Chefchaouen (Morocco)
21 JUL
A place that sounds as though it should be a location in a Star Wars movie has got to be a relatively cool place, right? A few years back I heard of a place in the northern part of Morocco, located in a part of the Rif mountains where the streets and buildings were painted blue, where the locals were the most chilled out in Morocco and where the reason behind their calm nature had a lot to do with the free availability of quality hash. Understanding those qualities and doing my best to convince JJ that a blue town was well worth travelling to we through the hamlet of Chefchaouen onto our Moroccan agenda.
Splitting from my parents in Fes this morning and allowing them to battle it out to Casablanca on their own, JJ and I hopped onto a CTM special and aimed ourselves 3 hrs north of Fes. The ride up being generally quite pleasant with the landscape changing by the same degree that it had on the train journey in. The last hour of the journey becoming quite hilly and even mountainous in part.
The first sight that you catch of Chefchaouen driving in is from about 3kms out of town. You come in over a rise high above the town and then wham, you see the town pretty much spread out in front of you. From the way that the buildings are constructed you can tell that it's a Moroccan town, all there are specific Andulusian influences that give it a special touch, making it a little different from it's southern cousins. Interesting also, the town is pushed back into a mountain cove, so you have the medina (old town) kind of built down the sides of two mountain peaks, almost as if the town had deliberately backed itself into a corner. I guess the hypothesis being that if anyone was going to the attack the town, well then they'd be foolhardy or desperately insane to come at them from the mountain ridges, so any 'real' threat would obviously be spotted way in advance.
Arrivng in Chefchaouen in the early evening, we had enough time to unwind a little and then take a walk through the medina, which is where our riad was also located.What you immediately notice at ground level is the fact that this town IS blue, and a variety of shades of blue. Apparently the reasoning for this is historical. Many centuries ago Chefchaouen was a Jewish settlement and the inhabitants chose to paint their town blue, a colour synonymous with the Jewish faith. When the town 'changed hands' or so to speak, the inhabitants decided to keep up the tradition and maintained the blue colour, thus the survival of a blue town high in the Rif mountains.
Chefchaouen - blue man street - Morocco
Chefchaouen - Morocco - you could be forgiven for thinking that you were hanging out somewhere in the European Alps, the setting was that engaging.
Sunset - Chefchaouen - Morocco
Feeling blue - Chefchaouen - Morocco
Sunset - Chefchaouen - Morocco
Dar Gabriel - Chefchaouen - Morocco
Sunset - Chefchaouen - Morocco
Chefchaouen - Morocco
Once again, this place seemed to be far different from the larger cities of Marrakech and Fes further south. First of all the location was absolutely stunning. If it wasn't for the ever present Moroccan flags, the incessant request by shopkeepers to check out their wares and the insane number of tagines on display, well you could be forgiven for thinking that you were hanging out somewhere in the European Alps, the setting was that engaging.
Having had a late lunch in the main square we were advised of a waterfall/cascade/river that was located at the eastern end of the town. JJ and I made our way through blues territory and found ourselves a more than quaint mountain cascade which appeared to be 'the' afternoon meeting spot for the locals also. We sat there for quite some time, watching the sun set over the ridge above us and daring to dangle our feet into the freezing cold water that also flowed from the same area. We had only been in Chefchaouen for a couple of hours but we were already satisfactorily 'chilled out', quite obviously this place had just a 'little something' going for it, that much was obvious.
