We decide to try another method of transport. We ride the CTM Bus from Tetouan to Chefchaouen. The bus tickets are 120 MAD ($17 Cdn) for both of us. A taxi ride/private driver would have been much more than that, and the trip is only about an hour. They spoil us by giving us the first two seats so we get a front view. Our route takes us by three reservoirs with hydro dams. The countryside is fertile, treed, populated by farms, olive groves, sheep, goats and not like we expected. The bus driver keeps to the speed limits and is a careful driver. There are about 4 police stops along the way. We get waved through each time, but they stop cars asking to see the vehicle registration etc.
Never trust Google Maps! I check how far from the Chefchaouen bus station to our riad and it says a 15 min walk. We can do that, easy! It felt straight up most of the time, with our bags on our backs! I mention to Murray that I think we are having trouble realizing we are getting older and shouldn’t try to do what we could do at 40. Take a Petit Taxi for $2, for Pete’s sake!
Chefchaouen is the Blue City. There are a number of stories about how it came to be. It may have started in the 1930s when Jewish Refugees painted the walls blue to remind people of heaven, but more recently it has been a tourism decision. Chefchaouen is one of the most photographed cities in North Africa. I love the place, blue is my colour!
We spend the afternoon wandering the lanes taking photographs everywhere. There are various shades of blue used, which gives the Medina a unique look. The stalls are open for business and wares are on full display. We climb to the higher lanes where there are not so many tourists – it is good conditioning for backcountry skiing. By late afternoon, the day trippers are gone and the lanes are quieter and the stalls are closing their doors.
We have noticed that the wind has been quite strong since Rabat, through to Tangier and in Tetouan. By Chefchaouen it has lessened. Apparently, this wind is a chergui, an easterly wind funnelled through the Strait of Gibraltar, that blows across the northern coast of Morocco. Chefchaouen is sheltered by the Rif Mountains, so does not get the same wind intensity.
