Bean soup and the Blue City

We left El Jebha in the side view mirrors and eased on down the coastal highway, snaking along the coast in the Rif Mountains, best known for being the supplier of 80% of Europe’s hashish, until it was time to head south towards Chefchaouen.

Along the way, we stopped at a national park that was at the end of a 7 km road that wasn’t wide enough in my opinion for two-way traffic. A couple of things have yet to cease to amaze me. The first is the Moroccan entrepreneurial spirit. It seems like everyone is out to hustle you for something. We pulled up to the park, and were stopped at the entrance by a guy who told us that motorcycle parking was off to one side, and that our bikes would be safe there as they would guard them. Not for free, of course.

As we weren’t sure what our plan was, we thanked him and carried on the last hundred meters to where a large number of vehicles were clearly parked. Where we also parked. For free.

We were immediately approached by someone who wanted to serve as our guide to show us around the park. We elected to follow the only path on our own.

All along the path, both on the river proper and on the parallel trail just above, there were tiny “restaurants” set up, each with a small open fire upon which sat a few tagine pots ready to serve whoever chose to sit in one of their plastic lawn chairs.

I’ll give them this – they work for what they make!

The second thing that continues to amaze me is the quality of cell phone coverage. I can only think of one place, high in the mountains, a hundred km from anywhere, where we didn’t have four bars of LTE service. And what did this cost us, you ask? $2.80 for the SIM card, and $7 for 5 GB of data for a month. Amazing!

Anyway, we took a short hike in the park, and stopped for bessara, a split pea-like soup made from fava beans. And bread.

Back on the road, we arrived in Chefchaouen (Chaouen, as called by the locals, who speak more Spanish than French) at our Airbnb. As the near-vertical dirt driveway was non-negotiable, and as there’s a threat of rain overnight, we parked on street a block away (Angela says, “we have insurance!”). We were as popular as Elvis when we stopped – over a dozen kids came out to marvel at our machines and ask for money. We asked them to give us money instead, which sufficiently confused the situation!

Our hosts are an Italian wife and Moroccan husband who are very kind, and this accommodation is about the nicest place we’ve stayed in. Ahh! We were even able to do laundry.

Here’s hoping the 11 mm of rain forecasted for tomorrow morning bypasses us…!