Week 23: Morocco

This week I decided to use up some of my remaining vacation days to visit a country that has intrigued me since I first ate Moroccan food in Spain several years ago. The goal was to visit, seem some cool stuff, and eat my way through the country. I can say I achieved these goals remarkably well, and enjoyed a relaxing week away.

My first stop was the ancient city of Fes, known for its crafts and for being a university city, where people would come to study Islam. The medina (marketplace) is an incredibly convoluted collection of streets within the walls: this area is said to have over 1,000 streets within a tiny space, all curving and intertwining in the most unexpected and confusing ways. Due to my tendency to get lost, I went on a guided tour through this maze my first day, including stops at a craft shop where they hand make Berber rugs and blankets, and the well-known tanneries where they have been treating leather using the same methods as when the city was born.  We also saw a man turning pieces of bone into combs and families of craftsmen pounding metal into plates, bowls, and trays out in the open air.

The tiny streets are exceedingly crowded and it’s not unusual for a motorbike or a donkey to intercept your path as you are admiring the food and crafts. Our guide stopped along the way to greet the seemingly thousands of people he knew as we went, and even got some shopping done, buying pigs feet for his wife to cook. He later learned he had made a mistake in choosing the hind legs rather than the front ones: apparently the former have better taste! We also saw buckets of meat mixed with animal fat, a historic way of preserving the protein in the desert, where refrigeration is non-existent.

My second day in Fes brought a beautiful day to walk up to the old city fort for a view of the town and surrounding mountain landscape. This was followed by a traditional Moroccan meal of soup with bread, chicken tagine, and some sweets popular throughout Morocco. The food is simple but delicious, typically cooked in a vessel called a tagine, which looks like a pot with a pyramid lid. A “tagine” dish can be anything prepared in this cooking device: I had everything ranging from chicken with veggies to couscous to an omelet that were all served to me as ‘tagine’.

One of my best experiences was a visit to the local Hammam, or bath. I went there on advisory of my hostel, with no particular expectations-they told me to go in, pay the lady 100 dirhams (about $10) and then follow instructions. The baths are the same as they were back when the city was first built, and work similar to the Roman baths: there is a cold antechamber before the hot steam room inside, complete with water for bathing. They’ve made a few upgrades, including buckets for water and stools for sitting, but in essence it’s the same as many years ago. My host had had me purchase a small kit before going, which included soap, shampoo/conditioner, and a washcloth glove made of lightly abrasive material. After sitting in the waiting area alone and mildly confused for a while, I was beckoned to strip down and go to the hot room. There, it was indicated to me (since we had no common language) to later myself with soap. I did so, then waited for about 20 minutes for further instruction, observing the other ladies around me. The baths are an exceptionally social experience, with women chatting and washing around then entire perimeter of the room: a practice that would probably never happen in the US, and especially not in these modern days. However, most Moroccans go to the public baths at least once a week to clean up band socialize.

Once my steam time was complete, a middle aged woman came, put on the glove thingy, and started scrubbing me down. She literally peeled off the top layer of dead skin, giving me disapproving looks as it came off. Though this sounds slightly disgusting, it didn’t hurt at all and left me feeling clean and refreshed afterward, and maybe even a bit lighter! She also poured water on me as I washed my hair, which was akin to standing under a gentle, warm waterfall. Overall it was a completely unexpected by relaxing experience that I would highly recommend.

The next day I got off my overnight bus in Merzouga, a small town on the outskirts of the Sahara desert that caters to tourists who want the true camel experience. Our tour started at the house of a native to the area, who served us breakfast and lunch and taught us about the desert. Apparently a dune made of ‘solid’ sand (which does not blow away with the wind) has a hidden water source underneath, which keeps the sand moist enough to remain packed together. The place we traveled and camped fit this description, as you could (with difficulty) walk up the dunes and enjoy the views from the top. This was an excellent way to experience the sunrise and sunset for two days, when I was camped among the rolling dunes.

The desert is very cold and very quiet at night, perfect conditions to sleep soundly and enjoy the stars. We were treated to camel rides, followed by a tagine dinner and a traditional Berber drum circle. While I’m certainly untrained in the ways of African drumming, it was amazing to see how the various participants were able to listen and respond to each-other, changing rhythms and beats every few minutes without pause. They also had a few desert songs they entertained us guests with before turning in for the night.

My second day in the desert included another camel ride to an abandoned Berber village. The people had left the previous generation because there were no longer jobs for them in the desert. However, a few brave souls remained to cater to tourists. When we were ready to leave, our guide told us that we could either wait at the house or accompany him to go find the camels: when we had gone to explore the city, he had left our camels untied to graze, and they wandered off! Apparently this is the furthest they’ve ever gone, but we ended up on quite the trek across the black desert to find the animals behind some distant hills. There is speculation they were trying to escape into Algeria! The “camel massage” on the way back was less than pleasing, but we finally made it back to camp to hike the great dune for star gazing and nighttime sandboarding. From the top of the dune we could see the surrounding towns and a million brilliant starts, a beautiful way to pass time in such a deserted place.

After our escapades in the desert, we took a bus through the gorgeous and gut twisting Atlas Mountains to get to Marrakesh. There, I explored an even bigger medina, complete with a central square that was as crazy at night as New York’s Time Square. Unlike Fes, this complex had exotic creatures like monkeys on leashes and snakes for picture posing. I had the opportunity to visit a complex that used to be a dormitory for scholars, and greatly admired the gorgeous architecture and decoration of the building.

My final days were spent on a train ride back to Fes and then some shopping in the Medina before my plane departed. I managed to secure some nougat with peanuts, a local sweet treat that became a quick favorite. You know you have the best vendor by the number of bees surrounding the nougat, enjoying the sweetness. The nuts and dates were also extremely popular and cheap, so I stocked up for my trip back. Overall, a relaxing and adventurous way to spend a week I’d say.