us were sad when we left the nice Riad in Meknes. After we left the Riad
it was on to Fez. We heard that Fez has lots of people that beg or give
tourists bad deals. So, the first day, on the way to the hotel we were
very wary but there was no need because we had only two people try to get
us into shops and three taxi guys ask us if we want a ride in to town.
The next day (when we were going to venture into the medina or old town)
we hired a guide for three hours. First things first, we told him no shops,
we are not buying anything. After that the guide said, "I'm official, I
don't take to shops." So for 2 1/2 hours he shows us the sights that the
city Fez has to offer: the mosques, gates, the tanneries, rug makers,
blanket makers, wood craftsmen and metal smiths. Then after that time
period we found ourselves in a small square in the middle of the medina
with a question at hand. What do you want to see now? After we didn't
answer he led us off to some shops. "I'm official I don't take you to
shops." Once when we walked out of a shop he was at the food shop next
door. After he left us we went back to some stores and bought some things
because then we wouldn't have to pay the little guide bonus thing.
I learned that I really have an easy life watching tanners skin the hides
of sheep and goat and thrash them around in pits of bull urine for 12
hours straight. I guess this is when it occured to me that I have a
really good life.
The first day in Fez, when we went to the gates of the medina, I got
to watch a pair of metal smiths. All day they were cooped up in a 20x10
room with a fire for a forge and no ear or eye protection pounding at
metal to make hooks. On the tour with the guide he showed us a pair of
women knotting rugs knot by knot. Just after that we went up on a balcony
and watched the tanners.
After Fez we took a bus to Chefchouen , a small town on the side of a
mountain. It's medina had blue washed walls from waist down and white up
from on the top. We stayed at a cheerful little hostal just 150m away
from the main square. In Chefchouen we saw a man with a sledge hammer
breaking the concrete on the street to put in drainage pipes. My dad
said, "Where's the air power jack hammer?" On trains and buses alike we
saw people out hoeing their fields as big as around two acres and kids
watching sheep in the next field over. On the way from Chefchouen to
Tangier there were women on the side of the road selling their three
radishes or a basket or a chicken. They had on really fancy hats and reed
vests over their shirts.
Then we left Tangier, and the rest of Africa, behind and went back to
Spain on a ferry. Although I had thought maybe we'd have trouble in
Morocco, what I found was just regular nice people, friendly and wanting
to help us. My best memories are of the friendly people at the riad, the
nice people in the markets and shops who talked to us, and the kids who
let me play football with them.
