Sabah al Kher everyone,
I left off my last blog post with my friends and I departing for Chefchauen, or Chauen as it is called by many Moroccans.
Chauen is a five hour bus trip from Rabat, and this is not a normal five hour bus trip, this is a Moroccan five hour bus trip. That means winding mountain roads, with no guard rails, with a driver who in my mind must have a death wish.
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Located in the Northern Rif mountains, in what I have explained was former Spanish Morocco, which means French is not the lingua franca here, Spanish is used for cross cultural communication, which makes me wish i had payed a little more attention in Spanish class.
We got to our hotel late on Friday night, and we were standing outside of the bus station next to a group of tourists from Spain. Unlike busy cities, taxis do not run constantly in smaller towns, and we were having difficulty finding one. Finally we called our hotel, and they sent a car to get us, for a cost of 40MAD, which after arriving at the hotel a few minutes late, I decided was too much.
After checking in, we grabbed some food, and settled in for the night
Waking up the next morning, I realized the water was cold, not just cold, ice cold. Upon asking the man at the desk he informed me the hotel only had a total of 15 liters of hot water...That is 15 one liter water bottles.
Starting our day in the medina was very interesting, everything is blue, the walls, the stairs, the doors, blue is everywhere, which is great because its my favorite color.
The food in Chauen was some of the best I have eaten in Morocco, I think that is mostly because the Spanish influences have given it a western flair that I have missed.
Chauen is situated in the Rif mountains, the actual Marijuana capital of Morocco. Though officially illegal here, it makes up a substantial portion of the economy for those who live in the Rif. We were actually offered a tour including transportation of a Marijuana plantation for only 100MAD, since we were't going to buy anything. We told the man we would consider it and thought that we would avoid the potentially dangerous situation.
We opted instead to go to a large park, famous for its waterfall. Our hotel deskman offered to call his friend to drive us for 500MAD, and said that was as low as we would be able to find. Some of my friends here don't mind paying the first asking price, as it is significantly less than it would cost in the US, but my mind now works in Dirhams, and I insisted we look for a taxi ourselves, finding one in a few minutes to take us there and back for only 250MAD.
This again took us on a mountain drive, with lack of guardrails, sharp turns, and a driver who seemed to think a winding mountain road was similar to I-95.
After a terrifying half hour of driving, we arrived at the park, which seemed to be very popular with both tourists and locals who were picnicking with their families.
We found out that the large waterfall is about a 90 minute hike from where we were, and we decided we would just walk around, following a beautiful river of clear water upstream.
The scenery was beautiful.
We planned on departing for Rabat on the 7am bust the next morning, waking up at six, we began the walk to the bus station and arrived by 6:40, only to find out that the first rate bus was sold out, and we would have to hope that we could get a seat on one of the budget bus companies.
We did, and when I say budget, this thing was seriously falling apart, the inside of the bus was not maintained, the air conditioning did not work, and someone was vomiting a few seats away...will always buy tickets in advance from now on.
I think this coming weekend we might stay in Rabat, we spend so much time traveling that I don't want to miss out on where we live.
Next weekend we begin our European adventure through Milan, Rome, Dublin and London
And the weekend after that I will be in Madrid
Time is flying here, as we enter our third month later this week
Bislama,
Kevin
Arabic word of the day
ماء- mA- Water
I left off my last blog post with my friends and I departing for Chefchauen, or Chauen as it is called by many Moroccans.
Chauen is a five hour bus trip from Rabat, and this is not a normal five hour bus trip, this is a Moroccan five hour bus trip. That means winding mountain roads, with no guard rails, with a driver who in my mind must have a death wish.
Located in the Northern Rif mountains, in what I have explained was former Spanish Morocco, which means French is not the lingua franca here, Spanish is used for cross cultural communication, which makes me wish i had payed a little more attention in Spanish class.
We got to our hotel late on Friday night, and we were standing outside of the bus station next to a group of tourists from Spain. Unlike busy cities, taxis do not run constantly in smaller towns, and we were having difficulty finding one. Finally we called our hotel, and they sent a car to get us, for a cost of 40MAD, which after arriving at the hotel a few minutes late, I decided was too much.
After checking in, we grabbed some food, and settled in for the night
Waking up the next morning, I realized the water was cold, not just cold, ice cold. Upon asking the man at the desk he informed me the hotel only had a total of 15 liters of hot water...That is 15 one liter water bottles.
Starting our day in the medina was very interesting, everything is blue, the walls, the stairs, the doors, blue is everywhere, which is great because its my favorite color.
The food in Chauen was some of the best I have eaten in Morocco, I think that is mostly because the Spanish influences have given it a western flair that I have missed.
Chauen is situated in the Rif mountains, the actual Marijuana capital of Morocco. Though officially illegal here, it makes up a substantial portion of the economy for those who live in the Rif. We were actually offered a tour including transportation of a Marijuana plantation for only 100MAD, since we were't going to buy anything. We told the man we would consider it and thought that we would avoid the potentially dangerous situation.
Concert on Saturday night
We opted instead to go to a large park, famous for its waterfall. Our hotel deskman offered to call his friend to drive us for 500MAD, and said that was as low as we would be able to find. Some of my friends here don't mind paying the first asking price, as it is significantly less than it would cost in the US, but my mind now works in Dirhams, and I insisted we look for a taxi ourselves, finding one in a few minutes to take us there and back for only 250MAD.
This again took us on a mountain drive, with lack of guardrails, sharp turns, and a driver who seemed to think a winding mountain road was similar to I-95.
After a terrifying half hour of driving, we arrived at the park, which seemed to be very popular with both tourists and locals who were picnicking with their families.
We found out that the large waterfall is about a 90 minute hike from where we were, and we decided we would just walk around, following a beautiful river of clear water upstream.
The scenery was beautiful.
We planned on departing for Rabat on the 7am bust the next morning, waking up at six, we began the walk to the bus station and arrived by 6:40, only to find out that the first rate bus was sold out, and we would have to hope that we could get a seat on one of the budget bus companies.
We did, and when I say budget, this thing was seriously falling apart, the inside of the bus was not maintained, the air conditioning did not work, and someone was vomiting a few seats away...will always buy tickets in advance from now on.
I think this coming weekend we might stay in Rabat, we spend so much time traveling that I don't want to miss out on where we live.
Next weekend we begin our European adventure through Milan, Rome, Dublin and London
And the weekend after that I will be in Madrid
Time is flying here, as we enter our third month later this week
Bislama,
Kevin
Arabic word of the day
ماء- mA- Water
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