The Blue Chaouen

It's nice to be in a place where the rooms cost 10 bucks and lunch and dinner costs half that. It won't be like this for long though. Chefchaouen, a town that until 1920 was closed off to outsiders, is in the north of Morocco. Of the three westeners that were able to enter the town, one was disguised as a rabbi and another was poisoned by the townspeople three days into his visit. Christians were not welcome here. The people have mellowed out considerably since then. These days Chaouen's blue streets are overrun by Spanish tourists haggling over kilims and alladin style lamps.

For some reason the hotels here are hangouts for the local guys. Checking into our hotel the first night everything seemed to run smoothly until the clerk noticed the name on my passport and where I was born. He smiled widely. I was immediately overcome by guilt... or rather shame. Strange how these feelings are encoded in you and surface given the right situation. We went upstairs and as we came down again the entire group of dudes stopped their boisterous game and fell completely silent. So, we checked out the next day and found more comfortabe surroundings around the corner. Everything in Chaouen is around the corner by the way since there are no straight streets.
Time is kept by the call to prayer which comes five times a day. Men start streaming toward the mosques in the various neighbourhoods within minutes of the asan. There isn't much to do other than watch people go about their daily business in their long robes, explore the souks and the hills around town and decide on your next meal. The food is standard local fare but the local goat cheese is a notch above the couscous.

The two horn like hills behind the city give Chefchaouen it's name: the horns. People are extremely friendly here and other than being asked to buy carpets or kif (weed) there isn't much hassle. The Rif mountains in this region are home to Morocco's marijuana plantations. The word reefer probably comes from the word Rif.... Buying though is not a good idea since most of the dealers double as police informants.

Tomorrow it's off to Fez, the world's oldest intact Islamic medieval city.