The Blue Pearl of Morocco
Chefchouen was the opposite of Tetouan, it was clean, calm and peaceful.
Although usually a popular place for tourists to visit, we didn’t see a single other tourist there, just the local people living their day to day lives.
In fact we haven’t seen any other Europeans in Morocco at all – probably due to a combination of the Spanish borders being closed and people still reluctant to travel far due to covid.
We seem to be the first tourists they’ve had for 2 years and we are being welcomed with open arms, people even cheer us in the street and say ‘welcome’.
We were invited into this rug shop for a mint tea and a chat. It was lovely to hear all about how the rugs were made and the meaning behind the patterns.
Rachel and I wanted to experience going to the public hammam (bath house), we found a little soap shop and asked the lady to help us get everything we needed and talk us though how it works.
We bought the special scrub mits, an exfoliating gel and olive soap.
The hammam is a series of fully tiled rooms that vary in temperature from cool to hot. The heat is provided by a wood fire that is lit under the floor. The local women bring a pot of tagine and leave it in the fire to cook whilst they wash in the hammam above. Washing in the hammam is thought to cleanse body and soul. It’s also a very social time for the women who gather there. No men are allowed to enter.
Rachel and I had a lovely experience. We were given a little stool, a bucket of hot water and a jug and left to wash ourselves. We copied the other women – rinse, scrub, rinse, soap, rinse again. One lady came over to scrub our backs for us. We joined in the chat as best we could with our broken French. We feel privileged to have had this time with the women in a place where they feel so free and relaxed. It was a surprise for us to see them wearing so little, as outside of the hammam women are always fully covered.
We left the hammam squeaky clean and feeling fresh.
