{"id":133,"date":"2011-06-13T04:18:54","date_gmt":"2011-06-13T04:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/?p=133"},"modified":"2011-06-14T01:54:04","modified_gmt":"2011-06-14T01:54:04","slug":"may-week-4-morocco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/?p=133","title":{"rendered":"May week 4 – Morocco"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00ef\u00bb\u00bf\u00ef\u00bb\u00bf\"\"<\/a>Traveling south of Erfoud we left our comfortable bus and wonderful driver Tommy behind.\u00c2\u00a0 Carrying only a small overnight bag and camera equipment we boarded land rovers to get to our next destination: the edge of the Sahara.\u00c2\u00a0 I would have loved to drive this terrain \u00e2\u20ac\u201c no roads and the challenge of sand and rocks and lots of bumps.\u00c2\u00a0 As we headed out to the edge of the dunes of the desert it begins to feel like\u00c2\u00a0 setting foot into a centuries old route.<\/p>\n

This part of the desert was in central western Morocco.\u00c2\u00a0 The southern part of Morocco is all desert but there are some border disputes with Algeria for that land.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact as we neared this finger of the desert written with stones on a hillside are the Arab words \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Sahara is Ours.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Our two days here were supposed to be spent in Berber tents.\u00c2\u00a0 These are made of wool pieces of cloth.\u00c2\u00a0 But bad weather \u00e2\u20ac\u201c rain and high winds \u00e2\u20ac\u201c made it impossible to stay at the encampment.\u00c2\u00a0 So the next door Kasbah put us up. (hurray!)<\/p>\n

When you walked out the door of the Kasbah you were in the dunes.\u00c2\u00a0 Part of our journey there included a camel ride in the evening for the beautiful light on the dunes.\u00c2\u00a0 I was not looking forward to this, remembering my camel ride with a 12 year old boy in Pushkar, India.\u00c2\u00a0 He made that camel gallop as I pleaded for him to slow down.\u00c2\u00a0 Deborah Hall laughed and the boy assured me \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It will be alright Mama\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mama me!<\/p>\n

This dromedary in the Sahara was very gentle.\u00c2\u00a0 Although mine was mountain sized, because the skinny people get to ride the little ones who are lower to the ground. \u00c2\u00a0Our camel drivers were all enjoying themselves as models for us in the dunes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Then on the way to Fes, which is considered the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153most completely Islamic medieval city in the world\u00e2\u20ac\u009d we traveled through the high Atlas Mountains.\u00c2\u00a0 It is like the Grand Canyon and on the high plateaus we stopped to photograph the wild flowers. When I post the Morocco portfolio I will include our lodging in Fes.\u00c2\u00a0 The tile work was exquisite and it was located in the Medina (old city).\u00c2\u00a0 This city is the symbolic heart of Morocco with its 15,000 streets in the medina on which many of the goods can only be transported by donkey or hand kart.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Almost every little alley or walk way you look down has marvelous doors and tall stone walls.\u00c2\u00a0 Often the doors you are walking by are the entrance ways to the mosques.\u00c2\u00a0 Here you encounter men sitting and chatting, talking and laughing, and sometimes singing and praying. At times we needed to squeeze past the shoppers to continue our walk from one brilliant color to another, one covered market to the next.<\/p>\n

We walked to the famous tannery where we climbed three stories to over look the block long, hundreds of connected round vats where camel and other animal skins were dyed. Some of these vats have been used for centuries.\u00c2\u00a0 Before the dying process area are the vats that use a solution to turn the skins into leather.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>All the dyes are made from natural pigments.\u00c2\u00a0 Red comes from the poppies, green from the mint\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6etc… The tanners worked with their feet and whole bodies in the vats making sure the dyes covered the materials.\u00c2\u00a0 Usually the smell of the tanning solution and dyes is so strong a visitor is recommended to stuff some mint leaves in her or his nostrils. But not too bad the day we visited. \u00c2\u00a0In the show rooms you find the famous Fes slippers and leather bags and garments.<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think we would have found our way to the Royal Palace, the souks and the tannery without our guide Ishmeal.\u00c2\u00a0 Along the way he stopped to explain things like the numbered 3 feet by 5 feet rectangles on the walls in the alleys.\u00c2\u00a0 They are assigned to political candidates. The name of the party and an image (like a running facet or a eye or scale) are symbols for the candidates running for various offices.\u00c2\u00a0 A symbol is used especially for those who can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t read.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Often peering into a vendor’s stall you will see the merchant reading the Koran with its stylized calligraphy.\u00c2\u00a0 Carpets are often spread out on terraces.\u00c2\u00a0 And heaping portions of spices, olives and fruits are displayed in colorful triangular mounds.\u00c2\u00a0 Everyone wears his or her jellaba when walking the narrow streets.\u00c2\u00a0 Here you find them made out of wool.<\/p>\n

One evening we went to the hillside 16th<\/sup> century Merinid Tombs, which are surrounded by blue agave plants, to over look the city.\u00c2\u00a0 As many streets as there are in the medina of Fes it is likely that they are out numbered by satellite dishes on the top of the houses and riads and shops.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Man in wool jellaba - Fes<\/p><\/div>\n

From a distance we saw the green roofed \u00c2\u00a0Karaouiyine Mosque established in 859 situated in the middle of the medina.\u00c2\u00a0 As you walk by the \u00c2\u00a0mosques in the medina you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realize it because of the narrow winding nature of the streets.\u00c2\u00a0 This mosque is not open to non-Muslims.\u00c2\u00a0 Friday prayer takes place in both small and large mosques which stand as a religious and cultural symbol from which comes five times a day the call to worship.<\/p>\n

Fes is also known for its pottery (especially painted and blue\u00c2\u00a0 and multicolor on a white base.)\u00c2\u00a0 Next is Chefchaouen – a city with blue washed houses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00ef\u00bb\u00bf\u00ef\u00bb\u00bfTraveling south of Erfoud we left our comfortable bus and wonderful driver Tommy behind.\u00c2\u00a0 Carrying only a small overnight bag and camera equipment we boarded land rovers to get to our next destination: the edge of the Sahara.\u00c2\u00a0 I would … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hkEw-29","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}