Chefchaouen (aka Chef-choo-choo)

Of all the places we wanted to go in Morocco, Chefchaouen was top on our list. Known as Chaouen (translation: peaks) to locals, the name Chefchaouen (translation: look at the peaks) was not adopted until 1975 during Spanish occupation. The two names are now used interchangeably.

Classic Chaouen street, with local leather shop and Rif in background

History aside, Chaouen has the reputation for being incredibly charming and picturesque! And it lives up to the expectation. Nearly every building is painted partially or entirely sky blue, and the Andalucian influence remains present in the red tiled roofing. Chaouen is also at the foot of the Rif mountain range in Northern Morocco, relatively small, and full of narrow cobblestoned streets packed with crafts. So there was hiking, scenery, minimal city craziness and the possibility of finding a carpet our hearts desired.

Local fountain, often accompanied with a communal cup


Moroccan carpets are alluring as they are one of the few crafts women make exclusively, are one of a kind, and generally tell a story in the embroidery or woven pattern. They are also aesthetically stunning. We had visited a number of carpet houses, which are literally piled with thousands of carpets. They smell earthy, the air heavy with wool and mint tea.

Pigments, sold at hardware stores all over

Carpet sellers classically have tea with potential customers, actual customers, or really anyone who wants to have tea. Most obviously want to sell carpets, but they also seemingly delight in telling you about the carpets, what Berber tribe made them and what the symbolism of the design means. But we are getting off the subject…back to Chefchaouen.

Local laundromat, cold wash cycles only


We stayed at a little hostal called Hostal Gernika, owned ironically by a Spanish couple. Further exemplifying our knack for finding Basque locales in non-Basque areas, the town of Gernika is the spiritual heart of the Basque region.


Another irresistable door

The hostal was a five minute walk through the medina to Plaza Uta el Hammam, the definite social core of this charming mountain town. Here we ate many a meal, drank cold Fanta in the shade, and kicked back to watch the world pass by.

Dinner a la Sweetie and Pooks

The other noteworthy piece about Chaouen is that it is the hashish mecca of Morocco. Although officially illegal in Morocco, this legality is overlooked if not entirely ignored by law enforcement. Acquiring hashish or kif (a powdered, less potent concoction) is easier than purchasing water. The surrounding hillsides are full of many local crops, including marijuana. So local families usually produce a mixture of wheat, marijuana, and vegetables with a goat and/or sheep herd on the side. It is no big deal having marijuana be part of the mixture, it is just a way of life. We may have been the only people there not partaking in smoking anything, it literally seemed like part of the daily routine. The interesting thing we noted, however, is that locals are not lazy or dull. They are friendly, alert, and very productive.

G'night Chaouen

All in all, Chaouen was a delightful stop in our adventure where we finally recovered from being sick, found exquisite carpets, and enjoyed ourselves fully in this friendly and beautiful town.

Volubilis

A Little Owl! On the way to Volubilis.


While Pooks was laid up with intoxication alimentaire, Sweetie got restless and made the day trip to the Roman ruins of Volubilis, about 30 km north of Meknes. The site is huge, with the remains of stone foundations stretching over 40 hectares. Much of it dates back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries, though it was inhabited up to the 1700s.


The definite highlight of the place is the spectacular mosaics found in many of the houses. These mosaics are made from tiny colored tiles (about 1 cm square), and must have served as floor decorations in the houses of wealthy residents. They’re incredible, and the camera’s memory was soon filled up with pictures of them. My favorite was one with the mythological figure Orpheus playing the lyre, surrounded by all sorts of animals. Another depicts all 12 labors of Hercules.

Orpheus charming the beasts.


An earthquake in 1722 felled most of the buildings that were still standing, so the large intact structures are mostly reconstructed. But the site is simply littered with fragments of these amazing structures. Pieces of columns, arches, and engraved stones, thousands of them, lie all about the place like a child’s building blocks. There’s a sense of disorder, of things waiting to be put back together.


The history of Volubilis was recorded well enough prior to the earthquake that local experts have been able to sort out the stories of many of the ruined buildings. Several memorable ones included the forum and capitol; the bakery, with intact oven and milling stones; a reconstructed press for making olive oil; and the baths, where you can see the old below-ground systems used to heat them. Another stunningly functional feature is a dinner plate sized storm-drain carved from a large slab of stone.

An ancient storm drain. Amazing.


Unfortunately, the site’s current glory is much reduced from its previous state. As if often the case in Morocco, later rulers plundered the site for the adornment of their own monuments. More recently, many of the statues and artistic highlights of Volubilis have been transferred to museums around the country. But a new museum is being constructed adjacent to the site, and when it’s completed, many of these pieces will be moved back here.

Can anyone out there translate this?

Malade in Meknes

Of Morocco’s four “imperial cities”, the places that were the capitals of empires, Meknes is the smallest. It’s also quite close to Fes, which is much more of an historical and cultural attraction, so travelers who do make it to this area tend to pass it up in favor of Fes. We decided to spend a couple nights here on our way north, and were specifically hoping to make it to nearby Volubilis. Due to a nasty stomach bug, two nights turned into six. But this allowed us to explore the place slowly, and get to know the area around our hotel quite well. The people were very friendly (as they are almost everywhere in Morocco), and the city had a nice mellow flavor to it, as well as a few attractions.


Mosques are ever-present in Morocco.


As in Marrakesh, the medina has at its center a big square, Place el-Hedim. It’s full of food stands, hawkers, and little shops, and the side streets leading off of it disappear into the minor chaos of the narrow old streets. After exploring the massive medinas in Fes and Marrakesh, Meknes’s wasn’t as impressive, but it was still lovely to stroll through the quiet narrow lanes. Kittens were abundant, and provided plenty of diversion, especially for Amber.


A typical street in the Meknes medina.


Right next the medina is the Imperial City, with its incredible gate, Bab el-Mansour. The gate is huge and incredibly ornate, a product of the enormous wealth concentrated in the city in the early 1700s, when it was the capital of Morocco. Other gates into the city, though not as large, are similarly decked out. The man who brought all this money to city, Moulay Ismail, is buried in a mausoleum in the Imperial City.

Bab el-Mansour. Note the size of the people seated at right.


One amazing feature of all the old cities in Morocco are the huge numbers of swifts that nest in the city walls. Most of these old walls have small holes in the sides, left over from the wood beams used during construction. Many of these holes are occupied by nesting swifts. At sunset in Marrakech, Fes, and Meknes, clouds of hundreds or thousands of these swifts swirl low over the city before settling into their nests. It’s a spectacular sight, and one that Matt particularly enjoys.


Fountains outside the Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail - yes, those are all individual tiles.


The defining experience of our time in Meknes was, unfortunately, being ill. Matt fell to it first, and Amber about 18 hours later. Both of us had diarrhea, light-headedness, nausea. The doctor pronounced it “intoxication alimentaire”; we think it probably came from drinking tap water. We both got antibiotics, and are feeling much better now. But four days of lying around the hotel room was plenty. And the logistics of being sick got very old – changing bus tickets and hotel reservations, going to the pharmacy, getting food and water when you don’t feel like walking down the hall. We’ll be sticking to bottled water for the rest of our time in Morocco, and hoping that keeps the nasty stomach bugs at bay.


Amber feeling the effects of intoxication alimentaire.

Fes

Ah, Fes. Although most tourists head to Marrakech, it is said that the true heart of Morroco is in Fes. Fes is the oldest of the four imperial cities of Morocco - being here was like looking back in history.

View from a terrace...the Moroccans love their satellite television

In some distinct ways Morocco clings to its past, and the tanneries in Fes were a prime example. Donkeys carry sheep, goat, cow and camel skins through the narrow medina streets to the tanneries.

The office, note big washing machine bottom left

Here, they are washed and thrown into dying pits which are nearly a thousand years old (though some have had minor renovations with the addition of ceramic tile). All skins initially go into a white mixture of pigeon droppings (ammonium sulfate) and limestone.

Hard work. Very hard work.

After being preserved in this mixture for a few weeks, they move on to the dye pits. We visited a tannery where all the dyes were natural. Poppy (red), henna (orange), saffron (yellow), indigo (blue), cedarwood (brown) and coal (black). The organization of the tanneries follows traditional guild principles, where people are born into the trade and most resources are shared.

Left over wool drying in the sun

The medina in Fes is absolutely phenomenal. It is thought to be the largest pedestrian-only area in the world. Many of the buildings are precariously erect, with cantilevers supporting some sections and wooden frames spanning the streets, keeping the tightly-packed structures from falling into each other. In a 2km by 1 ½ km area there are 9400 streets, 350 mosques and you had better believe you will get lost. But there is an inherent beauty in losing oneself entirely we came to realize, and when really needed Matt pulled out his compass for some assistance. The compass, although a little nerdy, was awesome.

Choices, choices, choices

The fountains of Fes are also impressive. Water is a highly valued commodity in the desert, and it was some architectural feat to get over 60 fountains scattered throughout the medina. They are ornately mosaiced, with brass fixtures, and are as beautiful as they are functional. The elaborate fountains are surrounded by intricately carved white stucco (lace-like) and a equally detailed carved wooden canopy. These fountains are the basic communal well for many in the medina. As for bathing? They head to a hammam, or a local bath.

Men playing cards in the afternoon shade

Essaouira

The city through a fog of seagulls.

Essaouira is a hip little city on the coast. It’s the most liberal place we’ve been to in Morocco – chic European styles seemed more common than headscarves and traditional dress. It was also much cooler, temperature-wise, than everywhere else we’ve been. A good breeze off the ocean kept the air pleasant, even in the middle of the day. We loved it.

Tidepooling! Loads of sea hares!

We stayed in a lovely hotel in the medina, the old part of town that’s totally free of cars. Every morning we heard the clippity-clop of the mule-drawn delivery trucks and ate breakfast in the “breakfast saloon.” The medina is ringed by the old city walls, some forty feet high. Most of Morocco’s old cities have these perimeter walls, but in Essaouira you can get up on top of them. There’s an amazing section, right by the edge of the water, that looks out over the ocean. We enjoyed going up there for sunsets, as did the locals.

Amber taking in the view from one of the towers on the city walls

Just outside the medina is the port, which looks a lot like ports all over the world. There’s an amazing wooden boatworks on one side, where we got to see new boats in various stages of construction. Very cool.

One completed and one under construction

During our time in Essaouira, we got to explore a few more of the local foods. One definite highlight was garbanzo and fava beans, served by a friendly woman who set up her cart on a corner every afternoon. She ladled them out of a huge vat, wrapped them in cones of used printer paper, and sprinkled them with cumin, salt, and pepper. Yummy! And a fist-sized amount was only 2 dirham…about twenty five cents! We also partook of the local seafood. The Atlantic coast of Morocco is famous for its sardines. And these are not the little finger-sized sardines that come in a tin in the US. They’re 6 inches long, meaty, and just as oily as the little ones. The boats bring em’ in, the outdoor fish grills buy them, and then cook them according to order. We had sardines, along with sole, white-fish, red snapper, shrimp, and squid, at one of the grills right by the port. Lastly, we had some of the best ice-cream we have ever eaten – incredibly rich, pure, and not too sweet. One day Matt had ice-cream three times it was so delicious!

Local fishing boat in drydock. Some of these looked really old, and barely afloat.

Essaouira is also well-known for its Eleonora’s Falcons, which nest on the off-shore Ile de Mogador. They’re a very local species, found only in the Mediterranean and North Africa. We saw individuals here and there, flying to and from a nearby island. But we saw most of them at night on the enormous lighted beach zipping to and fro catching bugs.

Sunset from the Essaouira city walls.

Up the coast to Oualidia

With the arrival of summer, temperatures are soaring in the interior, so we’re trying to stick to the coast and the mountains, where it should be at least tolerable. Oualidia was the second stop on our tour of coastal Morocco. It’s known mostly for two things: its beach and its oysters. Coming from Agadir, we were ready for a smaller town, something with a little more character. And we got it!


Our Oualidia chariot in an advanced state of disrepair


The town is a strip of buildings along the coastal highway, with a few dirt roads running off on either side, and a road heading down to the beach. Every night, we ate with the locals, in delicious little restaurants along the main strip. Tajines, bread, and grilled meat. Simple but sooo tasy. The beach is awesome. It’s on a big lagoon, probably several square miles, protected by bluffs that serve as a breakwater. The inlet is wide enough that the water in the lagoon gets well exchanged, so it’s more like a sheltered bay than an estuary. The sand is soft, fluffy, and expansive. There’s a huge sandbar that’s exposed at low tide, that you can swim to (or hire a boat to hop across).


Oualidia lagoon


It was a scene. On Sunday in particular, the beach was packed, almost entirely with locals and Moroccan tourists. Dudes walked up and down selling coffee, snacks, ice cream, and such. Kids were everywhere, running, fighting, doing flips into the water. The biggest downside to the beach was a constant strong wind that blew sand around and into everything. We made do, but tried to stay clear of the rascally children, who kicked up sand everywhere they went.


The beach at sunset


Most of the town’s development is clustered around the southwest end of the lagoon, where the beach, hotels, restaurants, and such are. Walking northeast, it’s much less populated.


The local mode of transport


We went that way one afternoon, in search of fresh oysters for lunch. We walked for two miles or so with little idea where we were going, but eventually got to the “House of Oysters”. But there were no oysters to be had! A sign said it was forbidden to eat them at the moment. Sad for us. So we lunched on delicious fresh-baked bread and went for a swim.

España!

One of the big features of our travels, both in Morocco and Spain, has been the prominence of football (aka soccer). Everywhere we go, we see people wearing jerseys of popular players, kicking the ball around, and watching games.

We’ve been lucky to be here during the European championships, or Euro 2008, that were going on for much of June. It’s a big international championship, featuring national teams from all over Europe. And given the Europeans’ strength in football, the tournament is almost as competitive as the World Cup.

We got to watch a bunch of the games, probably more than we could have seen in the US, which was awesome for one devoted and one budding fan. Finding places to see games has occasionally been difficult. In Morocco, the cafes are essentially all-male affairs, and in many cases it’s been too intimidating for us to brave them. The place where we watched the final (Spain vs. Germany) had about a 50-to-1 male-female ratio. For much of the time, Amber was the only woman in the packed place! In Agadir, there was a nice little sitting room in our hotel where we could watch with the management and a few other guests.

Having been in Spain for the last two months, we had a slight leaning towards them at the beginning. Watching their earlier games turned us into fans. They played a beautiful, smooth, crisp passing game, with some really stellar defense. And, well, they won! Which makes us sad we’re not there now for the celebrations. But still pretty excited. And then sad again, cause there’s no more football to watch… boo.

Spanish fans celebrating the victory

Agadir

Everyone we met said “Don’t go to Agadir.” We never really got a clear explanation of why, and we’re happy we didn’t take their advice. It’s not exactly a great travelers’ destination – there are no major sights, and it’s popular with the generic package-tour beachgoers. But it was a nice window into a very typical slice of modern Moroccan life.

The city was destroyed by a massive earthquake in 1960. So badly, in fact, that the old city was simply covered over and left as a mass grave. The new city was built beside the site of the old one, and stresses practicality over ornamentation. The mosques are still beautiful as always, but the rest of the buildings are largely plain, blocky, and undecorated. The doorways are one exception – many of them have unique, if fairly simple, tiled entryways.

Our lovely little hotel in Agadir.

There really wasn’t all that much to “do” in Agadir. We spent a lot of days strolling around, hanging out in our hotel (which was amazing for the price!), watching soccer, and just doing day-to-day things.

One big highlight of our time there was the Souq al-Had, a huge covered market in the southeast of the city. It was a like a massive mall full of small shops – it had stores selling everything from clothing, toiletries, shoes, and housewares to electronics, furniture, plumbing, appliances. There was the obligatory souvenir section, though it was much smaller than in most cities. It also had one of the best fresh produce markets either of us has ever seen, sprawling through several large areas. Olive stalls, pet stores, dried fruit and nut vendors, and on and on. It’s the kind of place people go to buy everything – one-stop shopping like we’ve seen nowhere else. According to a guy we ran into on the way there, it has some 2700 stores. Wow. It was packed with Moroccans, and we saw almost no tourists.

Oued Souss

Our major day trip while in Agadir was to Oued Souss, a tidal estuary at the northern edge of Souss-Massa National Park. We spent several hours strolling and baking along the water’s edge. Birds were plentiful, and included a flock of 150 flamingos! Seeing flocks of flamingos in the wild was a first for both of us, and we spent quite a while watching them and taking photos. We also got a bit lost and were shooed away from the king’s palace (he seems to have a lot of them) by a guard.

Yes, we really are in Africa!

In all, we wouldn’t recommend Agadir to people looking for sights and excitement. But it was a great break from the tourist trail, and got us rested and geared up for our next adventure.

More flamingos!