Tamuda Bay - our coastal stay

From Tangier we hired a private car through Welcome Pickup to take us to Tamuda Bay, about an hour and a half drive. The drive was quite pleasant and fairly scenic. We treated ourselves by staying at the St. Regis La Bahia Blanca Resort situated on the Alboran Sea. We had four days booked here at this sea side resort and was meant for mostly relaxing on the beach and swimming in the sea. And while we did end up enjoying our time at this lovely resort, the weather wasn't as lovely as we had hoped and turned out to be mostly overcast, yet still pleasantly warm. We discovered the Alboran Sea is very cold because the cooler Atlantic Ocean is constantly flowing into the Strait of Gibraltar so there wasn't much sea time, but we made the most of it. The water was very calm as it was situated in the bay. The hotel was quite nice and modern yet the service lacked the refinement one expects from a St. Regis. We determined that the hospitality industry overall within Morocco lacked the same level of service as other places we've travelled to. We were however, treated to a lovely room upgrade to the John Jacob Aster suite - a very large corner room with a king-sized bed within a very large bedroom with a balcony overlooking the Alboran Sea. The suite also had a spacious living and sitting area with another balcony also overlooking the sea and parts of the resort. The bathroom had a soaker tub along with double vanity and large walk-in rain shower room. This suite really exuded an element of luxury and was designed for comfort with modern amenities. The resort grounds were beautiful with olive trees planted throughout, a large swimming pool with plenty of loungers including several more private day-bed loungers, along with a vast private sandy beach also set up with loungers. 

Given the weather was mostly overcast while we were in the area, it made sense for us to explore other parts of this region. We booked a tour to Chefchaouen, a mountain city famously known as the blue pearl city for its striking buildings washed in shades of blue. The city is nestled in the Rif Mountains and is about an hour and half drive. We ended up being the only ones on this tours, guess that's a bonus to travelling during off-peak times, and had a large passenger van with driver and another guide to ourselves. We did have to make our way to our meeting point in Tetouan which is about a 20 minute drive from our hotel. We decided to take an Uber which is way cheaper than a taxi. It is advised to be a bit cautious using Uber in Morocco as it's operating in a legally grey zone and is heavily contested by the taxi union and continues to cause much friction. We discovered a tip that when getting a ride with an Uber that the driver prefer for one passenger to sit in the front seat so it appears as though they are giving a ride to someone they know. We took a few Ubers during our time in Morocco and this seemed to work out just fine. 

So back to our tour... we arrived in Chefchaouen and were greeted by our actual tour guide, Mohammed who was going to spend the next couple hours with us giving us a fantastic walking tour of the city. Mohammed was very friendly and shared his experiences living in Chefchaouen, talked about its history and how the city came about being painted blue - including religious symbolism, temperature and mosquito control - and its significant location within the Rif Mountains. The city is car-free and the winding alleyways are filled with local weaving shops, leather-working stalls, and shops
while the vibrant main square of the medina is lined with cafes and restaurants. On the day of our visit, ladies from nearby villages and farms had all come to the medina and set up a local farmers market and were selling all sorts of fruits and vegetables. Mohammed had us try local figs and they were very tasty, sweet and juicy. 

Ras El Ma, is the natural mountain stream that runs just outside the city walls and this is where the city gets its drinking water from. We wandered over to a lower section of the stream and found some women washing their house carpets in one shallow area of the stream. Close by were a few fresh fruit juice stands who use the waters to keep their fruits cool. We each enjoyed a glass of freshly squeezed, right in front of our eyes, orange juice. It was very refreshing given it was fairly hot. Chefchaouen has a very unique charm and is honestly a very

photogenic city with not only its different shades of blue washed buildings but also the many artistic murals. It is fairly laid-back with no pushy sellers (again not what we expected to experience in Morocco), in fact the locals are all very friendly. After we parted ways with Mohammed we continued wandering around for a bit before enjoying lunch at Iri Riad Hicham on recommendation from Mohammed. We enjoyed a lovely roof top lunch with stunning views of the city and the mountain ranges.  Visiting Chefchaouen was definitely a highlight of the whole trip and we'd highly recommend a visit when in the area. 

Our tour dropped us back in Tetouan which made it convenient to explore this city a bit before heading back to our hotel. Tetouan has a distinct Spanish influence through its architecture and its large circular plaza, Plaza Moulay el Mehdi marking the centre of the city. Prominently featured in this plaza is the Church of Our Lady of Victory, a Catholic church, with its distinctive yellow facade. The Medina is one of the most authentic historic old towns in Morocco and features a labyrinth of souks, artisan trades, and local life untouched by heavy tourism. The city’s distinctive whitewashed style and architecture trace back to the 15th and 16th centuries when Muslim and Jewish refugees fled the Reconquista in Spain, bringing the city Hispano-Moroccan and Andalusian influences. I did find some of the locals more aggressive here, approaching you and trying to be your guide or trying to sell you something. This was the only city on our trip where we experienced this and it was enough for me not to want to spend too much time here. 

Later in the evening and thankfully we were back at the hotel, is when it hit... what started as a mild upset stomach turned quickly into something worse and we determined that I got food poisoning and it was BAD! Thankfully we still had three more nights here with no other tours planned so I could take it easy and rest. It was rather unsettling having this happen while in a foreign country and not fully knowing what exactly caused this and whether it really was food poisoning or something else. I ended up not being able to eat for two days, which on the plus side helped me shed some pounds. I was extremely grateful that Z was with me and took great care of me and helped nurse me back to health so that the rest of our trip wouldn't be ruined.