A Day in Fez, Morocco, Tour Day 6, WTRD 46 Sep 24, 2016

Russ wearing a fez

A Day in Fez, Morocco, Tour Day 6, WTRD 46 Sep 24, 2016

After our breakfast, we visited the outside of the Royal palace where we were only allowed to photo the front doors (seven of them).

Other photos of the walls were forbidden, then we began our guided tour of the medina, one of the world's largest walled cities in Africa.

Seven Rings expanding outward

Ali explains angles in Araabic Numbers

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We explored the old Jewish quarter

 and the narrow streets of the Medina lined with fresh fruit,

mounds of spices, intricately woven Berber carpets, silver teapots, leather slippers, copper pots, knives, and many other art objects of Morocco.  One of the funnier moments i snapped was in the meat market where camel  meat was being sold.  The butcher/merchant moved behind the camel head  and I got this image.  It's pretty funny.  What do you get when you cross a man with a camel?

A manacamel

Narrow streets and alley ways

We shared these streets with people, stray cats and kittens, and donkeys carrying loads so wide that we would have to step in a threshold or be squashed.

The streets here, because of the donkeys and cats, are dirty and merchants are continually trying to clean the muck in front of their stores making for a sloppy mess to walk through, often slippery.

There is an unpleasant smell that increased 10 fold when we neared the tanneries where dead animals are skinned, fat rendered, and hides tanned.

When we walked into one large tannery, we were given Moroccan "gas masks", large sprigs of fresh mint, to bring up to our noses or crush between our fingers to disguise the sickening odor.

Fresh mint is used for more than tea.  

 We climbed to a terrace above the tannery where animal hides were being processed.

We looked down on numerous vats where men in the blazing sun were either on the side of the vats or in the vats processing, washing, dyeing, drying, and finishing the tanning process. For me it looked like a sentence in hell.

They are paid by piece work and earn 100 to 500 Durham, 10 to 50 USD a day. This is considered a fair wage for very unpleasant physical work. It is a good advertisement for children to go to school and get a good education.

But as our guide said, we cannot all be masters. Some still have to drive the donkey, and people are happy to have jobs with the high unemployment rate. We stopped in a traditional restaurant for lunch, but we were not too hungry after the tannery and were saving ourselves for dinner and entertainment at a local restaurant this evening.

After lunch we still had more exploring to do.  We visited a pre-school that Ali had attended as a child.  It was a Koranic school then, now a pre-school.

visiting a carpet co-op,

visiting a weaver,

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Moroccan slipper store.

Might be a bit large?

and a pottery and mosaic business.

 By 4:00 we were hot, sweaty, and exhausted. We returned to our hotel for a few hours rest before venturing out again for dinner.

Our dinner started with soup, followed by grilled meat, and a sweet chick

en pastil,

fresh fruit, mint tea, and cookies. During dinner, a quartet of men with a tamborine, drum, violin, and mandolin played traditional music. After dinner we were entertained my some male dancers with pots that spun and and were slapped as they twirled and danced, a magician, and two belly dancers.

It was an enjoyable evening, and I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't been so exhausted from the long and interesting day of cultural explorations.

All is well with the culturally saturated Worrall Travel R's in Fez, Morocco.

Contrasting Morocco, Friday, WTRD 45, Friday, Sep 23, 2016

Erfoud - Fez, Contrasting Morocco

Today will be a very, very long day of driving in Morocco. We travel from the desert in the south

towards the Mediterranean in the north, leaving early and arriving late in Fez. The farther north we drive we will cross mountains away from sand dunes into greener Mediterranean climate.  We are thankful to not be on the backs of camels.

From the Desert in Lower Right to Fez on the Top

We drive through Aurfaus, in the Ziz Valley, an important city for date farmers. Date palms and figs are grown here, and dried on the flat top roofs and stone terraces. It is the beginning of the date harvest.

Our guide shares some dates with us and tells us that milkshakes made from dates and almonds or avocado and oranges are specialties.

Driving upward, we crisscross over the Ziz river many times, and drive close to the mountains that border Algeria. Errachidia is a large government, university, and military city. Russ reminds me that Algeria is where Boka Haram stole so many girls for Islamist rebels. The police and some of the soldiers are armed as they walk about.

The government buildings vary in color from the rose sand to soft yellows, browns and beiges. The city is filled with green parks and grassy areas.

We glimpse military trucks behind the walls of the installations. And we glimpse gates into the old medina (old walled city).


 There is a contrast between old and new.

Once we leave the modernity of the city, the land is once again arid and dry, and the villages are tattered and rural, Our guide shares some dates with us and tells us that milkshakes made from dates and almonds or avocado and oranges are specialties. Our little caravan is on a paved road today, but this is the main trading route for centuries from Timbuktu to Casablanca. Casablanca is the most modern, economically rich city in Morocco,

The terrain changes from desert to rock as we snake up the road of the Middle Atlas Mountains

Morocco needs rain and snow

to oak to cedar

to apple

to nomadic grazing land where we meet some local nomads

Nomad sheep herder encampment

Sheep and Turkeys in the Background

and forests in which the macaque monkeys live and tigers and elephants have vanished,

Cities change in character with tiled peaked roofs as a tourist destination for the rich.

We stop for noon noon (Moroccan coffee), afternoon snack, and a walk in the park in Afran to see the famous lion statue carved from a natural sandstone rock. It is a nice refreshment after our long ride.

We arrived in Fez about 5:30, and are staying in a very modern hotel. The city of Fez was named after the hat as this was the place where the Turkish Fez was manufactured. Both Ali and Abdul are home here in Fez.

It is Friday evening. People are out and about waiting for the sun to go down, the last call to prayer of the day, and then being with their families.

Our guide and driver look forward to going home to be with their families and going to the Mosque. We will see them again in the morning.

All is well with the Worrall Travel Rs in Fez, Morocco