TRAVELWITHZOE

Since Googling “places to go in Morocco” just before the trip, I knew I wanted to stop at Chefchaouen aka “The Blue City” because it might be my only chance in my life to see a blue city! I had just spent two days in Fes, and from there I took a CTM bus (I booked the ticket on the CTM website the day before) which took 4 hours. Interestingly this CTM bus was pretty much full of tourists, whereas most of the other ones I took on the trip were much more of a mix.

I had tried to find a Couchsurfing host in Chefchaouen, but hadn’t managed (sometimes they don’t reply and sometimes they reply saying they’re too busy or they already have guests), so I had booked the cheapest hostel on the HostelWorld app the day before. The hostel was called Ali Baba and I could see from the map that it wasn’t in the centre of the city, but it didn’t seem to be too far away.

When I got off the bus in Chefchaouen, my automatic assumption was that I’d walk to my hostel, but when I typed it into Google Maps to see the route, it said 35 minutes which was a bit further than what I was expecting (it’s weird that I hadn’t checked that already, because usually I would have done). There were some taxi drivers at the bus station but they were kind of annoying… I told them I might walk and they basically said I won’t be able to because it’s too hilly, so I decided it was a challenge I had to accept.

It was pretty hot and pretty hilly, but obviously I made it! I actually fell over (thankfully the taxi drivers didn’t see!!) because there was a steep rocky part and I think my shoes have quite bad grip and my backpack made me kind of unbalanced… but I was fine. The hostel was really difficult to find because the Google Maps pin wasn’t really on an actual road. I asked a few people in the neighbourhood and ended up finding it that way.

I was relieved when I got to what I thought was the front door, but it didn’t open when I pushed it, and nothing happened when I knocked. I was so thirsty and exhausted from the walk that I just sat on the step beside the door, took off my bag and waited.

I knocked several more times and nothing happened, so I messaged the hostel on HostelWorld and on Whatsapp (the number was available in the booking) basically saying I’m outside. I started to become a tiny bit concerned after about 15 minutes – I thought maybe the hostel was actually closed for a few days or something. Anyway soon after that, a man (the owner) appeared and he basically explained that there was a home-made doorbell thing around the other side of the building that I was supposed to ring when I arrived.

I dumped my bags in my room and went out to get cooking ingredients and snacks. It was about 10 minutes walk to a small shop and a fruit and vegetable vendor, so I went there and got some lentils, rice, seasonings and fruits etc. It was nice to cook for myself for the first time in a while in the hostel kitchen which was on the terrace with great views and nice breeze (I would even say it was a bit cold up there!)

I’d chosen the second-cheapest type of room at Ali Baba Hostel – a private roof terrace room. The cheapest type would be a shared roof terrace room, which was about £4, and mine was £5 per night. As you can see below, it’s basically a semi open sheltered area on the roof terrace. There were about 7 rooms up there and they don’t have doors or locks or anything so it kind of feels like camping. I really enjoyed the feeling of sleeping on the roof, although I was only able to do this on the second night as he had to move me to an indoors room on the first night because of the rain!

When I woke up the next day I was feeling quite lazy so even though I’d originally planned to go on a waterfall hike, I decided to just wander around the city instead. I looked on the HappyCow app (an app for finding vegan food near your location) and decided to go for lunch at Restaurant Bab Ssour. It was more touristy and expensive than the types of places I’d mostly been eating at in Morocco, but honestly it wasn’t really worth it to me – I didn’t find that it tasted any better than the other places.

Anyway, wandering around Chefchaouen was quite interesting and the blue streets were beautiful so it was fun to keep turning different corners to see what the next street would look like, and to try and take pictures and videos that capture what it really looks like.

I spent hours just wandering around and stopping to sit in different places, and I also decided to check out the riverside area (you can type in Ras El Ma on Google Maps to go there). It’s basically a tiny waterfall and riverside with steps leading down to it and lots of cafes by the water where you can sit and eat/drink with your feet in the stream. It was a long walk back to the hostel but I walked during sunset which was nice.

When I woke up after my second night in Chefchaouen, I decided it was time to do the waterfall hike. I had read about Akchour Waterfalls online and followed the instructions from a blog post about how to get there. Basically I walked to the road next to the bus station, asked someone at the shared taxi stand which taxi is going to Akchour, waited until there were enough passengers and then we were on our way. The shared taxi ride from Chefchaouen to Akchour was 25 Dirhams per person (just over £2).

My experience at Akchour ended up not being what I was expecting, but it worked out well in the end. Basically I’d read that there were two waterfalls there and some other walking trails, but I assumed there would be signs, especially because the place was so touristy (the beginning part of the path was full of cafes and there were hundreds of people there). Strangely, there weren’t really any signs, so I just guessed which paths to take.

The first turn-off I took was absolutely insane. I later found out it was a path that’s no longer in use, which makes sense because it was super dangerous. Basically it was at the edge of a cliff and it was really steep, thin and uneven, so I felt like I might fall off at any point, but I kept going for a while because I didn’t want to be defeated by a stupid path. Eventually I turned back because I didn’t want to die.

The second path I chose actually hand a hand-painted note on one of the rocks part way up with an arrow saying God’s Bridge. I’d read about God’s Bridge in the blog posts so I knew it was one of the walking trails (aka not a waterfall). At this point I’d wasted so much time and energy on the old dangerous path that I decided I’d just stick with this second one because I’d already started, rather than go back to try and find a waterfall.

The God’s Bridge hike ended up being pretty cool. There were great views for most of the way, and it wasn’t very busy (it seems like lots of people just go to Akchour to spend time by the river but not actually hike), and the path was not too easy and not too difficult.

The hike was maybe an hour there and an hour back. I had to stop when I was almost at God’s Bridge because I realised I had a splinter on the bottom of my foot from when I took off my flip-flops to try and grip better on the first path. I sat down on the dusty path at a super awkward angle, getting mud and dust all over my clothes, to try and pull the splinter out. Thankfully I eventually got it out and no one passed me while I was sitting on the path!

On the way back, I was sitting on a rock and two middle aged men stopped to take photos, so I asked them to take one of me. We ended up chatting a bit and decided to do the rest of the walk back together. They were visiting from Belgium and they told me they had a hire car and they were planning to drive to Tangier that evening because that’s where they were staying, but that they were going to drive to Chefchaouen first to have a look around.

Obviously I had to get back to Chefchaouen, and funnily enough I was actually planning to take a bus to Tangier the next morning as it was my next destination, so I asked if I could just go with them in their car. They said yes, so we went to Chefchaouen together and I ate falafel in a restaurant there while they explored the city for a few hours. They then dropped me to my hostel and waited in the car while I quickly shoved my stuff into my bag and told the owner I wouldn’t be staying another night.

On the way to Tangier we chatted about our travels and lives back in our countries etc., and they dropped me at a cafe which my Tangier Couchsurfing host had told me I could wait at because he was still at work. It was a 24 hour cafe with wifi which was near his workplace so it made sense. I was there until about midnight and I drank some amazing pear juice and ate some chips while I was waiting. Check out Morocco diaries part 8 to find out what I did in Tangier!