Morocco Part 3: Fes and Marrakech
Sadly, Hertz was fresh out of camels left to rent for our morning trip from Chefchaouen to Fes, but again we made do with our 17 seater tourist van. We drove from the mountains, to the forests, to the plains in what seemed to be a very short amount of time. Each area we passed through had a unique beauty, though it was often masked by poverty or pollution; stark reminders that we were still in a third-world country. After about four hours and an impressive roadside stop for a picnic with a view, we arrived at the Hotel Mounia where we spent the next two nights.
Juliette and I pittered around until about 6pm, then we met up with half of our group for some pre-dinner drinks in one of the rooms. One of the couples had gotten upgraded to a suite that was fit for the prince (NOT a figure of speech here in Morocco)! Dinner that night was going to be pretty epic as we would be dining in a palace complete with Moroccan music, belly dancing, and a magic show. Along with getting to know each other better, the drinks helped set the stage for a very fun night to come!
The first thing we learned upon arriving at the palace is that in Morocco, beauty is very much hidden. For instance, the exteriors of buildings are always plain but the insides can be marvelous! And what a sight it was upon entering the gate to this seemingly inconspicuous place!
During the night, we feasted on all different varieties of salads (pickled carrots, olives, potatoes, etc), a massive pastilla (traditional chicken-filled sweet and savory pastry), two gigantic tagines of beef and chicken, and yet still managed to find room for a small dessert of fruit and cookies.
We were greeted with traditional Moroccan rhythms and sounds from four musicians and this slowly developed (via a procession of percussion) into the first belly dancing show where many people from our table got pulled onstage (myself included!). It was quite an experience complete with some fire rolling and just gobs of awkwardness. A magician then performed for several minutes, which set the stage for belly dancer #2. After her dance, she selected several women from the audience and left the stage while we were entertained for a little while longer. We soon found out where they all went when they returned dressed as brides and were hoisted in the air. We think this was meant to represent a wedding, but no one really knew what was happening!
But it seemed to all end in a flash, and just like that we were headed back to our hotel. Not yet ready to call it a night, a small group of us snuck up to the roof (feeling very Aladdin-like up a rickety ladder) to enjoy the view and reflect on a very fun and interesting night. We didn’t stay too long knowing that there was a long day ahead.
Going into Fes the following day was quite an experience. We had a separate guide for this who was an expert in navigating the 9,600 pathways of the largest Medina in the world and took us to several artisan cooperatives.
Our first stop was outside the doors to the king’s palace.
Then we went up a nearby hill for the scenic overlook onto the Fes medina.
Our group made a quick stop at a famous ceramic studio where we learned the craft in one hour (just kidding – it takes decades of experience).
Then we entered the medina itself after a quick lunch. It is apparently very easy to get lost here and this is where the guide really came in handy. We started in the food area of the market (where they had real camel meat for sale).
Then we snapped some neat photos in an old secondary school.
Visited the oldest tannery in the world that still operates manually (and smelled so atrocious that they gave us mint leaves to sniff).
And then finished at a textile cooperative where they hand-weave cactus fibers into fabric using traditional methods.
After this plethora of sights, needless to say we returned to the hotel feeling pretty exhausted (and tired of being followed around by salespeople) late that afternoon. Fascinating, incredible, shocking, beautiful, quintessential, emotional, unexpected, and necessary are all words that I would use to describe our day in Fes. We definitely grew outside our comfort zone and broadened our horizons quite a bit that day.
Sadly, our whirlwind adventure in Morocco was quickly coming to a close with one last brief stop in Marrakech.
This is most likely the city you picture if you think of Morocco as it is a prime destination for visitors from all over the world. After being on the road for 10+ hours, we arrived from Fes just as the sun was setting. Though this last city was a blur, it definitely helped cross off a few more things on our must-do-in-Morocco checklist. Namely:
A visit to the famous Jemma-el-Fnaa Square to see the nightlife on a Friday night:
Posing with dangerous snakes the next day:
And snapping a quick picture of a monkey!
This was the last time we would stay with our group so we ate dinner nearby upon arrival and did some wandering in the Medina. After this night at the Hotel Majorelle, half of them would go on to trek into the desert as part of an additional week. Others departed for home and some extended their stay in Marakkech with an additional night or two in a riad. It had been such a fun time with a great group of people!
Overall, Morocco proved to be a very eye-opening experience both visually and culturally. While we are so glad that we visited, we are pretty sure that the 8 days were more than enough and we were ready to get back to a developed country and once again breathe some clean air. But we left with a keen appreciation of the Moroccan food, history, and people. In case you plan to visit, we recommend:
- Going in with the right expectations that things are going to be quite different than you’ve ever seen
- Being extra careful with what you eat and drink so as to not get sick
- Going with a group and a pre-set itinerary so that you don’t need to spend much time figuring out the infrastructure or significant communication gap
But now having been to Morocco, we were able to get a good handle on the Moorish architecture and history soon to be experienced in Spain. Stay tuned!
-GP