So free day became hike morning, where quite a few of us, including Phoebe, Sam, Erin and ourselves, went for a morning hike through the Rif mountains, quite literally behind our hotel, with Khaled leading the way. Also side note, apparently hiking and deserts mean he becomes a multicoloured scarf wearing desert queen, see photos below. He was also very proud of the fact that somewhere in the Rif mountains was hash fields, and this was a proud Moroccan export. He never took them to us though, clearly not that proud.
The hikes first stop was an Andalusian mosque, the perfect location for a jumping shot or two. It had killer views and desert queen showed us his best jumping, soaring above us all, also see below. We then hiked further, coming across many many goats, a group being herded by a young boy, going exactly where he wanted with a few sounds he made. Also we saw some donkeys, oh cute donkeys. And then we saw more goats. SO MANY GOATS. Another pit stop was an olive press, where we were told numerous times as everyone dribbled in, that it was an olive press. We reached another mosque, this one is also used as a primary school and school was on as we walked past. We saw some more goats and kept walking down the hills back towards our hotel. Overall the hike was a 10/10 , A++ and even more impressive that Khaled wore his desert queen scarf the whole time and while we all developed significant back sweat, he managed to wear a jacket and long pants the entire hike.
Back at the hotel we immediately went down to the river to do some washing. Yes folks RIVER WASHING. It was all very impressive, people were down there washing carpets and heaps of clothes, doing a really good job. The river ran down the middle and on either side were these little open buildings, where the river split into a stream which fed into several basins under this hut. The basins were all in the middle and on the edges were grates, to clean the clothes on. We used our detergent and scrubbed our clothes, trying to best mimic the girl opposite us who was a pro at it. Still we were average, wishing we had her skills. The basins emptied then back into the rivers and fresh water always ran into the basins. We took our washing back to the hotel, about a 5 min walk away and then hung our clothes strategically on our balcony. Yes also we had a balcony, could this place be any better?
After some de-sweating showers, all the 20 something's headed into the main part of Chefchaouen to hunt down some lunch. We settled on this quiet cafe in the main square and shared some different things. We also shared our food with several wasps and we had a cat who sat under us in particular, meowing for the ENTIRE time. Staring at us and non stop meowing. Also, side note. Cats are everywhere. Mangey cats, okay looking cats, pregnant cats and then some more mangy cats. And at first we were like, they have a cat issue. Then we were like, okay guys, fix your cat situation. Then finally we were like, maybe they just can't fix it because it's too far gone, maybe they have super breeding powers or something? Then Khaled informs us that apparently in the Koran there is a story that a women who mistreated her cats, didn't feed them etc, died and went to the demons because of this. So now everyone is all, don't hurt the kitties and we're all like, gross the kitties are gross. Also no one cares about dogs so there are none anyway. So sad I know. Anyway, we left the cat and the cafe for a walk through town and decided very quickly that it was way too hot for this walking business, even though we'd just been hiking, good one logic.
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| View from the hills |
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| Desert queen over here |
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| So this is an olive press. |
We ended up back at our hotel napping at the pool for several hours (in the shade) and really relaxing. Khaled appeared a bit later and turns out he had also been napping, so it was generally a very nap worthy day. In an attempt to "test" us, he liked to pickpocket/steal our belongings every now and then. Let's make it clear he was only ever successful once. Today however, he turned to Ash and spoke directly at her while taking her sunnies from in front of her. Good one m8. This was basically how every pickpocket attempt went and we actually ended up doing a much better job and stealing most of his things all the time. This was, however, the first appearance of John from San Francisco, his alter ego who wore Ash's sunglasses and was in the mafia. Also John has a thing for Jessica. (We were definitely thinking at this point, who is this guy and why is he suddenly the weirdest person ever when he used to be so serious and formal). For further clarification, we do mention super guide several times and this is because he was our main entertainment on the trip, his progression from serious tour leader who has no smile or fun, to super weird, friendly guide who generally made life easier for us who also became one of our good pals.
We had dinner at our hotel that night then went down to snack store across the road to pick up some snax for the overnight train the following night and also some for our intended movie night. We ended up starting to watch clueless but also got so tired and ended up going to bed. We also had a "late night swim" that night, but actually didn't, and for our efforts that were actually us sleeping, we got a bottle of wine! Champions of deceit!
Much love A&E.
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