Day 10 out in the Sahara

We started our tour by stopping at the Erfoud souk only at Bo’s request. It was one of the better stops, a great lively market with produce as well as crafts. Bo bought a Berber necklace and looked at a bunch of Berber rugs, but there was no time engage in bargaining. Then we went to a fossil factory. There are tons of fossils in this area from 40 million years ago. You can buy everything from rock with fossils including plates sinks, toilets, etc. We resisted the hard sell. Then Rachid took us to a Tuareg compound where we were given a hard sell for rugs. We resisted that too. The said they would serve us Berber pizza which was a local delicacy. It arrived on the back of a bicycle and was not very good. After lunch, we rendezvoused with a 4 wheel drive SUV for the ride to the Sahara. He asked us if we wanted to see a panoramic view of Erfoud and we foolishly said yes. Then he took us up a very steep dirt trail about 1000 ft. After we got our heartbeat down we started the trip to the desert (30 minutes). We drove on dirt without any roads and stopped at a nomad camp to see how they lived. We signed in at the Belle Etoille hotel and drove off into the desert to check into our 4 star tent. It was actually a compound of several tents – two bedrooms, each with a toilet and shower, a dining room and an open space with seating areas and a fire ring. We walked around the dunes and saw caravans of camels coming back from the desert at sunset. We were also supposed to get our camel ride at sunset but they told us that the weather was not very good (it was cloudy and windy) so we should do it in the morning at sunrise instead. Dinner was served in the tent dining area – a tagine of chicken, couscous and vegetables and a tagine of beef with prunes, followed by lots of fruit for desert. We were done by 8:30 and with noting to do, we sat and played word games until bedtime.

Day 9 Drive to Sahara

We embarked on an 8 hour drive from Fez through the Middle Atlas mountains to Erfoud, a town on the edge of the Sahara desert. Because of the climate (cooler summers and snowy winters), the Atlas mountains are a popular destination in both summer and winter. We drove trough a lovely town of Ifrane that looked almost like a mountain resort in Austria or France. Once we got to the desert, the landscape looked very much like the Mojave desert. We passed some nomads living in tents and saw many herds of sheep and goats. Villages were the color of clay and looked like Indian pueblos from a distance. Actually, we saw a lot of new construction, including a big, brand new city, which is the administrative center of this area. In some cases, it was hard to tell if what we saw was old crumbling buildings or shoddy new construction that has started to crumble. The hotel we arrived at is quite large and caters to tours. Several tour busses of people arrived at about the same time and we all had the same buffet dinner in the huge dining room. It seems to us that Morocco is modernizing very quickly and who knows how long the traditions, customs and crafts we associate with Morocco will be alive and real. Soon, they may be relegated to tourist places and available mostly for tourists’ amusement.

Day 8 Meknes

After breakfast we embarked on a long drive. The countryside is mostly barren brown after the harvest of the previous crop and the fields plowed. Rachid, our driver, told us that in the spring everything looks very different as all the fields are green and full of flowers. The first stop was the Roman ruins at Volubilis. This is an amazing site. It is the remains of a large (20000 inhabitants) 2000 year old city. You can see large homes with mosaic floors, many shops with their signs, the sewer system, the temple …. Supposedly only about 1/3 of the city has been uncovered so far. The next stop was a small remote (non tourist) village of Moulay Idris. Perched on a hilltop, it looked like one of the pueblos blancos from the south of Spain. Bo priced ceramic cooking pot (tagine) and it was 1/10th the starting price of the ceramic factory we visited the day before. From there we went to Meknes. It’s a large (about a million people), relatively modern city. Actually, like most cities we’ve visited so far, it has a modern section and an old section (the medina). We stopped at an enormous building that just said “Stables/Granary”. We had no other information, but were intrigued by the size of the place. When we got to our hotel we Googled it and found out that it was built in early 18th century by the king for his 12,000 horses – each horse had 2 servants. The granary had capacity for enough grain for 20 years. He also built a reservoir that supplied fresh water for the horses. Our driver suggested a pizza place which had terrible pizza. Then to the large central square located in front of the main gate to the medina. The shopping area had a plethora of ceramics and crafts, and downstairs was a spice and food market. We wandered through it and were amazed at all the colorful spiced arranged in conical shapes. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a supermarket as big as Costco. The aisles and aisles of wine, booze and beer was amazing considering that you can’t buy any of this stuff just a few miles away inside the medina.

Day 7 Fez

Today we toured the Fez medina all day. We started the day with a nice breakfast in our hotel and then left with our driver and our Fez guide, Hassan, a graduate student from the local university. Fez medina is the largest in Morocco with about 200,000 people living within its walls and about 950 (unmarked and narrow) streets. It’s a maze and if you get lost, there is no way you can find your way out. First stop was the royal palace, from the outside only. Next was a long tour of the Jewish quarter and an old synagogue. Then we walked in the narrow alleys with different specialties – produce, metalworks, etc. One tiny door opened into an old large house which has been converted into a museum. Many splendid pieces from antiquity. We visited several working places. A leather tannery where they were processing hides from sheep, cattle, goats, and camels. We saw them acid washing to remove the fur then dying in at lest 4 different colors (using natural dyes or so they said). They had thousands of leather goods for sale. We visited a tile place and were astonished at the labor intensive process of creating mosaics. We also visited 2 rug cooperatives and had hundreds of rugs rolled out for us. In both we had to partake in the obligatory good will-inducing mint tea. It was interesting to learn about different styles of rugs from different parts of Morocco. Some were really gorgeous, but the prices were very high. We visited a metal shop and saw the production of decorative trays. Everywhere we went, people were trying to sell us stuff. So far we’ve resisted the temptation as it was only our first real experience with Moroccan crafts. More to come for sure.

Day 6 Casablanca-Rabat-Fez

We left the hotel after breakfast and started the drive. We drove along the coast for about 2.5 hours until we got to Rabat. We were amazed at the number of new developments being built along the coast – one after another – blocks of flats and single family homes. In between you can still see some shabby favelas that were probably terminated to make room for these new places. After a quick stop for lunch in Rabat, we stopped at the royal mausoleum and Kasbah Chellah – a necropolis built on the site of 2nd century B.C. Roman ruins. From there we drove about 3.5 more hours to Fez. The country side is very barren as all the crops have been harvested and there is nothing green. When we got to FEZ, we checked into our riyad (hotel) inside the medina. It is amazing --- a traditional old Moroccan house with a beautiful courtyard and rooms all around it. Our room is actually a suite with a long, tiled hall, a sitting room, two bedrooms and a big bathroom with a jaccuzzi tub (did not work). We left our stuff and walked in the maze-like medina for about an hour before dinner, which was served in the courtyard. We had our second tagine + a delicious soup, lots of little salads, fruits and of course traditional mint tea.

Day 5 -- Travel

Easy travel day. Lisbon airport is big. 5 minute walk from entry to check-in counter, check-in girl said it was a 20 minute walk to the gate. AirMaroc flight was very nice. We were surprised that during this one hour flight they served a nice three-course meal. The driver who was supposed to pick us up was nowhere to be seen. After walking back and forth from Terminal 1 to terminal 2, we started looking for his phone number and some guy approached us and asked what the problem was. He offered to call, and the driver appeared from somewhere nearby with a bullshit story of why he wasn’t there with a sign. The drive to the hotel was frightening. Traffic and drivers are crazy. The hotel (Novotel) is right in the heart of the city so we got outside and walked around for a couple of hours waiting for our friends to arrive. We were surprised that there were bars in the city with locals drinkings and women were dressed in every way possible – from traditional djallabas in all kinds of colors to tight jeans and revealing tops. Even some the djallabas were very tight-fitting showing a woman’s every curve. At dinner (hotel), we had our first tagine – delicious. Our friends Ed and Sandi arrived at the hotel 2 hours later than expected – without luggage. Their bags never made it to Morocco but were located and promised they would get them in a day or 2.

Day 4 Last day in Lisbon

We spent the day walking and touring. Breakfast was a trial. We ordered at the counter by pointing to the pastries and specifying the type of coffee. They tell us go sit somewhere. After 5 minutes we see a guy with a tray with our pastries but no coffee walking around, but not coming anywhere near our table. Since nobody claimed the order, he went back to the counter. They don’t know the number system here. We gave up and tried another cafe. Same deal only this time the guy came out with 2 coffees and only one pastry. Lots of inefficiencies here. We saw a large building being refurbished – one guy with a 4in. sponge. It’s going to take him 30 years. We went to the shopping area and surprising many stores were open (Sunday). In the evening we went to traditional Portuguese music performance (Fado) (Casa de Linhares). Very overpriced but performance was excellent.