Chefchouen

Chefchouen, Morocco

01/24/24

Apartment 1, Avenue Maghreb Arabe

I leave this great apartment tomorrow for Tetouen.  I was thinking of biking it but having seen the mountains I have decided to take the bus.  The plan is to finish the trip in Morocco by slowly making my way down along the Mediterranean coast back to Tangier Med and the ferry back to Marseille.  I am giving myself a break here because the last day will be pretty hilly. However, this way I arrive the day before departure. 

No matter how hard I tried to pack lightly my bags make any hill very difficult.  The last day will be a 23 km ride.  This doesn’t sound like much but I have learned that it is no fun to overextend.  I have a full day for this trip.  It still worries me.  My chest aches when I really have to push it.  I have to remind myself to breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth.  I havn’t had to do that for awhile…at least I havn’t had to remind myself to do it!

Chefchouen has been great. I seem to have made some friends here.  The owner of the apartment owns the cafe downstairs. There is football (soccer) every night because the African Cup is being played and Morocco is doing really well.  I walk everywhere.  It’s good exercise because the town is built into a mountain.  The old city is painted blue.  The blue color is theorized to represent the sky.  There are several stories as to why the paint became used.  I have read two accounts.  One is the migration of Jews from Spain during the inquisition and another is similar but blames WW II.   

There is a Kasbah that I visited yesterday.  It was a small castle built by the founding prince in the 15th century.  It was beautiful inside but, as my new friend Hatim says, “except the prison”.  He’s right.  The prison was pretty daunting.  The chains against the base of the wall made it evident that this was not a good pace to be…ever! He said the prisoners would be chained at the base of the wall but also around their neck.  There was electric lighting but when the place was in business there wouldn’t be.  Pitch black darkness, cold and miserable would have been the conditions.  It’s almost hard to imagine!  However, the stories of the princes, sultans and the like are filed with tales of their brutality.  For example there is the story of the designer of the beautiful door into ruler’s palace in Meknes.  The Sultan asked a simple but two edged question to the designer, “could you do any better?”  “Yes” the designer replied, assuming there was more work to be had, and immediately was decapitated!

Chefchouen is my favorite place in Morocco.  It is so much smaller than the larger cities.  The only other place this size that I’ve visited is Asilah.  Chefchouen has a little more to offer unless you are a beach person.  The stores in the old Medina are the same as in the other towns.  The weavers are still in their small shops with their looms.  As in Meknes and Tangier the men work on their sewing and fancy embroidery in tiny little shops.  I did, finally, talk to a person in the Medina here in Chefchouen.  He said he was a tour guide and he was standing outside his father’s shop.  Eventually he invited me into look at the carpets I had heard so much about.  They are incredible carpets.  Hand made by tribal women.  At least that’s how the story is told.  They are made of wool or a combination of wool and cactus or wool and silk?  The problem for me is the way the shop keeper sells.  I went to three different shops.  All had the same story of the  tribal women creating the carpets and how each woman had her own trademark built into the patterns of the carpet.  I was told how I would be supporting the Berber tribes in the hills.  The merchant then takes out carpet after carpet until I felt a sense of overwhelm.  They serve you tea.  Finally it comes down to price.  By the time negotiations are through the price has been halved or better and they have folded up the carpet they have decided you want.  I walked out.  

The deals are endless including shipping.  This is important.  I did finally decide to buy a small carpet and, after much discussion, decided to ship it myself.  DHL and FedEx are available and will be thrown in during negotiations.  The stories then will continue about how the sellers in Fes and Marrakech would be charging much more and the designs of the carpets are very particular to the the regions of Morocco and to the women who produce them.  I bought my beautiful wool carpet for $250 plus a small tip or “bacsheeshe”.  I then spent sometime figuring out the post office.  The post office is not a pace to be visited at noon!  It is also a bank and is a slow moving affair and very busy.  However, I learned that at the end of the day or when it first opens is the best time to go.  I did not bring my passport the first time I went.  They needed a copy to put on the shipping label.  So off my little rugs goes.  I wonder if I will ever see it again?  I hope so because it is quite beautiful and will be a great reminder of this trip and Morocco.