I was told to meet for the day trip at 7:30, so I set out at 7am to give myself time to find the cafe. But it felt especially morning when the stores were still all closed. If was so early that there were vehicles on the streets! One guy was delivering sacks for grain with a tractor. And then I got to see the trash truck collecting garbage.
The cafe meeting point was much earlier to find than I expected (it was in a slight different spot on each of my maps). The cafe was basic – okay, the free breakfast from the cafe was basic – a fried egg, a roll, orange juice, and hot beverage of your choice. Still, I hadn’t even been expecting food to be included, so that was nice.
I volunteered to share a table with a cute woman with braids and bohemian clothes. Alas she was not as interesting as her style, and it turned out she was a heterosexual from California. And then we set out to Chafchaouen. It was more than a 3 hour drive, with surprisingly bumpy roads. Surprising because much of it would be pretty smooth and then there would be a sudden dip in the road.
We had two quick stops. One of a large space with a cafe and a bathroom – which was a very well maintained set of toilets that was able to accommodate whole vans full of tourists at a time. But the cafe side only has sweets and beverages. So we got hot beverages and then got back on the bumpy van. No lids were available.
The second stop was at a scenic overlook. For a city that advertises itself as blue, there are a few different colors for buildings. And then once we got there, we were just dropped off to wander on our own and meet back up at 4pm. I tried walking a random promising looking direction, and I was gently redirected toward a specific path to enter the old medina. And indeed, almost all of the old medina was blue. Very photogenic.
But I did not want to spend 4 hours climbing up and down narrow passages in search of the perfect store from which to buy souvenirs. So I found a cafe. Oh, and I also found a street vendor with those in season berries I was not familiar with! She named too high a price, but I did not feel like bargaining and she seems like she did need the money. Anyway, now that I’ve tasted the fruit, I can say they have pretty much no flavor, so that’s why they don’t get mentioned much. But I have learned.
So I did the thing I usually do when I have extra time – I found a cafe. I was looking for more tomato things to eat since Morocco seems to have the good tomatoes everywhere – and I’d been looking for plain tomato toast in Madrid and only found it with additional stuff on top. I had also been looking for American Tea, which I had the last time I was in Madrid. Even if this is a different country, at least I have documented that it exists.
And then I realized that no one could stop me from leaving that party of the city and going to the newer parts.
The most promising direction looked like it would be down some stairs. I also realized that set into the steps and under the fountain there was also a farmers market with meat, fish, and vegetable vendors.
And then I spent most of the rest of my time in Chefchaouen people and cat watching.
I did finally figure out how people manage wheelchair accessibility in these steep cobbled streets – look at this guy with wheelchair controls on an ATV!
And here are a few more shots of the city on our way out
And then on the long bumpy ride back I was chatting more with one of the other people on the bus, and I need to remember to pester him for the name of his family’s hot spa hotel in Türkiye.
When we were less than an hour out, I texted my host asking for a recommendation for which restaurant between the Blue Gate and home had the best soup. Perhaps “Don’t you just have something simple? Like soup?” is usually code for, “I like boring food.”
Anyway, I’ll make a separate post for the results of that recommendation.