Morocco Part 1: Beauty and Disappointment

July 9, 2015

You may be wondering why it has taken me so long to Morocco and Seville part of my journal? It may even be keeping you awake at night? I wouldn't be surprised.

But the delay is not because I am lazy, or daft, or ornery. The delay is because I can't get my videos to upload to Youtube and I have some bad ass videos of Chefchaouen.

Chefchaouen is the town Donna and I visited and, as you may remember from my into, is the sister city of the Issaquah, the town near Seattle where Donna lives.

But I can't get my video to load. So I have decided that instead of causing you further anxiety from waiting I will post some of entries now. But only if you PROMISE to come back when I get the video sorted out. If we are in agreement...

We LOVED Chefchaouen! It was the highlight of our time in Spain/Morocco. We blew through Tangier as quickly as possible and boarded a bus to Chefchaouen. We spend 3 days there and loved it.

Chefchaouen is noted for its blue walls which we learned are blue because bugs don't like blue and it keeps the bugs away. Good thinking! I had bugs.

The people are amazing, friendly and welcoming, and we never once felt unsafe. In fact one night I wandered around the little streets alone taking pictures and never once felt unsafe.

We were also given personal tours by some of the people who had been to Issaquah on the sister city exchange program. We ate with our fingers in authentic restaurants, sampling delicious foods, and learning about the people up close.

Our favorite guide was Hannan, who patiently shepherded us around town answering questions, introducing us around and translating when necessary. She also helped us buy Moroccan rugs, bargining like a lion with the rug merchant who, though happy to get a sale, was probably unhappy about the profit margin because the 2 American suckers had an expert on hand to close the deal

My only regret was not seeing a fabulous guitarist from Chefchaouen, who I had seen on Youtube over the past year. It wasn't in the plans to see him because (according to Hannan) he now studies music in Tangier and is often on tour. So seeing him was never on the agenda.

Except the town organizes concerts on an outdoor stage some nights, so we wondered in after 10pm (concerts start at 11pm in this part of the world) and there he was, setting up on stage.

"That's the guy!" I said to Hannan, because I didn't know his name, only what he looked like.

Hannan knows him (I think everyone knows everyone in a town like that) and even went back and said there are two American's waiting to see him play. His name is Tito Malaga and he is a huge talent.

So we waited for the concert to begin, I was pretty excited...

Except that, literally, as they were ready to walk on stage it started to rain, and the wind picked up and was blowing like crazy! The stage wasn't covered and all the instruments and equipment had to be moved and the show cancelled. I was mightly disappointed.

Here is a little bit of what we missed, maybe some day I will get to see him in person :-] (These are not my videos btw.)