The next morning we woke up, grabbed some breakfast downstairs (pastries, and wonderfully fresh fruit galore) and then grabbed our bags for our trip out of the Medina. A man met us at the entrance of the riad with a wheelbarrow, loaded our suitcases and then we were off, back through the maze to get to the outside streets. Here's a short video of what that looked like:
The man with the wheelbarrow led us out of the Medina to the street to meet our guide for our cross-country tour, Hassan. When we met Hassan, he was wearing a bright blue floor-length robe and small black turban. We climbed into his Land Cruiser Prado where we met his friend, also named Hassan, who would drive us on our six-hour journey to Merzouga and the Sahara Desert (!!!). As we drove out of Fes, tour guide Hassan pointed out "the American Embassy"... McDonalds! Haha. He also pointed out a large tower/antenna in the city that was disguised as a palm tree.
We stopped and looked at a lake, Daït Aoua, maybe forty minutes outside of Fes.
Daït Aoua
About an hour outside of Fes, we stopped for a few minutes in Ifrane, a ski town in the middle Atlas Mountain region. We took a few pictures of a stone lion that is somewhat of a landmark for Ifrane, sitting outside of the Hotel Chamonix. There are multiple stories about when the lion was carved and why, but it dates back to sometime in the early 30s.
Lion outside of Hotel Chamonix
As we climbed back into the car and left, Hassan pointed out the steeply angled roofs of the buildings that prevent snow from accumulating.
Buildings in Ifrane
As we continued on, the scenery around us became a forest and Hassan started talking about monkeys that lived there and how maybe we would see them. I kind of ignored this, thinking he was joking or if not, that it would be a rare, VERY unlikely sighting. A few minutes later, we stopped in a small clearing with a little booth selling touristy items and a man with a very decorated horse, I suppose offering rides. And... there were monkeys! In the forest!
Only shot of the horse, cropped from a picture of monkeys
I still can't get over it. What the heck were monkeys doing in a cedar forest in the middle of Morocco? My mind was blown and all I kept saying was, "HAJAR! There are MONKEYS! ...In the FOREST," on ultra repeat.
Oh my. All the monkey stories. There were monkeys with a baby, so that was awesome. They carried it around with them.. which I guess makes sense.. what else would they do? One of the monkeys climbed up and sat on the roof of our car. Hassan went over to the booth nearby and came back with a bag of peanuts to feed to them. I guess because I'm used to horses, I expected them to stick their face in his hand to pick up the peanuts, but being the civilized monkeys they were, they politely picked them up with their own hands and proceeded to eat. Then there was a monkey with an orange.. because who DOESN'T like Morocco's incredible oranges? One of the monkeys looked up at me and tugged on my pant leg while I held the peanuts. At one point I guess the monkeys thought that a dog hanging around us was going to take their peanuts, so they got angry and sent the dog running for his life. And then there was the monkey that snatched Hassan's bag of peanuts right out of Hajar's hand!
Monkeys. In a forest. What? Now please excuse me while I go on a monkey picture binge:
Monkey family
Monkey on our car
Hassan handing peanuts to civilized monkey
Me feeding momma monkey, note: baby hanging below (!!)
Monkey eating orange
Thief monkey who stole the peanut bag
Me (my face the entire time) and Hajar feeding peanuts to monkeys
Showdown with the dog
Sadly, we couldn't stay with the monkeys forever, so after maybe 15 minutes of extreme happiness, I reluctantly climbed back into the car and we continued on. We stopped for lunch in Midelt and shared a delicious tajine of chicken and orange, fresh bread, Coke with Arabic on the bottle and of course, Hajar had herself some Moroccan mint tea.
On our way into the mountains
Lunch in Midelt: tajine with chicken and orange, Coke, Moroccan mint tea
Quick stop to take pictures
So during our drive across the country, we traveled some of the most dangerously twisting roads in Morocco, going through the Atlas Mountains. We saw an example of this when we came across a bus, overturned in the middle of the road!
Overturned bus
Fascinating terrain
After lunch, our next stop was at an oasis to take a quick picture. I was surprised to see children along the side of the road when we stopped. They had woven figures of camels out of palm leaves and were trying to sell them.
Oasis and minaret standing out in the trees
Hajar, me with an oasis in the background
Ready to go ride camels
After about five and a half hours on the road, we ventured off the asphalt and started making our way across rocks and sand. Hassan let me stand up, sticking out of the sun roof to take pictures and video. When we arrived at our hotel in Merzouga, Kasbah Mohayut, we were greeted with Moroccan mint tea. Hassan took us up to the roof of the hotel for a good view and wrapped the fabric we had bought in Fes around our heads to make turbans! Video of that:
Once we were ready, Hassan led us downstairs and out to the dunes to meet the man who would lead our camels into the Sahara Desert's Erg Chebbi Dunes, Mohammed. We asked if the camels had names and were told, "Yes.. Camels 1, 2 and 3!" Now I hadn't ever ridden a camel before, and if you have, you know how... alarming it is when you're sitting on them and they either stand up, or lay down. You feel like you're going to fall backwards, then you feel all of yourself being thrown forwards, and then back again. Even though I'd been warned and was as prepared as I could be.. It was dreaded each time! Here's a video:
Our guide, Mohammed and the camels we rode
Stopping for a photo op, Hajar and me with three camels
I was surprised that our guide walked, leading the camels that were tethered to one another. I had expected him to ride and for us to be loose like you usually are on a tour on horseback.
Mohammed leading us into the Sahara Desert
Taking a moment for a picture
Erg Chebbi Dunes
Erg Chebbi Dunes
We walked for a while out into the dunes until we came to a couple of camps. If it had been warmer, we would have spent the night in one of the camps, but since it was January, we had decided not to. Mohammed had the camels lay down so we could get off, and tied up one leg of each to keep them from getting up and leaving.
Tied up leg
We took a couple of pictures with the camels before venturing off.
Our best camel faces
Then camel in my face
There was a huge dune in front of us, so Hajar and I decided to climb it. Woah! I had no idea it was so hard to walk in sand like that.. we would sink into it and frequently have to stop to catch our breath. The top of the dune didn't look as far as it ended up feeling/being. We found an empty bottle on our way up the dune and decided to draw a block ATM in the sand and take pictures. Once we got to the top, we sat down for a bit.
The camps and the dune we climbed
The block ATM picture
On the way up
Camps on either side and Merzouga off in the distance
Hajar in the Sahara Desert
Walking back down, our patient camels in the distance
After a few minutes of rest, we walked back down the dune, to one of the camps and joined Mohammed, some other men, and three other tourists: one from Japan and two from Italy for some (drumroll).... Moroccan mint tea. We laughed while watching one of the hobbled camels of the other tourists get up and start slowly hopping away on three legs. We were told that particular camel always does that, and his guide went to stop him. After some story exchanges and sipping on tea, it was getting dark so we headed back to the hotel.
Before dinner, Hajar and I sat by the fire warming up and having more tea with Hassan. For dinner we had meat from another tajine.. soo good. We sat a few feet from a table of an (obnoxiously loud) American father/daughter duo and their poor guide. Their stories were amusing for a short period but we were glad when we were done eating and didn't have to overhear them anymore! We headed back to our room for bed, but it was pretty cold and the heater wasn't working well, so while Hajar went to get a space heater, I took this video of our hotel room:
When I took my shoes off, I found proof of our dune climb at the bottom:
Sand in my shoes
Random note on having sand in my shoes. I haven't spotted many celebrities in my life, but there is one who I have seen a couple times, in unexpected places: the singer, Usher. While I interned in DC in 2009, I crossed paths with him in the hallway on his way to a congressional hearing one day. Then in Paris, I was having dinner at La Mosquée de Paris with my classmates and he came in with a small entourage for dinner. Well, I missed him this time.. but Hajar discovered online that he had been in the Sahara Desert pouring sand out of his shoes just nine days earlier. Weird!
Here's the day's itinerary (except unfortunately we skipped the last part since it was cold) as emailed from Hassan:
Day 1: Fes- Midelt-Erfoud-Merzouga-Erg Chebbi. We will pick you up at your Riad or your hotel around 8:00 a.m. We leave for Midelt throught he Mountains and the cedar forests of the middle Atlas. We pass by Ifrane, a charming ski resort and Azrou, an important handicraft center specialized in the work of cedar wood. We arrive in Midelt for lunch. At the afternoon we will drive to Erfoud and into the desert. You will have a camel trek into the beautiful Erg Chebbi Dunes, where you will spend the evening in a bivouac (camp). There you will enjoy a Berber dinner, and sleep in traditional Nomad camel hair tent.
On my third day in Morocco, we started off the day with wonderful, freshly made orange juice and one of my favorite things from my study abroad in Paris.. pain au chocolat! Then we grabbed our bags and got in the car for Mohammed to drive us to Fes, a four-hour route that went through the capital of Morocco, Rabat.
I was amazed to see the different terrain and all the agriculture we passed on that drive. The most fascinating thing to me was that there were nomads and shepherds with their livestock just.. roaming free! NOT something you ever see at home. Anywhere you saw livestock, you'd see someone accompanying the herd. We also passed many olive trees, people selling olive oil along the road, and trees that were missing their bark around the trunk, harvested for making cork!
Following Hajar and the man with our luggage
Yet even if it felt as though we were in the middle of nowhere, we would see satellite dishes on the buildings. Even the buildings that looked like shacks.. satellite dishes! There were also lots of mosques, which I found fascinating.. I love that you can find them so easily thanks to the minarets (tower) that stick out from skylines. Really cool.
When we arrived in Fes, we pulled into a dark, VERY cramped garage to park. A man came and took our suitcases, and we followed him into the heart of Fes, where the alleys are too narrow for vehicles, so travel is done by foot, moped, bike or the back of a donkey. They put non-metal shoes on either both front, or all feet of the donkeys to help them as they walk along the stone paths. There were both standard and miniatures being ridden!
The face of transportation in Fes
Man on donkey
After following the man as he pulled our bags through what felt like a maze, we arrived at our beautiful home for that night, Riad Dar Bensouda Fes. Hajar explained to me that a riad (Arabic: رياض) is a home or palace that has a courtyard or interior garden. In true Moroccan fashion, we were greeted with Moroccan mint tea and pastries that we sat and enjoyed by a small pool in one of the hotel's courtyards.
Moroccan mint tea by the pool
Another courtyard of Riad Dar Bensouda Fes
We took our bags to our space for the evening and found we had a beautiful space with a living room, bedroom, and of course bathroom, all for 525 dirham (dh).. about $65! Unbelievable.
A little later, our suit-wearing tour guide for the night, Mohammed arrived to take us through the Medina (market) of Fes. We had thought he was going to speak English, but it was a little something more like Franglish, so Hajar had to do some translating. When we started off, we saw a man with a mechanical loom putting together some sort of blanket or something, strung kind of across the pathway. The streets were confusing and packed with goods of every color you can imagine.
I found and bought a small bullet key chain for a friend at one of the booths we found early on. A little later, Hajar and I both bought head scarves for our upcoming trip to the Sahara; very long pieces of material that could be wrapped into turbans to protect from the sand and elements. She bought one that was bright blue, mine, hot pink. We did a little more shopping as we explored with our Franglish speaking guide, looking at beautiful lamps, and buying dresses. The dress buying was pretty entertaining.. Hajar haggled quite a bit for us and we each purchased a Moroccan dress (110 and 100 dh), and I bought one for my niece. A little later, I purchased the city's namesake hat to take home for my nephew. When in Fes...
Update: the kids wearing their gifts from Morocco 12/25/14
We got to see the inside of Medersa Attarine, a home for students of the nearby university. It was incredible how much detail there was in the courtyard. Stunning.
Medersa Attarine, notice the Arabic on the wall
The amazing detail of Medersa Attarine
We continued on with our tour and ventured into the leather souk, what's said to be the oldest leather tannery in the world, dating back at least nine centuries. Whew! There was a distinctive smell to the place. By the balcony where you could watch the dying, there were baskets of mint leaves you could hold close to your nose to help mask the odor. It was so fascinating. The hides are soaked in diluted acid and then transferred to other vats with dyes made from henna, saffron, mint and other substances. Once the dying process is done, the hides are dried on the rooftops around the area. There were maybe 100 vats of liquid filling the space.
So many vats of dye for the leather
A worker dipping leather in the dye
Goods in the shop that overlooked the tannery
Rug store, complete with magic carpets
From the tannery we continued on, into a rug store. Our guide introduced us to a man in the store who thankfully spoke perfect English, so Hajar had a break from translating. We quickly discovered that he was related to her father, who was born in Fes! He had a great sense of humor. While showing us a rug, he told us, "we sell magic carpets, but they only fly one way: down, when we drop them from up there," as he pointed up to the balcony of the riad-turned-store's courtyard. He took us upstairs to see several looms, and showed us one of the rugs, saying that by walking on both sides of the rug, the knots become more tucked into the design and over time it looks better. He also said that by flipping the rug over and walking on it, it knocks out dirt, "do when you have guests and they can clean for you!"
After our tour of the rug store, we saw people working many other trades: women doing embroidery, men working copper into kitchen goods and decorations for the home at Place Seffarine, and booths with the most stunning fabrics I'd ever seen.
Sheep skins, really smelled terrible
A loom
Beautiful dresses
Closeup of the detail on one of the dresses
Alley in the Medina
Metalwork Place Seffarine
Water clock, Dar al-Magana
Our guide took us to the world's oldest university, University of al-Qarawiyyin, but we weren't able to go inside.
University of al-Qarawiyyin
During our 4-5 hour tour, we tried several different foods. I had what Hajar called a Moroccan pancake (a red..tomato.. onion thing that was absolutely delicious), a Moroccan donut, jerky (khlii) rose-flavored nougat... and finished the day off with my least favorite food, probably of the whole trip. Snails and their stew (7.5 dh if you're interested).
Moroccan savory pancake
Moroccan donut
Snails and their snaily broth
Using a toothpick to extract the snails from their shells to be eaten
Towards the end of our tour on the way back to our riad, we came upon the same man from the beginning of our tour who had been working a mechanical loom, strung kind of across the path, still working diligently. Before we could stop him, a young man came running down the alley and ran through the loom's threads and went several feet before he slowed to a stop. The man's work from the entire day was very damaged, if not ruined.. and it broke our hearts. The young man apologized, then left.
After four or five hours of touring the city with our guide, we arrived back at our riad, and each paid 20 dh for our private tour. I wanted to take some pictures, so we went up to the roof of our riad for a little bit, then it was off to bed.
Fes by night
Minaret seen from the roof of our riad
At some point while we were in our room, we could hear calls to prayer coming from all the different mosques. You can hear the sound below.. again, so so cool.
