It is a rural town with a mountain village atmosphere. The Rif is right in the centre of the production of hashish. On the mountain roads the sellers tempted to stop you.
Certain travellers profit of this opportunity to make consistent provisions for the trip. So there is the risk to sop at the mid-road to buy.
But sometimes the police patrols profit of a control to confiscate the commodity.

Let’s come back to Chechauen. The city developed the last years. But the buildings are regrouped around the traditional medina, without altering the landscape. After having passed by the ramparts door you have to go up by the small streets to arrive to the casbah square and to the mosque.

No cars here, because the cars that approach taking round tour of the town they cannot penetrate inside. You will have to take your bags and lance to the search of the hotels of the medina. Generally they have a Spanish name and the mark of the andalousian culture is resented also in the architecture.

Chechaouen was for a long while a prohibited city. The Europeans didn’t entered here. Maybe that’s why we resent this particular atmosphere more austere than in other places. Here, the farmers are dressed in traditional cloths in wool and the women wear the Rif traditional cloths: a long skirt in red and white.
You have to wake up very early in the morning to cross the small street at the moment when the shops open their doors in this particular quality, due to the altitude and the mountains that surround it.