The rest of the early afternoon we ended up buying some local items. Loved chatting with one of the shop owners who told us all about the tanneries in the area....now closed...and he was a delight to barter with.
Merchandise in hand, we took one last look at the artisan shop where we saw men making all kinds of wool items on their looms. I think we looked at every item he had before making our purchases....beautiful works.
At this point it was almost 2:00pm and our cab was picking us up at 2:30pm, so we headed back to our apartment to collect our things. While waiting for the taxi we enjoyed a lovely chat with our host Amine...interesting having conversations in French when I haven't spoken it in 25 years. Amine was a gracious host and we have been lucky to meet him along our travels..always accommodating, relaxed and of course helped us with our fire the first night.
We made it to the bus station with plenty of time...it was 30 minutes late...and were on our way by 3:45pm.
The trip north to Tangier was very lush and the Rif mountains are very barren at the peaks with a grey tone. As we entered the Tangier city limits...via Tatouen...there were lots of families relaxing in the green spaces enjoying the lovely weather on this weekend day in Morocco...Friday in Morocco is similar to Sunday at home.
At the bus station we were told we could easily get a grande taxi. To take us to Asilah, 45km away...easier said than done. When we arrived we soon found out we were not at the station with the grande taxis and the taxi driver wanted to charge us almost a hundred times more than we should be paying for this trip. Lisa went out to see it anyone else was going in the same direction as us and found a young couple studying in Germany...Eric and Quetzala...who were heading our way. After lots of discussion with numerous taxi drivers we decided to hail a small taxi off the street to take us to the grande taxi stand.
We waited for a bit and then eventually we were approached by a man who had a "taxi"...more like a motorcycle with a covered mini flat bed on the back. After doing some negotiation with several people, the four of us jumped in the back, luggage and all and were off! We were quite the sight...the European and Canadian tourists zipping through rush hour trafficking the back of a mini pick up...people were pointing, laughing and waving at us as they pulled up behind us along the way. Hilarious!!
Within 10 minutes...30MAD later...we arrived close to the grande taxi stand. In fact our taxi driver, with his aviator jacket and glasses, eventually helped us get orientated and sent us on our way. There can be lots of discussion when getting transportation in Morocco, but you always seem to get where you want to go...sometimes for a higher price than you want, depending on how much negotiation you want to do.
Finding a grande taxi to take us to Asilah was fairly easy...25MAD each...and we jumped in with a full car of 6 people. They like you to get friendly with one another here...packed in like sardines. Off we went...a bus, petit taxi and now a grande taxi...final destination Dar Manara in Asilah. We had a great chat with our newfound friends along the way and arrived in the city center of Asilah by 8:15pm...but we were not there yet!
We parted ways with our friends and now needed to get a petit taxi to take us to our Riad ...another process, as the driver had never heard of the place before and kept saying he has lived here all his life and has never heard of a place called Dar Manara. A few minutes later we were outside the medina getting dropped off on the side of the street. As it turned out the other taxi driver called our Riad for us and Anna was waiting for us at the medina entrance. Nothing like a little adventure while in Morocco!! So next time someone asks how do you get from Chefchaouen to Asilah...simply say take a bus, petit taxi, grande taxi, petit taxi and hopefully then find someone to escort you through the medina to your Riad ...easy stuff!
It was a short walk to the Riad and it was so nice to now be on the Atlantic coast. There had been a lovely sunset over the water as we drove here, so it was a bit dark at this point. We arrived at the Riad to the sounds of a waterfall, beautiful dark wood doors and accents, and a quaint little room in yellow...we definitely know we will be enjoying some time here. We did the usual check-in and turned in for the night...it was an eventful day...ready to explore this small coastal artsy town tomorrow.
Until then...
L & L
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