An Arabian Alice in Wonderland: Travel Photography in Morocco ( Post 1.1)

Before I discovered a passion in portraiture, my photography developed during my travels. Actually, I took so many pictures of the Eiffer Tower one time, I swear my camera yelled, Enough!! Just about all of my travel photography was taken with a digital point and shoot that I bought in 2005 (a Sony Cybershot) and I can't say enough positive things about that point and shoot camera. With a little help from the Photoshop Gnomes, I was able to breathe new life into these images.

Lonely Planet: Morocco makes mention of this small town in the Rif Mountains called Chefchaouen. My curiosity sent me over to Google Images, at which point I was determined to see this place for myself. (Go ahead and Google it yourself!) The town is painted blue and it reminded me of an Arabian Alice in Wonderland. I read the Tales from Arabian Nights as a child, so my (active) imagination ran wild.

Turns out that it was a rickety 2-1/2 hour bus ride into the mountains from Tangier (where we arrived on a boat from Spain). An aggressive bunch of profit-seeking cabbies offered to drive us for a mere $100 (US). But for $5, we took a public bus. All we had was a backpack each and I had an Arabic language cheat-sheet in my sweaty pocket. It was August and not only was there no A/C in the bus (which I really didn't expect anyway), but the windows wouldn't open. So it was a balmy 100 degrees in there. My backpack held in my unwelcome body heat. Once we got to the bus station in Chaoen, it was a lengthy uphill walk into the town. 

This place was a total explosion of culture. We had Moroccan mint tea with a shop proprietor, fended off rug salesmen and watched as everyone shuffled into the mosque when the call to prayer bellowed out of the minaret.  I felt so vouyeristic. I took more pictures then I can count and it was difficult to stuff a few into this blog post, but here are a few.

Oh and here's a travel tip if you ever plan to visit Chaouen: The Moroccan dirham is a controlled currency which means you can't exchange it or bring it out of the country. So when you get to Morocco, get the smallest bill denominations that you can. We thought we did do this getting the equivalent to $5 bills. In Chaouen, that is a bill most street merchants can't make change for. Bring plenty of coins and singles - things just don't cost that much. Unless you cave in to the rug salesman. ; )