Pension La Castellana Chefchaouen

... simply by following the sound of a 4 piece Moroccan band. The women invited me in for tea and sweets - and I let the little ones play "paper toss" on my iPod! Needless to say, one of those wonderfully lucky bit of travel serendipity.<br><br>Each night I've been having snails for dinner from a little stand just off the Plaza (see pics to follow). I discovered it on my first night and am now addicted to a little bowl of snails each evening. Each bowl is about 1/2 ...

I know some of you were worried we were going to get sold off as wives to Moroccan men, and in fact just the other day a man on the street offered 35,000 camels for Elise. Of course most of you know that left up to the two of us, we would "turn the world on its head," as Mohamed indeed said, and have Moroccan men serving, cooking, and cleaning for us. Well we were sad to leave our harem of caretakers and they were certainly sad to see us go, but we had ...

... continue our search for amazing tastes and keep you posted. Besides wandering around and of course eating we were pretty lazy here and our chief activity was taking antihistamines and decongestants. Jeff could not help himself though and the lure of the mountains trumped the logic of convalescence and he went on small hikes both days. The first day was especially successful and started with a jaunt through a beautiful little "suburb" undermined by little ...

... had a nutter driving behind us zigzagging across the road, overtaking, pulling over and signaling then repeating the process. No idea what he was about. They drive mad over here. Drive was meant to be 2 hours but was more like 4. I was laying up on the beach so was quite nice. Got to Volubilis moments before sunset. Just in time to take a few photos ...

... and there is lots of new and different things to see and do. Shaun is getting called Ali Barber because of the awesome beard, which is funny. The food is nice but can get all the same and you end up sick of Tagines. The worst thing about being here is being a tourist and feeling like a walking wallet to the locals. For example in Fes when we arrived on the train lots of taxis were there but damanding 2, 3, or 4 times the amount ...

... for vaccationing Iberians and the like, many there to sample the local dope and behave accordingly. We had a a few days up our sleeve so here was a place to relax for a while. 15km walk out to the next town Kelaâ proved a nice stroll through the mountainous countryside and the mountain farming/herding communities regardless of the intermittent dealers of local croppage and the passage via the perpetually smouldering rubbish tip. The ...

... do, or whether she would return. We covered ourselves in brown gluey soap that they had provided for us, it looked like engine grease, but we later discovered it was made from olives. Then using jugs of water we scrubbed it off ourselves. After this we returned to the changing room, got dressed and left. It was definitely the best shower we have experienced so far on this trip, but I feel we missed out on the massage, so want to try it again. Or maybe a different one, in another town.

... a half day's travel from Tangier, through which we'll pass in a couple of days, en route to Spain (and, by next week, home). Many people told us before we arrived here that Chaouen (as it's referred to locally) is a "magical" city, with its blue hue and its physical setting against majestic mountains. Upon arrival, it seemed to me that everyone who told us that must have come here, smoked a bunch of the dope ("Kif ...

... in their store, because you are a 'wealthy american', and they have children to feed. Moroccans are known as being the best sales people in the world. They can convince a vegetarian to buy a steak. And they all have the exact same tactics, and it amazes me how good they are at targeting the tourists. After I became familiar with their techniques, I'd sit back and watch other tourists fall into their traps and pull out money just to get rid of the 'guide'. I ...