We caught a bus to a small rural town set in the valley between two
mountains – Chefchaouen. We had a really quiet three days, doing our best to
relax and get a little bit of sun. We definitely managed to relax, but
unfortunately the sun let us down a little bit.
1) It’s blue. The vast majority of buildings are painted various
shades of pale blue. It really does make for a beautiful setting and quite a
unique atmosphere.
2) They estimate that approximately 40% of the world’s supply of
marijuana comes out of Chefchaouen. Apparently if you take a short walk up into
the mountains you can see the plants growing everywhere. We were warned that we
would get hassled a fair bit by people trying to sell us hash…and they were
right. It was actually quite amusing – every time we walked past a shop we
would get spruiked by the owner asking if we wanted to go and see his
plantation.
Getting out of Chefchaouen ended up being a bit of an ordeal. We
went to the bus station to buy tickets to Fes only to find out that everything
was fully booked because of the Muslim festival of Eid al Al-adha – basically
the Muslim equivelant of Christmas in terms of significance - was happening the
following day. Apparently everyone was heading to Fes. We went into a bit of a
panic as we had already pre-paid our accommodation so we couldn’t just go a
couple of days later.
We went back to our hotel to get some advice. Things were not
looking good – we were facing the realistic possibility of having to catch a
taxi back to Fes which would have cost a fortune.
Out of nowhere – like an angel sent from heaven – a women staying at
the hotel just happening to be walking past and heard Monique explaining our
dilemma to the hotel staff. It turned out that she and her partner had a hire
car and were driving to Fes the next day, and so offered to give us a lift.
Of course, we gleefully accepted. It was a minor miracle.
We met them the following morning and started making our way to Fes.
Things started off well. It’s turns out that they were a really
interesting couple – living on house boat in the heart of Paris on the river
Sein, he is an author, and she was an American who had left home when she was
18 to learn French and never returned.
Things took a bit of a turn for the worse, however, when Daniel
asked if we could stop for a quick bathroom break.
We stopped at a petrol station in some random town in the middle of
nowhere, Daniel did his business, we set off on our way again, and then
suddenly we heard a rather loud crunching and scraping sound.
We were all a bit shocked and none of us really knew what had
happened.
It turns out that a car parked on the side of the road had gone to
pull out, hadn’t seen us in his blind spot, and so basically ended up side
swiping us as we drove past.
The driver of the other car initially admitted that it was his
fault, but then conveniently changed his story and blamed us when he realized
that he needed to sign paperwork.
We ended up waiting for an hour or so while they called the police
and tried to get everyone to fill in the paperwork – no easy task with language
barriers between French, Arabic, and illiteracy. It ended in a stalemate with
nobody being prepared to admit fault. We felt horrendously bad for the couple
who were driving us. Worst timed wee ever.
Anyway, we finally got back on the road again and eventually arrived
in Fes – very glad to have arrived in one piece.
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