The Blue City of Chefchaouen

January 15^th, 2026 

Chefchaouen, a small city of around 50,000 people, would attract tourists due to its location amongst the cedar and pine tree covered mountains of northern Morocco, but many foreigners are drawn to the municipality due to another reason…the colour blue.

Looking down at the medina from just outside of the campground.

This guy, who was quite friendly, joined me just after I came out of the campground.  He showed me a shortcut to enter the medina as he engaged in small talk.  I suspected that he had alterior motives and sure enough he did.  At first he asked if I'd like to come and see his shop, but I declined, saying that I had no plans on buying anything.  Then he asked if I smoked, and pulled out a chunk of light brown hash.  I again told him, no thanks.  He offered to give me a bit, free of charge, but he wouldn't take no so I had to tell him about my incident in India and that I didn't even want to touch it.  I still don't think he quite got it, but after we passed through an entrance through the kasbah walls into the medina, he went on his own way.  This area seems to be a "Hash Haven" as I had another 4-5 men offer me hash and/or to come and see their farm while I walked around the medina...all before 11 am!

  

Most buildings in the medina of Chefchaouen are painted in some shade of blue.  The reason why is somewhat unclear.  The most popular theory is that after WWII, when the Jewish community in the area grew as people fled Nazi persecution, blue was painted on the walls, floors and steps as a religious practice, to represent the colour of the sky and connect the city to heaven and God.

Other theories say that the walls were painted to keep mosquitos away or reduce heat in the summer, although I would think that white would be even better. Regardless of the reason it started, it’s likely that it’s now tourism that keeps the practice of painting the walls which is still done once or twice a year.  I have to admit that I travelled to Chefchaouen for this reason.

I’m not a photographer, but I found myself snapping pics almost everywhere…so you’ll have to put up with a bunch of photos in this blog entry.

I liked this little "hobbit door".

This is one of the view bits of artwork that was not all blue!

There seemed to be more shops than tourists.

I asked a couple of Japanese women who were doing a photoshoot of each other if they'd take a photo of me if I took some of the two of them.  Amazingly one of the ladies had just been in Whistler in Canada a few months ago.

I popped out of the medina to go to the post office...but then had to go back in to see more of it.

This lead to a deadend, but it did make for a good photo.

The main square in the middle of the medina.

And there was a kasbah in the main square.

They also had an Africa Cup of Nations "Watch Party" area in the main square.  The AFCON is down to the semi-finals and Morocco is still in it!

Shops, shops and more shops.

There were some spots with signs asking for a donation for photographs...fair enough, especially if the locals have made an effort to make it photogenic.

Two kids!  The little boy was enjoying petting this young, black goat.

There's a little waterfall hiding in there.

I walked part way up the hill on the other side of the river to get a view back of the blue medina.

Back to the blue.

I liked the "cumi hat" on that mountain ahead.

There were some gorgeous views on my way north.

After walking around for about 90 minutes, I headed back to the campground, had a shower and got on the road.  Tomorrow I’m booked on a ferry back to Spain from the Tanger Med port.  I only had about an hour and a half to drive to get to a spot where I’d stay for the night.

I stopped at this beach just south of a small city called Fnideq.  There were some fancy resorts around this beach.  I parked here for a few hours, did some blogging and went for a walk on the beach.

Here's Octi's last overnight spot in Morocco, which was at a gas service station just north of Fnideq.  The first night in Morocco I slept at a service station so it seemed fitting to do the same on my last night, having completed a big counterclockwise circle around this wonderful country.

I just missed it...but that's a peacock's tailfeathers on the left side of the petrol island!

There was a restaurant as part of the service station, so I decided to eat there.  Well, it was nothing to write home about with the biggest thing I’ll remember was the noisiness of the 2-3 staff members watching videos on their phones behind the counter!  Even though I was parked fairly close to the highway, I did have a decent night’s sleep.

The next morning I caught the 10 am ferry, which was only an hour late leaving (compared to the four hour delay on the ferry coming to Morocco).

There was a brief yet incredible looking rainbow at the Tanger Med ferry terminal.

I spent almost a month in Morocco and had a fabulous time.

Shukran Morocco!