Chefshaouen was the Moroccan city I never knew could exist, the Moroccan city of my dreams.

With its blue walls, surrounded by a wall of mountains, easy to manage medina, avocado shakes, hamams, kind people, I don’t think I would ever be ready to leave regardless of how many days I spent there. Even the self-proclaimed “Mohammed Big Cock of the Sahara” was charming in his own way.

Chefshaouen was a place I felt I could genuinely make local friends. Any visitors to Chef would do themselves a favor to stop and have a chat with the lovely Mohammed at his main square café. Mohammed is the most common name in the world. Lovely Mohammed is certainly not the same the as the aforementioned Mohammed.

One last word about cats- people coexist with cats. They don’t hate them, they don’t shoo them away, they don’t kick them. They live in a beautiful co-existence. They feed them, they pet them, but they don’t name them. They allow them into their shops, their businesses, their restaurants. So much love for the street cat.