Spain: Morocco: Day 2

The second morning we woke up and had breakfast at the Hostel. Our guide came at 10 am with his son who was 11 years old. We set off through the town towards the mountains. Our guide was a really cool guy; he was in his 40’s and spoke Arabic, French, Spanish and English. He was born and raised in Chaouen and knew so much about the town and mountains.

Heading out

We started up towards the mosque that Ingy and I went to the day before. We sat up there for a little bit with a few other people and a lot of dogs. Our guide decided to do a handstand of the ledge overlooking the city. He was a pretty funny guy and spoke English pretty good. If there was ever any confusion we figured it out using my Spanish or Ingy’s Arabic.

At mosque overlooking the city

our guide showing off

A group of three dogs followed us as we left the Mosque up towards the mountain. We initially thought they belonged to a group of Spaniards at the Mosque, but they followed us the whole way up the mountain. They had a lot of scars on the bodies and he explained that people throw rocks at them. He also said the reason they followed us is because they knew we were not from the area because we smelled different to them. He said he walks the trails all the time and the dogs only follow if there are tourists.

"and then our wolf pack grew to 7"

Heading up with our friends

He also explained to us what the town’s name meant. The correct spelling of the town is Chefchaouen. Chef in Arabic means look/see and chaouen means horns. He pointed up at the mountain and said the name come of the town came from the 2 mountains on the side of the city that look like horns.

When we stopped so did the dogs

We got to another point and rested. On the way up he bought some goat milk from a lady who was heading from her village in the mountains to the town of Chaouen. As we rested he poured a little milk for each dog in a divot on the rocks. We passed a few villagers making their way into town from the mountains.

Our guide offering Ingy some fresh goat milk

While we rested

The hike was challenging at some points. Loose rock and steep paths made it difficult at times, but we finally made it to the top. We were a little over 4,000 feet at the top. This was just the first cliff of many. We could have walked for another hour or so and reached even higher cliffs a further back, but we rested at the top with the dogs and enjoyed the view of the city and valley.

Chefchaouen

While we were at the top he also explained why the city is painted blue and white. All of the walls in the medina have blue paint about 8 feet up the wall and the rest is painted white. He explained that the white is to reflect the heat in the summer because it is very hot. This I already knew but the reason for the blue was interesting. He said they do that to keep the mosquitoes out of the houses. He said it resembles water and keeps them on the streets and out of the home. I am not sure if this actually works, but it must because the whole city looks the same, blue and white

He said a wolf probably did that the night before

His son resting at the top

Small cave hole

On the way back down we took a different route towards a village where his family lived. It was on the other side of the valley across from the city. On the way down he explained that his family had a farm where they had animals and crops and they also cultivated kief. We found out earlier that day that Chaouen is well known for its copious amounts of kief and hash. Kief is the crystals that form on marijuana plants. It is a stronger than marijuana because a larger concentration of THC. He gave us a demonstration on how they made it and offered us some tea why we watched. I later found out that around 5 years ago they made it illegal to cultivate the plants to make kief or hash. He said that the cops don’t bust the people in the mountains who cultivate it, just when it was brought into the city. After a while he told us he was going to stay and work and he walked us back down the hill to the mosque. We headed back into town after a long day of hiking.