Chefchaouen

 

 

  

The Blue Pearl, 50 shades of Blue. We did a guided walk to make the most of our day here. 

We got a soft spoken guide, Mohammed who was also a photographer, perfect for us. We started on the outskirts of the Medina and made our way through it. The blue- ness of the city has been enhanced by the King’s visit and social media. It started off with a few blue houses and as they were pretty, the council decided to spruce up the city with blue for the King’s visit. This then caught the eye of some influencers and so the whole city got behind it and so twice a year they paint the houses blue to attract more tourists. 

It’s a very very pretty town and really geared  up for Instagram moments as Mohammed showed us all the hotspots.

We got to try some local peanut butter, made with peanuts and argan oil. We aren’t going to the region where Argan oil comes from, so had to make do with seeing photos, but would’ve been so fun to see all the goats on top of the Argan trees. 

Chefchaouen in itself means the view between the horns (the mountains) and you start feeling the hills after sometime of walking. 

For each section of town there had to be five components- a mosque, a Koranic school, a community oven, a hammam and a fountain. Each of these helped with community growth as they all involved areas where people gathered. We went to one of the community ovens from the 15th century which is now a bakery. Mo (as he wanted to be called), got us a variety of Moroccan treats from it. 

One of the best things we got from Mo was restaurant recommendations as the place we went for lunch had some of the best food we have eaten in this trip, so much so we went back for dinner too.

After a rest in the afternoon, we went up a hill to the Spanish Mosque to view the sunset over the city. A lot of tourists had the same idea so was quite busy up there. Not sure where the kids got an extra spurt of energy so they spent the whole time running up and down stairs while waiting for the sun to set. 

We headed down, sighting some peacocks and then a pet owl on a man’s shoulder. Dinner was definitely needed by a hangry Aanya by then.

As we headed to bed, I was listening to the night call for prayer as our room is quite close to a minaret. The morning call was at 4am, makes me wonder when do people sleep??