Day 2 in Morocco, we awoke on the floor of the awful apartment in Tetouan. I thought I would feel more aches and pains - it's been a long time since I crashed on the floor of someone's house, and I hadn't been looking forward to it. I was however, surprisingly well rested and felt ok. We gathered our things quickly and left the apartment. We jumped into the car and headed towards Chefchouan about 1.5hrs away happy to be leaving that place and looking forward to the next one.
The sun blazed down and as we drove, the landscape reflected the heat back at us. Scorched barren earth backed by rocky mountains. We stopped for lunch in a restaurant that overlooked a reservoir the colour of soft turquiose. As a lot of Moroccans speak French with a little English, you can usually make yourselves understood. We had a traditional Moroccan breakfast which is made up of Fried eggs, bread, soft cheese, olives, and sometimes honey. The bread is cut in wedges from a circular shape loaf about 1.5" thick. It's very nice.
Prices in Morocco, certainly in the north appear to be pretty cheap. The equivalent of 50p for a can of coke, £4 - £7 for a main meal.
We drove into Chefchouan only to be faced with a lot of unfinished buildings, bad roads and wasteland, but found our way to the hotel Puerta Azul, a gorgeous blue hotel, straight away. As soon as we walked in, I started to relax. The hotel itself is like someone ate up Moroccan architecture and style from several hotels and then vomited it all into one building, but it's amazing. From the hand painted doors and headboards, to the intricate painted coving and mosaic tiling everywhere, all set off with glorious traditional rugs and wall hangings and paintings of the local town. It's beautiful in its craziness; somehow it all works.
The people that work here are lovely; they cannot do enough for you, but at the same time they are busy about their work and very respectful to leave you alone. This place costs £37 a night for a deluxe double room with en suite and includes all the standard facilities you'd expect, plus the bed has been so comfortable. The breakfasts were included and have been very generous traditional style with the addition of Moroccan pancakes and jam, freshly squeezed orange juice and coffee or Moroccan mint tea. 4 days here has been such a tonic to the horrible experience we had in Tetouan. They have really looked after us, so I will be sorry to leave tomorrow.
Hotel:
Puerta Azul
Av. Maghreb arabe
91000 Chefchaouene
Morocco
Chefchouan itself is famous for it's blue medina (old town), where walls, doors, and street furniture are painted in hues of blue. Historically there are a number of reasons provided for why the streets are bathed in blue: 1) In 1930 the Jewish community painted the walls blue in their quarter to support their religion, 2) the blue helps to repel mosquitos and other flies, whereas they are attracted to whitewashed walls, 3) the blue reflects the local waterfalls and the Mediterranean sea, 4) Gaz reckons there was a sale on at B&Q for blue paint. Whichever the reason, the city is now famous for the colour and it certainly helps to make the place colourful.
Check out more of the photos on the photos page on this site, or directly on instagram @xp_earthsafari
In a review of the hotel, I remembered seeing someone say how walking to the medina was an enjoyable evening stroll, so we attempted to walk in to the medina on the first evening.
We managed to get ourselves completely lost walking what felt like vertical walkways for extended periods of time. Exhausted and sweating out of my eyes, after about 500 steps and 45 minutes in 30 degree heat we still hadn't made it to the medina. Instead we found a nice restaurant where we were and settled there for a lovely Moroccan dinner and then strolled home (downhill was much easier).
The next day we took a cab into the medina and wow, it was so much further up even steeper walkways, I was so pleased we didn't attempt it. I am not built for mountain climbing. We were dropped off in the main square, which is high up in the town, and whilst we did explore further up in to the medina, much of the hard work was gone - thank you Taximan.
We grabbed a Moroccan style sandwich in a little back street and were served by a lovely older lady who spoke English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian and of course Moroccan. She was busy making her living serving tables for the whole cafe and she had such a skill with languages. We've come across this type of thing before, and it never stops being humbling.
The medina was beautiful to explore and whilst yes we did get a couple of people trying to become our unofficial guide and make some money from us, generally people were just happy to say hello and welcome us to their country. They are such a friendly people. It was in this way that we met Mohommed or Momo for short. He and his family make Berber rugs on a loom and by hand, and sell them in the medina in their shop, and also at Berber markets around the area. Momo's father was hand working a rug as we were encouraged to have a look around. The craftsmanship was incredible, but we were surprised to hear that he doesn't sell online. Momo explained that he doesn't have the ability to set up a website himself, but its something he wanted to do as he knows he will make more money for his family. After talking with him a while, Gaz and I left but promised to try to help him, especially given my background in web development. Fingers crossed we can do something.
Amongst the real craftmanship, Chefchouan's walls are adorned with a mass of souvenirs. Shop after shop after shop selling the same things in slightly different colours or styles. It makes for colourful and vibrant streets, but once you've seen one fridge magnet, you've seen them all. But this is only to be expected - it's a huge tourist hotspot. The trick of visiting Chefchouan is to wander. If you wander aimlessly and follow your nose, you'll come across parts of the medina that are less laden with trinkets and products and more residential and carrying a natural charm.
Staying at the Puerta Azul has given us plenty of time to relax. Each day has followed a similar pattern here - breakfasting, relaxing before venturing out to explore. It's been great and set us up for the next place - Fes, which we make our way to tomorrow.
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