Chefchaouen
So my last post on chefchaouen just got deleted so I am going to re-write a shorter version because we have another appointment to get to, so sorryin advance that it is not as good as it could be! We left Fes on wednesday and traveled to Chefchaouen, a small town amidst the Rif Mountains with a landscape that , apart from the architecture, slightly resembles the hills/countryside of Switzerland. I really enjoyed Chefchaouen and thought it was a charming place,especially with the medina adorned in various shades of blue-a periwinkle wash being the most common painted on the walls and buildings. Our main activity in Chef Chaouen was a visit to a honey making association and a guesthouse that was called the Maison Rurale. We were initially supposed to visit a farm to watch and possibly participate in goat cheese making, but because of the L'Aid holiday this was no longer possible. At the honey association we learned how honey is made from the worker bees collecting the nectar, the transfer process, the box and screen usage, how they extract the honey and much more. I am obsessed with honey, so this visit was expecially exciting for me, which led me to buy one of everything they sold. We then walked up the road to the Maison Rurale where we ate a delicious lunch and learned how to make a fava bean soup/dip. The house grows a lot of its own food in its pretty large garden and hill full of olive trees and maybe others. We made the soup/dip using the old, historic/traditional stone grinder to separate the beans from the shell (we used dried beans). The recipe is pretty easy consisting of the dried beans, garlic, salt, cumin, water and thena little olive oil drizzled in at the end. I love cooking, so this was a fun activity for me. The cold weather has hit morocco so we all have pulled out the hats, gloves and coats, but it actually feels refreshing, so its kind of nice. Unfortunately the weather was rainy for our first two days in Chefchaouen, but cleared up nicely for us our last day. Nevertheless, despite the weather we all had a wonderful visit to Chef Chaouen!
