Making It Count in Morocco.

All I can say is Wow! ... What a trip it was for me to this amazing place called Fez, Morocco. Literally felt like coming home...and, I'm not totally sure what that really means right now, that's just how it felt.

I had the first two days to travel away from our port, Casablanca, and more into the country of Morocco. Originally my goal was to get to a rural place called Chefchaouen, but alas time constraints kept me from doing the 8 hour trip and instead I chose to go to Fez based on recommendations from Dr. Waldron. "Stephanie, You'll totally love it!" he exclaimed for the 5 days sailing from Egypt to Morocco (little did I know how right he would be!).

The morning we docked, I quickly jumped off and took the first train to Fez train with a great couple from the ship: Rocky & Shaun Rohwedder (check out his super informative & insightful blog) and their adorable 3 yr. old Ryder. It was a 3 hr. train journey to the city, which put us there late afternoon on the 1st day.

From the moment we stepped off the train, things just seemed to fall into place for us. Josephine Kwan, the owner and operator of the dar where we stayed, agreed to meet us at the designated gate (entire city has a wall around it with many entrances into it) to lead us to our dar.

While there I learned that a dar is a typical small Moroccan house, and a riad is a larger one with a garden in the middle. Dar El Hana was absolutely the quaintest, cutest, most welcoming of all the places I'd been to this summer and immediately I felt the good energy of the place. Josephine invited us all up to the top terrace of the house where we sat around with Moroccan beer, wine, olives and nuts chatting away until we were all confident that new friends had just been made.

Josephine is originally from Melbourne, Australia (ironic). She came to Fez 4 years ago on an extended holiday w/ her partner, and by the 2nd week had bought this house and a year later, after extensive remodeling, opened it as a guesthouse. She initially spoke no French, no Arabic, but seems to have-against all odds-managed as a non-native woman in a partly Muslim country. Impressive. Her stories were fantastic! and her love for Fez poured out very naturally. After only a couple of hours there, I could easily see why she hadn't left.

The next day, Josephine arranged for us to have a guided tour through the ancient medina with "the best of the best" tour guides, Hakim. She was right; He was definitely an amazing guy. Studying now for his Phd in the history and significance of the Sacred Heart Musical Festival (local in Fez), he was smart, articulate, knowledgeable on all aspects of the medina and the city, as well as pretty damn witty. Combination = great afternoon learning lots from a great guide.

He hussled and bussled us through an endless maze of winding alleyways in the medina. This medina is believed to be the largest car-free urban area in the world. It was huge!! It has not changed for centuries. Its narrow alleys house hundreds of merchants and craftsmen selling a range of products such as dates, fish, spices, copper urns, carpets and musical instruments. The narrow alleys are busy with local people and tourists brave enough to find their way through the maze.

Throughout there were donkeys and horses transporting all sorts of goods. They came barreling through and it was easy to be run over unless you were paying attention to "Balack! Balack!" (translation: Arabic for 'get out of my way!')

One of the most interesting sites in Fez was the Leather Souq and the oldest leather tannery in the world. The tannery dates back at least nine centuries. When approaching the tannery the smell is the first suggestion that something different is about to appear. The smell drifts around the balcony from where all the activity can be viewed and is enough to put off the most enthusiastic of tourists. The stench is worth braving as the view over the balcony allows those watching to see a site that has not changed since the 11th century. They gave us sprigs of mint to smell as we watched all the action below.

The tannery is composed of numerous stone vessels filled with a vast range of dyes and various odorous liquids. The tannery processes the hides (skins) of sheep and goats, turning them into high quality leather products such as bags, coats, shoes, slippers and other similar products. This is all achieved manually, without the need for modern machinery.

The workers stand in the stone vessels arranged like honeycombs, filled with different dyes, dying the arms and legs of the men. The hides are first soaked in diluted acidic pigeon excrement and then transferred to other vessels containing vegetable dyes such as henna, saffron and mint. When the dying process has been completed the hides are dried on the roofs of the Medina.

Have a look at what I saw while listening to the call-to-prayer (make sure your volume is up!). It was an awesome moment.





I found this diagram which gives a visual of the process:

(Thanks to www.technologystudent.com)

It was an absolutely amazing process to witness, along with an impressionable view from above. Interestingly, the Amazing Race had stop in this tannery where a clue was hidden in one of the vats. The guys there were very proud to talk about this!

I came back to the ship to accept the medical call beeper and did what I could in Casablanca the last two days. The largest mosque in North Africa is here, which was so beautiful to see and experience from the inside. One thing that I've grown to respect is that no faces of people or animals are represented in mosques....as opposed to all of the Christian icons that adorn church sanctuaries. Without the multitude of 'important individuals' surrounding worship, it somehow made it feel more direct to the God above. I liked that.

So much to capture of a summer of adventure & fun. I'm still letting it all settle in and will finish off this summer when I can. Until then, I'm out of words. Thanks for keeping up!

***
The trip ended with this port, so an Atlantic crossing is currently my reality! I arrive back to the mainland August 22nd. See some of you then.