17 January 2025 – Friday – Off to Chefchaouen

We were told to have our bags outside the room at 8:30 and be ready to go by 9:00. We met in the lobby to hear a few things about making the trip go smoothly. Be punctual! Take different seats on the bus each day. No discussion of American politics. (Yay) Be open to adventure and don’t expect the comfort of home. Guard your money and passport. Then we were off! 

As we made our way out of the city, we got a little history lesson. The Berbers are the indigenous people who make up about 75% of the population. Then the Jews and moors came as a result of being forced to leave Spain with the inquisition. The cities were built with the royal quarter encircled by the Jewish quarter and then the “ville” which is the business and restaurant district. Apparently there has always been religious harmony in Morocco. 

We stopped at a roadside coffee stand for nous nous which is 1/2 coffee 1/2 milk. Thani has a business selling coffee from his truck. He studied religion in university and couldn’t find a job. So he does well enough selling coffee, tea and biscuits from his truck. We learned to order our drinks in Arabic! 

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant in a town named Wednesday market. We ate very well. There were olives with pickled vegetables. Harissa a spicy paste, is served to use on bread or to add some heat to other dishes. The lentil soup was delicious. Then there was a vegetable tagine followed by kefta which is seasoned ground beef grilled with onions and tomatoes. Clementines were desert. Everything was very tasty. Of course we also had Moroccan mint tea

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Abdou has been in charge of tipping the bathroom attendant who offers a dish of liquid soap and then little squares of paper after hand washing. 

As I was getting back to our van, I took one more photo of the restaurant with stores on the street behind. A local man seemed to want to be included so I obliged. He was very pleased to see his picture. 
We continued on and upward into the Rif mountains. We reached Chefchaouen around 4pm. It’s a beautiful mostly blue city. The color blue is supposed to keep away flies and mosquitoes and there is a large Jewish population that paints their houses blue as a sacred color. 

We entered our riad(hotel) and got settled after mint tea and cookies. Then we went for a walk into the city. The narrow streets are filled with vendors but our guide warned us that what they sell is made in china. 

We returned to our Riad for dinner. As we sat in our section of the dining room, a group of Suffis came to serenade the next room with songs of the Koran and Suffi poetry. It was a perfect ending to our day. 

And tomorrow we will visit a family.