An American Abroad

The Deep Blue Goodbye

I’ve been back in America for three weeks and I regularly run into friends who read this blog. Many of them mention how struck they have been with my pictures of Chefchaouen. I get that. It’s an adhesive place, one seen as an after-image long after the brief exposure to it has occurred.

It seemed appropriate, then, to caption my last Chefchaouen post after the title of a Travis McGee book by the late great John D. MacDonald. In that story, the “deep blue goodbye” was something permanent and fatal. I hope my reluctant departure from this town will be neither

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It’s a town where one can find the unexpected animal. . .

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. . . the charming detail . . .

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. . . the commercial . . .

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. . . and the meditative.

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I was curious about how the Chefchaouen shade of blue is achieved. Apparently it’s purchased as a powder, which is then mixed with water and scrubbed into the sides of the stucco and rock walls of the houses. During our stay, we saw many people doing just that.

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This outdoor stairway has been frequently photographed; it showed up in nearly every guidebook I consulted.

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This fixer-upper was one of my favorite spots. The textures and colors of the ruins were incredible.

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The rest, remainder and residue of these photos are corners of town that caught my eye. Maybe they’ll catch yours, too.

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