Blue Hilly Streets

Position: 35°10’07.2″N 5°15’56.1″W

Every tourist town needs a draw. Chicago is the Windy City and the home of Al Capone. New York is the city that never sleeps. London is the home of queens and Pearly Kings. Chefchaouen, Morocco, is blue. The colour blue. And it’s enough to be a blue city in Morocco to draw in the foreigners and get them to drop a few dirhams on leather slippers or fridge magnets.

Pop-Quiz

Chefchaouen’s Instagram makeover started in the 16^th century. Jewish refugees from Spain moved to the new town and began personalising their homes with tekhelet blue.
In the 19^th century when a local apothecary discovered you can repel mosquitoes by painting your house blue.
In the 21^st century when a TV crew came to town and filmed a soap opera. They decided to paint one house blue to give it some on-screen pop. The rest of the town figured ‘why not?’, and the local paint supplier retired a happy man. (*see answer below)

Slick

Lauren and Wade had only a couple of days left with us on their itinerary, so Carol hit the guidebooks for an activity to take us beyond Tangiers’ photogenic Medina. For a day trip, Chefchaouen ticks most of the right boxes. You can get there in a couple of hours via a minibus that takes you over the northeast tail of the Atlas Mountains.

On a rainy day, like the one we had, travelling by road gives you a gloomy view of life in modern Morocco. Ascending a steep road just south of Tangiers, the heavens opened just long enough to wet the roads and make them slick. Busses and trucks ahead of us slowed to a crawl. A dozen vehicles had crashed into the ditch on either side of the road. It reminded me of winter in Oregon. After a dusting of snow there, people simply drive off the road and call their insurance agents. Or an ambulance if they’re particularly unlucky. I couldn’t tell if it was the road’s surface (concrete) getting too slick, bald tires, excessive speed, or, most likely, a combination of all three. Having reserved a car for the rest of the month, I took a mental note.

We’ll Always Have Paris

Once over the pass, the weather cleared and as soon as we arrived, our guide led everyone to the public conveniences. For 10 dirhams we relieved the journey’s pressure. Later we learned that 10 dirhams for a pee is about 100% above the going rate in the rest of the country. For the next couple of hours, we wound our way through the markets and streets snapping photos and keeping our hands on our halfpennies. Just before lunch, our guide let us in on the secret of the town’s colour scheme and had photos to prove it.

For a gimmick, I must congratulate the townsfolk for taking it so seriously. The sheer variety of blues, from sky to periwinkle and aquamarine and back again, show a commitment that goes above and beyond. Like Ilsa in Paris, Carol wore blue. At one point I was afraid I would lose her altogether as she blended into the background.