three of us decided to spend our one free, unplanned weekend in chefchaouen, a beautiful little town in the north, which required a 4.5hour grand taxi drive through the mountains, passing lots of livestock (like the above), small and busy towns, an occasional field full of giant spools of wire (no idea), tractors that acted like buses for local women, and lots of police stops. our hypothesis about the police checks (which were more often than usual) was that the king was spending the weekend in tetouan or someplace. it's interesting that, once we declared our affiliation to al-akhawayn university, we were always free to go without question. apparently, it helps to be affiliated with the king.
chefchaouen is a city on a hill, almost entirely awash in shades of blue. not sure why this is, but it made for some pretty photos. we also enjoyed a prevalence of terrace-restaurants, lending an incredible view of the city!
walking through the windy streets of the old medina, we couldn't stop reaching for our cameras. something interesting around every corner - a little shop, a fruit stand, boys playing with a balloon, someone leading a donkey cart, a hidden courtyard full of flowers, a tiny kitten... finally, i think, we got used to the overwhelming beauty and the "grab the camera" guttural reaction backed off.
there were so many incredible doorways. this is only one of many, many doorway shots i took over the course of the weekend. (i later found a "doorways of chefchaouen" poster while at an artist's cooperative in rabat!)
one of the reasons we chose chefchaouen was for the awesome (and diverse!) music festival that was going on that weekend. younes not only graciously provided us with vip concert access, but also brought us to the after party, at a beautiful riad outside of town, with an incredible backyard, full of couches and alight with candelabras. with musicians and artists everywhere (a fervent drum circle in one corner of the yard, ongoing jazz improv inside...), i was perfectly content to stay until 6:30am (which we did, since our hotel didn't reopen until 7!)
this was right before hoba hoba spirit, one of morocco's most popular indigenous rock-pop-fusion groups came on - aka before the crazy jumping up and down/dancing around/avoiding the falling body-surfers and people riding shoulders
day two we took a grand taxi to akshur for a hike, which was worth it for the ride alone!
the path we took followed and then rose up above a stream, leading to a waterfall... 
we encountered quite a few goats on the way...
and made some friends trying to drink tea while avoiding bees at a little tea stop at the bottom. the man at the right was literally scooping bees into his mouth to show us not to be afraid of them. we looked like complete idiots running from the bees that were invading our tea (i should mention that moroccan tea is prepared with LOTS of sugar - fresh mint, dried green tea, water, and SUGAR), but I finally struck up a conversation with these gents and they didn't think we were so weird... i think.
2 comments:
Chefchaouen is my favorite city in Morocco! Your pictures are beautiful. I hope you are doing well, Hazel.
BEES??? That's all a mother of a child who is allergic needs to hear! I was fine until the man scooped bees into his mouth- because I know your epi-pen was ready, right?
All in all, it sounds like a fantastic adventure with lots of beautiful scenery and "color". I wish I was with you,I am, however, living vicariously through your blog!!! Thank you!
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