Fez - Part 2

12/22/09 – Day 6

Today we got a late start, but were still able to see a lot of Fez. Our beds in our room are pretty hard, but they aren’t too uncomfortable. We found out that they are most likely stuffed with sheep wool which would explain why there is an imprint of myself when I get out of the bed. The room gets pretty cold at night, so I’m thankful for the slipper socks I brought. Last night I woke up in the middle of the night and put on my coat; we asked for an extra blanket before we went to sleep tonight so I should be OK for the rest of our time here.

Five things from today:

1. We ate breakfast/lunch at the Café Clock (in the building where the water clock structure lives). I got chicken satay over saffron rice; it was the first really spicy meal I’ve had in Morocco…I LOVED it. John ordered a camel burger and we all had a bite…now I can say that I tasted camel…it was pretty good.

2. The main feature of the day was the tannery. The tanneries are where animal skin is dyed and made into leather. The tannery we visited worked with goat, cow, camel and sheep skin. It’s a huge courtyard divided into sections for each process. The first section is for the hair and skin separation; this is where the hide is soaked in pools filled with milky white liquid; we were told it was chalk. Next was the rinsing; there is a huge wooden barrel on its side that is spun around with a hose dumping water over the skins. After the rinse the skin is sent to the pigeon poo which softens the material. Last, it is sent to separate pools filled with different colors of dye. The skin is drenched in the dye by men submerging it under water using their feet. We learned that the yellow leather is dyed using saffron (which is extremely expensive) so it’s done by hand; if I come home big pimpin’ in a yellow leather jacket, you should be impressed...yellow leather = expensive.

3. We visited Borj Nord which was once a fortress built by the Saadians to keep an eye on the locals and the marauding Beber tribes (yes I took that line from The Lonely Planet book) and has since been turned into a museum. The museum was closed, so we only got to see the outside. Since the fort overlooks Fez, we got a really nice view of the city. While we were there we stopped by the Les Mirinides -a really fancy hotel. We hung out on their patio and had pizzas. While we were on the patio the call of prayer was being played all around us in mosques below, behind and to both sides of us.

4. We’ve fallen in love with “sweeties.” They are pastries drowned with honey…we each loaded up with a box of them for our trip to the desert tomorrow!

5. Pete negotiated an all expense included trip to the Sahara for a camel trek. Our options were to take a bus to Rissani then figure out what we do when we arrived to the desert or work with a guy from our hotel who knew someone that could arrange a detailed trip for us. We decided to spend the extra money and have someone drive us in a van as opposed to a bus dropping us off. We leave first thing in the morning and are looking forward to the adventure!