Erma Bombeck is my Hero

Fez!

back to our awesome driver for an 8 hour drive to Fez. Stopped at a few little towns for bathroom breaks and food things. The scenery went from desert to mountains to forests... almost felt like the drive from Osoyoos to the coast lol.

Slight detour to the monkey forest.. They are Barbary Macaques and they are endangered. Local kids give you nuts to feed them and take your pics... it's a great side gig for them. The monkeys asked for food by tugging on your skirt and will hold your hand.. but one baby kept climbing the tree and jumping on my head. If I look afraid at the beginning it's because I have a slight childhood trauma involving a monkey.. but these guys didn't get tangled in my hair at all!

Short time later we arrived in Fez to another beautiful Riyahd (I don't think ugly ones exist).

so every Riyad is a series of rooms around a central courtyard. To be a Riyad it must have water in the middle and a tree. Literally mandatory. Every home must have marble, cedar, plaster, mosaic and water source.

the water source.

We went for a crappy dinner of pizza as we were exhausted, but I am very pleased to report cats do grow on trees here.

We hired a local guide for the next morning as this is the Medina in Fez (ancient market); it's the largest in the world and a complete maze.

like, every building you can see in this was built around the 13th century. It's insane. So our new friend Abdul (and the best guide ever) took us around to see whatever we wanted.

this is how mosaics are made, generationally and by hand with natural clay and dye.

grocery shopping area

communal;l bakery. Everyone makes their bread and brings the dough to this massive wood oven where the bakers bake it.

a cool lentil soup with olive oil from this huge clay vessel I had to try. It was really, really delicious.

this is a typical sight of inside the Medina. there's over 10 thoudand "roads" like this, many full of people, carts, donkeys, motorcycles, stray dogs and partially employed cats.

peeking into a central mosque. Only Muslims allowed in though.

this is actually a road, connecting a food area to the tannery district. Little doors on the sides lead to peoples homes. Our guides was raised in the Medina and absolutely everybody knew him. Fistbumps and treats for the children, hugs from the elders.. it was so neat to see the community interact like that.

Next to the tannery, still inside the Medina, also build in the 14th century.

The view from the top of it was incredible. You had to hold mint under your nose because ammonia is what tans hides and they get theirs from pigeon shit. They tan cow, sheep, goat and camel.

These are the very ancient stone cats for tanning and the families that have handed down the ways for many hundreds of years.

On the left in the white vats are limestone for the acid to break down the hides. The rest are pigeon shit with natural dyes - saffron,indigo, and cobalt, red is poppy, black is charcoal and orange and brown are henna. The smell could drop you to your knees. Somebody may have a custom red camel leather jacket being made right now lol)

This is one of the oldest houses in the Medina, the guide thought around 1100.

Then on to see the weavers.. the men do the clothes and scarves, the women do the carpet.

she gave me permission for the photo but had to adjust her scarf first. One does not directly photograph women without express permission here. She's making a rug tapestry from camel hair (yup they have to shave camels, I asked) from a pattern in her head. She learned the skill at her mothers knee.

This is the family water source in the weaving house. Left tap is drinking water for the family. Middle is for rainwater collected for washing and such, and right is for absolutions before prayer.

I asked how many rugs were in there and the guy immediately said, 7300. He did inventory yesterday lol

This is the one I want. It is died with indigo and mint in different stages of growth to get the different shades and took a year to make.

I call this street bbq alley. The smell is awesome and the most cats are here.

I got the stuff from the big copper kettle stuffed into bread as a sandwich. Some of it was chicken?

building my feline army. There's 4 in this photo. Shopkeepers kept trying to chase them away.

DONKEY

CANDY. I thought it was Halwa but it is basically Italian Torrone. This guy was so sweet and made up a whole new mixed pack for us that the bees hadn't touched yet.

Last stop of the day was the scarf weavers.

Berber stylez

We loaded up and headed toward the desert. The drive was breathtaking, winding roads up and down mountains and a stop at the Gorge of Todgha, with it's impressive rock walls surrounding a popular swimming river. We are here in the off season so we are seeing more ocals than tourists by far, and that's how I love it! So many families joyfully splashing around and laying on the rocks.

The goats did not care about me at all.

I tried to feed them grass that I had picked with some difficulty. No dice. The animals here are not part of the tourist industry, that much is clear lol.

Back in the car to a roadside lunch stop and so our driver could pop in the mosque to pray. It was the first meal here I completely finished, an incredible chicken olive lemon tagine.

Then on to the desert... we picked up some beer and our driver found us a cafe we could drink it at... on the top floor away from all customers and very secretively, ha. It was cold and deli cious. We were killing time to arrive at the desert closer to sunset so we didn't incinerate upon arrivall.

We also hit a police checkpoint which involves either paying or letting them check your vehicle for every safety measure ever. We chose the latter and the police offered Chris a sip of espresso. Chris drank the whole shot fast and they had a good laugh at us.

We decided last minute on an ATV tour through the dunes before the camel ride and it was one of the best things I've ever tried!

sand angel.

I was so proud of myself for driving all over the sand dunes and having a great time but when it was done a young child hopped on my ATV and zoomed away with much more skill than I exhibited.

Next was camels to our camp.. much bunpier and slower than the ATVs.

After a very long trek we arrived at our "camp" for the night, a luxtarsury experience unlike anything I've ever seen. Again, low season. We were the only guests. We were served a comically large dinner and then showered and watched the stars come out on blankets in the middle of nowhere. It was something I've always wanted to see and life delivered. I may have cried a little at the milky way.