Oued Laou

Oued Laou Wad Law - ⵡⴰⵙ ⵍⴰⵡ - واد لاو
Oued Laou Location in Morocco
Coordinates: 35°27′N 5°5′W / 35.450°N 5.083°W
Country	Morocco
Region	Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima
Population (2004)
• Total	8,383
Time zone	WET (UTC+0)
• Summer (DST)	WEST (UTC+1)

Oued Laou (Arabic: واد لاو‎‎, Berber: Wad Law, ⵡⴰⴷ ⵍⴰⵡ) is a small town located in northern Morocco on the Mediterranean coast. The two main cities nearby are Tetouan to the northwest and Chefchaouen at the southwest. In 2004 the town had 8,383 inhabitants.^[1]

Description

You can take from Tetuan a grand taxi (45 minutes drive) (located at the beginning of casablanca street شارع الدارالبيضاء ) to Oued Laou, that will cost you 25Dirhams or you can simply take a bus from the same street for only 7Dirhams. In 2008 the Moroccan government launched work on the new designed road alongside the Mediterranean coast, linking Tétouan to Jebha, and passing via Oued Laou. Given the difficult terrain and a fragile soil structure, the road was finally inaugurated by HH Mohamed VI on August 11, 2012. Oued Laou has a reputation as one of the most peaceful beaches near Tetouan. The town is named after the river of the same name, which takes its source up in the Rif Mountains near Chefchaouen.

The northern beaches are renowned for their beauty. The village of Oued Laou is no exception. This village located 45 km from Tetouan has a view over the sea of the same name. To get there, you just have to take the road to Chefchaouen and enjoy passing scenery of cascading Akchour. For swimming or sunbathing, the inhabitants of Tetouan are obliged to leave the city and go to either Mdiq to Martil or later at Oued Laou.

The main economic activity in this region is fishing. Walking on the sand of this beach, vacationers see handmade wooden boats. Every morning, fishermen cast their nets to catch the region's fish. The best known and most popular are the red porgy (or common: seabream), anchovies and sardines.

Restaurants are located at the seaside and in the village market. They offer tagines to pandora and anchovies prepared in the Northern Moroccan style with a mixture of garlic, parsley, thyme, paprika and lemon juice. This tagine is cooked and presented in an oval ceramic dish called a Tagra. Local dishes also include a plate of grilled sardines accompanied by a salad of tomatoes and onions.

Every Tuesday, local products are sold in the large plaza market in Oued Laou. Products such as cotton fabric, striped in different colors, "Mendil" the local name, are sold here..

Disparities in wealth are clear to see. Poorer inhabitants are said to try to trick tourists into relinquishing some money through elaborate tales. The wealthier often rent their houses to tourists in the holiday seasons, especially since King Mohamed VI summoned that the North of Morocco had to develop to a tourist area. All along the coast you see nowadays big hotels as in Spain and it will not take a long time before the whole Moroccan atmosphere has transformed in the nowadays modern unitity culture.A visit to local cafés where the locals are resident, quickly familiarises one to the smell of "kif"; grown ups are forgetting their problems in smoking their "kif" pipes. As long there is no trading, Moroccan police tend not to inerfere. However, the beaches are guarded by armed policemen at night. The tourist season does not last long (June–September) and after that Oued Laou becomes much calmer.

External links

• Pictures of a journey from Oued Laou to Chefchaouen

References and notes

1. "world-gazetteer.com census figure". Archived from the original on 2013-02-09.

Coordinates: 35°27′N 5°5′W / 35.450°N 5.083°W