Now that my British friends have left Morocco, I am traveling with two Aussies, Nick and Paulina, that I met in Cef Chaouen. Nick use to work in the UK as a software guy as well and they are doing some traveling before heading back to Australia. It is interesting to hear about someone with my similar work profession and what their experiences are compared to mine.
The three of us head from Chef Chaouen north to Tangier. The only buses that go to Asilah, a small sea side town, is from Tangier. From all the backpackers that I’ve talked to as well as the guidebooks, Tangier is a rough part of Morocco. The local there prey on tourists that come via ferry from southern Spain and some of the most elaborate rip off schemes take place there. With that mind, we get into Tangier with the one goal of going straight to the bus station and to Asilah. The funny thing is that the bus from Chef Chaouen actually doesn’t take you to the bus station. Instead, they drop you off at Ferry gates so we had to negotiate a taxi fare to get to the bus station.
From the bus station we realized that all the buses, running on limited Ramadan schedule, had already finished their course for the day. Thus we had to grab a grand taxi. Grand taxis are different that regular city taxis in that they transport you from city to city. Usually they wait for a full carload before leaving. We crammed two passengers in the front and four in the back before we set out for Asilah. The ride, luckily, was only an hour.
Asilah is famous for its paradise beach. The first goal is get out of the old city area which is maze of small streets. Like Chef Chaouen this town is painted in blue and white. However the colors are bolder. It almost reminds me of some of the islands of Greece that I’ve seen pictures of.
Paradise beach is really far walking along the jagged cliffs along the sea shore. The walk goes over numerous hills and we always looked forward to seeing an actual beach over the next hill and were frequently disappointed. Fishermen are sitting along the rocks the entire journey over and finally we the beach. The walk took several hours and we decided to stay at the beach until sunset. That idea was great for sunset pictures, however we had to take the local roads back by foot since the jagged rocks along the beach were a definite bad idea in the dark. The walk took a lot longer since it was more of an indirect path back. All in all paradise beach did not live up to its name.
We get into town well after dinner time and get a chance to walk through the not so touristy part of Asilah. Here people live in shacks made out of metal panels. The slums are packed together pretty tight. I was able to get a peak here there of the insides and I was quite surprised at some of the conditions these people live in.
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