Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Chefchaouen

June 30-July 1, 2012
To get from Fez to the Rif Mountain town of Chefchaouen, we took a modern, Greyhound like, bus for five hours through the fertile valleys and hills of this area.

The landscape is filled with large fields of moan wheat, olive tree orchards, vineyards, and grazing livestock. I was amazed at the high level of mechanized agriculture. There did not seem to be many small subsistence-level farms, but poor families working larger farms. In many ways, the topography
reminds me of the American west.

Chefchaouen is a picture postcard town in the Rif Mountains and a popular tourist destination (50% of the worlds hash is grown in the region). The buildings are built into the side of a mountain and are painted white with lots of blue tones. The temperatures are mild, even cool at night. The architecture is from southern Spain and the people speak a lot of Spanish. The town plaza is filled with open restaurants, shops, and a Kasbah. Very delightful feel. Inexpensive and good food. Difficult to move on.

Street Scene
Tower of the Kasbah
View from Kasbah Tower
Spanish Mosque overlooking city
Need more be said?

We discovered a route between our small hotel and the main plaza. Although it was not the shortest and required us to walk up and down a couple of steep hills, we had learned our lesson not to stray from the  way we knew among these mazes which they call streets.

Sometimes you just need to take a nap.





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