Wednesday night in Fes

It's Wednesday night in Fes, the ancient capital of Morocco, now a bustling provincial city with a huge, indescribable Medina (old city) that even Fouzia, our Moroccan tour operator gets lost in. I am trying to sort out the swirling images and sensations of the last few days since Marrakesh, at least enough so I can tell you about them. Words mostly failing me, I'll attach a few photos (worth many words, as Danny reminded me) to whet your appetite for the next time we meet.

From Marrakech, we (Mohammed, Fouzia, Abd Lateef, Kate, Sarah and I) headed across the Tichka Pass through the High Atlas Mountains, stopping for a visit to Ait Ben Haddou (see photo), then on to Ouazarzate. That city is the "Hollywood of Morocco", the home of two big film studios where Europeans and Americans come to do desert epics. The film crews all stay at the same hotel, the Berbere Palace, whose lobby and grounds are littered with random relics of past movies: Egyptian statues from "Asterix and Obelix", Roman chariots from "Gladiator", the golden calf from "Moses". A German production company, working on a film called "Pope Joan", was staying there with us. Quite enough to make me even more disoriented about where the heck I am.

The next day, we took the "Route of 1000 Kasbahs" through a huge flat basin between mountain chains, traversing some fascinating market towns to Erfoud. Each one of the towns we crossed was teeming with café life, commerce of all imaginable sort, kids coming home from school, heavily-laden donkeys, crowds of bicycles, mopeds with at least two, often three people aboard. It's the beginning of the date harvest season in that part of the country and there were stands piled high with a dozen varieties. On the way, we stopped at the Todra river valley to walk briefly up into the spectacular gorge that the river has cut down through the sandstone.

In Erfoud, we transferred to 4x4s for a trip out to the edge of the desert in Merzouga. It's a big tourist operation, hotels and "deluxe tent" Berber encampments tucked up next to the Erg Chebbi dunes, but it's still fascinating to be out there, even under somewhat hokey circumstances. The young Land Cruiser drivers got stuck in the sand on the way, but we arrived finally, quite late, on foot at the tents. We were greeted by Berber musicians (getting overtime, I hope) then, after a short night's sleep, were awakened at 5 AM for the sunrise. On camels (but of course!), we headed out across the dark dunes to wait for the sun. Not alone, mind you, since there were little armies of tourists chattering away on many of the neighboring dunes, but it was a thrill to be up and out on the sand so early.

Several hotel inspections later, we met Abd Lateef, our driver, back in Erfoud to start the long drive to Fes. We cut back across the High Atlas (there was snow on the highest peaks) then on through the Middle Atlas mountains, covered with cedars and oaks and reputedly home to Barbary apes, soaring eagles and even a few surviving leopards. We made it to Fes by 8:30 at night. I was exhausted from the early wake up and the long drive. A relatively solid seven hours' sleep seemed like the best I've had since leaving the U.S., lo these many weeks ago.

It's been a strange, rich visit, glimpsing the faces of the real Morocco as we hopped among fancy hotels; being tantalized by smells and tastes that I don't yet understand; seeing far too much in too short a time. Tomorrow, it's the Roman ruins at Volubilis, then stopping in Meknes on the way back to Casablanca.

Enough for now. I'm getting tired just telling you about this week. More soon.

Lev (Andy)