Chefchaouen - Thursday 4th Jan - Sunday 7th Jan 2007

After saying goodbye to Tangier, I got on a coach to "Cheffy" with an Icelandic guy called Jon; one of only 300,000 in the world apparently (Icelandic people not coaches). "Cheffy" was only about 100 miles away, but being in the hills, it took 3 hours. Jon got off at the halfway point at Tetouan, as he only wanted a day-trip. The rest of us got into "Cheffy" mid-afternoon, and I walked up the hill to get into town with a Brazilian guy & a Spanish couple. They were wanting to stay at Hotel Marrakesh, so I separated from them once in the centre & found the hotel Znika. I forgot to ask the hotelier if Znika meant anything in Arabic, but t'is such a cool word I think. Kinda sounds like the name of my motorbike if I had one.

Anyway, I basically spent 4 nights in the most beautiful small town in Morocco. It took me a little while to get used to the winding alleyways, but with most of the buildings inside the medina walls decorated in this idiosyncratic white paint tinched with blue; Chefchaouen has a life all of its own.

This is mostly due its history. Tucked away in the hills of the Rif Mountains, before the arrival of Spanish troops in the 1920s, "Cheffy" had been visited by only 3 Westerners! The Spanish were surprised to find the Jews (refugees from the Spanish Inquisition) here speaking, and in some cases writing, a medieval form of Castilian extinct in Spain for nearly 400 years!!

These days, "Cheffy" is well established on the tourist excursion routes and indeed is becoming a little over-concerned with the amount of tourism it receives. There are the inevitable souks (markets) & stalls for the tourists & a major hotel presents an eye-sore from the twin peaks (ech - Chaoua: the horns) from which the town takes its name: but the local attitudes toward tourists are generally relaxed, the Medina pensions are among the friendliest & cheapest around, and to stay here a few days and walk in the surrounding hills remains one of the best places to stay in Morocco.

The only thing I found a bit of a problem here, is because it represents itself as the 'capital' of hashish country, one gets bothered by young men asking if I want to smoke it, which would be fine if I was a smoker, but that just ain't my thing.

So, to end this little blog, I had a very relaxing and enjoyable time in Chefchaouen and wouldn't mind coming back again here just to get away from it all! My next port of call couldn't have been so different; the Imperial city of Fes.