Hotel Riad Chaouen Chefchaouen

... part of the day, we were roasting inside the bus. We didn't arrive to Chefchouen until around 6.30pm...a lot longer than the time they quoted us. They blamed it on the road conditions, but the same thing happened on the next bus I took. Well when we got off the bus I decided to go with Marie, since it was better than looking alone. She was expecting her friend to come meet her later that night and was looking for a 2 person room. We found a hostel in her travel guide, and ...

... and a Castillian and an Andalusian and a Moroc than there are differences. The human race is like that especially when one travels by ground transportation through the Mediterranean. There were some vivid reminders that we weren't in Kansas anymore: - uniformed men exerting authority with whistles and stern looks - less skin and more headscarves - a language obviously not left by the Romans and an unreadable script that looks like beautiful artwork - no ...

... back with the comment of the day - "I'll just stick with what I've got". Classic. It didn't take long for the others to come and try steal some of our chairs (to no avail) and inspect our truck. I wonder what they thought of our beach - total overland heaven. So that pretty much set the scene for the rest of the evening - exchanging stories, drinking wine, warming by the fire and generally just having yet another wonderful evening.

... ensued at the bus station where Dan attempted to purchase bus tickets from the CTM stall, the government owned bus company.  A surly, wrinkled, and almost toothless gentleman manned the booth and refused to sell Dan a ticket, telling him to come back in ten minutes.  While waiting Dan noticed a familiar face in the bus station - Viv, the Australian we had shared a ferry ride into Morocco with, was on her way out of Morocco that day after braving ...

... play our music too. We feel like we are on the set of the Alladin movie and it does seem like magic flying carpets and genie lamps could in fact exist here. We did a walk into the medina which was fairly laidback and revealed lots of little artisan shops (souqs) and local businesses like sewing shops and barbershops. The little food stalls were all tempting and we tried goats cheese, olives and fresh bread. A medina quarter is a distinct city ...

... We did it on our own and it gave both of us the courage we needed to say *yes! we can travel in a non-english speaking, non-european country and we'll be just fine*. I won't say it was the perfect trip, we had moments here at there but, overall it was a wonderful experience. Everyone who visit Morocco should take the time and the effort to go to Chefchaouen.

... so that element of the culture is dying out. Chef-Chaouen was a very beautiful city and Said was a very genuine tour guide, like Abdul. He didn't show us only the toursity parts of the city, but the elements that he thought would show us the culture of the Moroccans the best. Most of the houses were white and there was also a lot of blue, which looked kind of scatter-edly painted. Said explained that everything was originally ...

... with a man, and some do not believe women should be allowed to speak to men without a 'husband ' present. In very religious households, women are not allowed to leave the home without her husband being present. If she does, it is grounds for divorce, which is basically a scarlet letter and she most likely won't marry again. One other solo female traveler told me that the most difficult thing was just wanting a coffee in the morning, and not being able to ...

... Sure enough, loud banging yields helpful people and we are advised that a 7 day transit visa is no problem...just dont mention the South in your travel plans. One can only imagine what goes on in that corner of the country, but we stay safe and talk of our long held desire to trace the majestic Algerian coastline. Only problem being that the visa takes 2 working days to process. So this will have to wait for another day. Ideas of heading to Gibraltar via the Alhambra of ...

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