountain roads going to the desert, Monica decided she wasn't interested. However, it still called to me, and I had also found out there were waterfalls nearby, so I decided I'd head there on my own.
I looked into taking either a bus or grand taxi there, and possibly spending the night, but then I'd have to do a separate trip from there to the waterfall, which would mean more travel time, so I ended up arranging a private taxi to take me as a day trip, stopping at the waterfalls on the drive back.
The doorman/security guard of our apartment building found me a driver, who came to pick me up at 8am (for anyone looking to do a day trip to Chefchaouen and Akchour waterfalls, I'd recommend contacting Jamal, [phone]).

The drive from Tangier to Chefchaouen is about 2 hours. We stopped to take a few pics of the view along the way.
Chefchaouen is a picturesque town nestled in the mountains. It's small hillside walkways and staircases are like a labyrinth, all painted in a washed out blue/violet. Some of the streets are set up with stall after stall of souvenirs for sale, but others are residental. I zigzagged my way along, taking turns wherever looked interesting. Some walkways were empty, and then occasionally O'd hit a wave of tourists, following a guide holding a flag.
After about an hour and a half of meandering the walkways and taking photos, I messaged the taxi driver so we could meet up.
He picked me up, and we headed out of town, up a mountain road with great views, then made our way over to the Akchour waterfalls.
I left the driver again to do the waterfall hike. The path was well maintained. I had read that there were a couple of hikes, to waterfall 1, waterfall 2, and another that I can't remember the name.
I thought I would go to #1, but that only took 30 min, so I decided to go part way to #2. Some people I met on the walkway told me #2 was just a tricklet and took an hour and a half to get to, so I figured I'd just get part way and then turn around.
All along the walk to waterfall 1 and even past that, there were little restaurants with tables and chairs set out next to the water. At the beginning, I thought it was kind of nice, but further up, I found it detracted from the nature.
After an hour, I decided I'd better start retracing my steps, as it was already 2:30, I was hungry, and we'd still have the whole drive back to the city.
Once I got back down, I went to one of the restaurants by the parking lot, ordered a vegetarian pizza, and tried to contact the driver. There was no signal, but I eventually spotted him, and he joined me at the restaurant. It was already getting late in the day, but pizza is usually pretty fast here.
40 min later, our pizzas arrived. Mine had carrot, potato...and chicken. I got the server, and said I didn't have time to wait for one with no meat (it was pretty bad pizza anyway, judging by the bite I had before I saw the chicken, and from the driver's face as he ate), so we just headed out, as it was now already after 4 and we still had a 2 1/2 hr drive.
By the time I got to Tangier, I was so hungry! Thankfully my wonderful friend Monica was waiting wuth homemade bread and lentil soup 😊 What a pal!

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