December 26, 2008

Chefchuan is a blue city of Morocco. Imagine old Arabic town with narrow alleyways, small stone buildings, intricately carved wooden doors and mountains on the background. And now blue wash all of it. It was a surreal experience of being plunged into an ice cave with all that blue-shness around you. However angry or upset you might be - it would not last long in this city. It has this quieting, calming effect even on the most insane minds. We arrived to city rather late, in the dark, tired, not caring for much of the beauty (or seeing it for that matter) around us. Our hotel was a magical little jeweled box turned into a house. Palace from Aladdin or Thousand and One Nights. All interior was covered in beautiful wooden carvings with Islamic designs, mosaics, colored-glass lamps and colored plaster ceilings. There was a fireplace, bottomless teapot with green mint tea, chess table and roof terrace with a superb view of the city.

The first day we walked around in owe trying to blue ourselves and exploring every narrow passageway that we could find. One man practically kidnapped us into his carpet shot where we spend an amazing hour laying on his carpets and learning about carpet making industry. Of course he wanted us to buy one, but seriously... What am I going to do with a carpet in The Gambia... put it on the floor of my mud hut, I guess.

We had our first tajine - traditional Moroccan meat and vegetable stew with saffron, paprika and olives. We actually liked it so much that we came back the second time for the second plate and to take a picture with our new best friend, an amazing chef with very-easy-to-forget name... I got the recipe and cannot wait to cook it myself.

The next day we were hiking in the Rif mountains that surround Chefchuan. Pine forests, huge pine cones, beautiful view of the city and mountain air. Finally I was able to warm myself up a little bit as it is freezing in Morocco at this time a year.

I think it was about 10C and I was practically dying. It is pretty impressive how our bodies adjust to the climate. 1.5 years in The Gambia made me exceptionally tolerant to the heat, but unable to stand even a slightly cold weather.In the afternoon me and Becca went to the traditional hammam for ladies only (men go in the morning), where we had great time pouring hot water on ourselves and seeing Gambian dirt slowly disappearing from our feet... It is pretty crazy how permanently dirty my feet became here. It is kind of impossible to stay clean in the Gambian dust, but hammam was definitely what the doctor ordered...And after two days spend in the magical blue city and its surroundings, we moved to Fes.