On Saturday July 30th, our private taxi picked us up at our hotel. Today, Matt, Candra and I were going on a private tour of Chefchaouen. The taxi ride from Tanger to Chefchaouen took 2 hours and as we ventured further away from Tanger and the coastline, the heat intensified. Our windows were rolled down in the taxi and we took in as much cooler air as we could to cool down. I really enjoyed the ride to and from Tanger to Chefchaouen. We saw many Royal Police along the route who were randomly pulling over cars (as the King was in town), many mountain women on the road trying to hitchhike their way into Tanger with handicrafts they produced to sell, road side stands selling nothing but onions and other road side stands selling ceramic products, donkeys carting around goods and other really cool sights to see.
Mountain women
What a beautiful drive from Tanger to Chefchaouen!
Driving alongside donkeys - Hee haw, Hee haw!
An onion stand selling nothing but onions. There were many of these along the 2 hour journey from Tanger to Chefchaouen. Apparently, Moroccans consume a lot of onions!
When we arrived in Chefchaouen, our private tour guide met us. He was an older gentlemen (late 70s) who was full of energy and fast at walking – almost too fast for us as we wanted to leisurely explore the area and not race through it.
Chefchaouen is a really beautiful city. Most of the buildings are painted in a shade of blue. On our walk through the city, we went to a fish market, saw spice markets, paint pigment, handicrafts, paintings, carpet weaving, bread making, laundry washing in the river, and took a short hike to get an amazing viewpoint.
I don't even want to know what they are using this camel foot for...
Walking through the streets and checking out the many stores.
Different shades of blue.
I loved the shade of blue on this narrow street.
Bread making from scratch. We sampled a piece of the fresh bread and it was good. Kept our hungry stomachs satisfied for a little bit.
More blue buildings.
View of the city.
Spices!
Colour pigment for paint.
What a helpful donkey :)
The local river where kids were swimming in and their mothers were doing the laundry.
We also went to Casa Hassan for lunch. The food was incredible – probably the best food I have eaten on the trip so far. We had Moroccan salad, this hot dip for bread that was delicious and addicting (tasted like it was made with lentils), chicken tangine, grilled steak with Moroccan spices, and couscous with chicken and vegetables. The combination and type of spices used in our meal was incredible – absolutely mouth watering delicious. Mmm mmm mmm!!
What a great weekend we had in Morocco!
Some of the pictures look like they are straight out of Time Magazine. Awesome camera work! ~ Renee
ReplyDeleteThanks Renee! Super sweet compliment :)
ReplyDeleteGreat city so breath taking and differed so much from Tanger! The buildings are blue for 2 reasons first is to detour misquitos, the second is because it is easier on the eyes when the sun hits it. But it really makes the city stand out!
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