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Last Sunday was Race Day – the first time we were not in Indiana for the Indianapolis 500 since 2009 and that includes the COVID year.  It was hard to not be there with our friends and to enjoy that fantastic weekend, but we were at least able to watch the race, live.  Well, I watched it – Sandy, not so much.  It was rain delayed so it ended up being a late night – ending around 1am Monday morning here in Fes.  Great race though.

Monday was moving day so we were off to the bus station – about a 20-minute walk.  We’ve always known that crossing the streets in these larger cities are a bit treacherous and it finally happened – one of us got hit.  Sandy started to cross while the light was red for the cars and a motorbike (as they often do) ignored the signal and hit Sandy.  Thankfully, she is ok – it was more scary than anything.  I didn’t see it happen – my back was turned as I was getting my bags set, but I heard the bike hit her suitcase.  Crazy stuff.

The CTM bus left Fes at 11am and arrived in the city of Chefchaouen at 3:30pm.  The first glimpse of the city as you come around the mountain is really cool – you immediately see all of the blue of the old city and the city is built right into the mountain so it is very clear from the start that there will be plenty of hills to navigate.  And it started right from getting off the bus.  Our hotel was the Maison d’Hotes Afassi and it’s only about 200 meters from the bus station but it’s straight uphill.  It nearly wore us out just getting up the hill with our backpacks and roller bags.

We settled in and then went to get dinner because we were starved.  We went to Café Clock in the Medina and had camel burgers – our first time having them.  They were very good.  Maybe there is a slight taste difference from beef, but not much difference at all and they were cooked great.  We also shared an order of zaalouk, which is a cooked salad made from eggplant, tomatoes, and spices.

After dinner, we walked to the east side of the Medina and saw the small river and waterfall called Ras El Ma.  We continued the walk then up the hill to the Spanish Mosque, which overlooks Chefchaouen and enjoyed the sunset view from there.  We then walked the 30 minutes back to the hotel and called it a day.

Tuesday was our day to do a complete walking tour of Chefchaouen’s medina.  Given that blue is my favorite color, it was pretty fantastic to just see blue everywhere we looked all day long.  Sia and Ahmed from the hotel have put together a great list on googlemaps of many things to see in the medina.  That, combined with notes from our Lonely Planet guide, made for a complete day of seeing the village.  There are fountains all over the city that have water straight from the river – cold and safe to drink.

There are a couple of cafes right along the river just outside the medina and we grabbed a table right on the river for lunch. 

Refueled, we headed back into the medina to find something for dessert – Sandy found the chocolate peanut butter balls she had been looking for since we were in Essaouira and I found a couple of scoops of ice cream.  Something we noticed walking around today is that this town has a much higher percentage of tourists than the others we have been in and also, we heard a lot more American English than we have heard elsewhere.  We relaxed back at the hotel for a little while and then headed out for dinner.  We found a place that actually serves a full bar and originally planned to go there, but when we got there, we found a Chinese restaurant next door and it just sounded better.  Chinese it was and it was delicious.

Wednesday, we planned a day trip out to Akchour to do a little hiking in the Rif Mountains.  As with many of the locations outside of cities in Morocco, the best way to get to and from them is to jump in a shared taxi.  The taxis have six seats and you go to the taxi stand and let the coordinator know where you want to go.  For Akchour, the cost is 25 dirhams ($2.50) per seat from Chefchaouen.  The ride is about 40 minutes.  He tells you that the taxi can leave now for 150 dirhams or you can wait for four other people to arrive.  We decided to wait and see if anybody else came along.  In just a couple of minutes a couple from Singapore arrived and they were also headed to Akchour.  We decided to go with just the four of us, so each couple paid 75 dirhams.  The car made for an adventure.  It was a 1982 Mercedes and we had just watched it get push started – little did we know that five minutes later, it would be taking us over the mountain to Akchour.  It was fine but not the most environmentally clean car we’ve ever been in.  And Sandy’s door handle was missing so she needed someone to open her door from the outside. 

At Akchour, there are basically two paths from which to choose.  There is a two hour walk up to the waterfall and there is a 40 minute walk to God’s Bridge.  Based on the guidance of Ahmed at the hotel, we went for God’s Bridge.  I think the waterfall is not as full at this time of year.  God’s Bridge was formed by the river carving away the canyon and leaving a small part of land up at the top that formed a bridge.  The walk was a little tough – more rocks to navigate and crossing the river a couple of times where it was quite slippery. Sandy decided to stop when we got to one particularly challenging spot.  I did continue another few minutes and the view is gorgeous.  We walked back down the path and into the village to get lunch before grabbing another shared taxi back to Chefchaouen.

Back at the hotel, I did my last course to renew my flight instructor certificate.  I don’t know when I’ll get to fly again but it’s nice to stay current and the content is just interesting anyway.  We found a great little Italian restaurant for dinner – had some delicious mushroom pasta with a cream sauce (Sandy did olive oil instead of the cream sauce) and we shared a nice Caesar salad.  After dinner, we walked over to the square in the Medina and watched the “fishermen” attempt to get people to dine in their restaurants surrounding the square.  They were fun to watch.  We asked one of them what the conversion rate was and he estimated that for every 100 people asked, maybe 18 would go into the restaurant.

Thursday was relatively quiet for us.  We found a gym for our workouts – best price of the trip so far at $2 each for a day pass.  We spent time working on travel logistics for our coming weeks and we headed back to the square in the medina to have dinner at one of the restaurants where we had befriended a couple of the “fishermen” the night before.  Sandy had a beef tajine and I had paella for dinner.

Today was another moving day and we are both very excited about our next stop.  We’ve been inland for a while and today we headed back to a coastal town.  After breakfast at the hotel, we walked down to the bus station – so much easier going downhill.  The bus was running late – scheduled for 12:20pm but didn’t leave until 1pm.  Shorter ride today as we arrived to our new home – Tangier up on the northwest coast of Morocco and Africa – at 3:30pm.  We grabbed a taxi to our apartment, got settled in, and then went for burgers, San Miguel beers, and an awesome iron skillet chocolate chip cookie at El Tangerino, which is a nice restaurant across from the beach.  Our apartment is similar to the one in Essaouira – only about a two-minute walk to the beach.  Lots of space in this one, too.

After dinner, we walked around the mall and did our grocery shopping for the week.