What a trip to Morocco! From walking around the ancient old town Medina of Fez, seeing how a tannery works and eating couscous, to riding camels and sleeping in the Sahara Desert, the six day trip to Morocco with my ISA group was definitely unforgettable.
As usual, pictures will be able to tell the story a little bit better than I am able to so I will be short.
The first day of our trip was a lot of travel, by bus to Algeciras port and then a ferry to Ceuta (Spanish Autonomous city) and then crossed the border to Morocco there.
Once in Fez, we had some free time to explore the city by our hotel, and it was definitely a culture shock. I was lucky to have my roommate Sanad, who speaks Arabic, to help translate with some shopkeepers and people on the street who came up to us. It was of course obvious that we were outsiders, but I have never felt everyone's eyes on me as I walk down a sidewalk in a city. The next day in Fez we went and walked in the Arab old town--Medina-- which is one of the oldest in the world and is a world heritage site. It's comprised of 10,000 small, windy streets which makes it easy to get lost: luckily no one in our group did. In the Medina we headed with a guide to walk around and see a couple homes, a tannery, a carpet shop, a metal shop, a fabric/clothes shop, and a ceramic school/store. We learned a lot about the art of hand crafted goods, from pottery to leather, and it was amazing to see the detail the artisans accomplish and the discipline they have to do so.
After our day in Fez, we headed out the next morning to go to the Sahara Desert! We drove by bus and then took jeep 4x4 to our "Haima" tent setup near a small desert town. We were able to ride camels, talk to the desert berber people, share stories, stargaze, and of course take so many pictures!
Overall, the trip was unforgettable -- a lot of traveling by bus-- but at the same time all of that travel time went into getting closer with people from our group and getting to know each other better!
Anyway!
Here are some pictures from the trip!:
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First landscape views of Morocco that we saw
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| The King's Palace in Fez, all done by hand |
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| A finished plate vs. one being created at the time. The man sitting would work for a half hour at a time and then take a half hour break in order not to lose the sight line and mess up his seemingly perfect pattern. |
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| Picture of Ronald Reagan in the same shop we went to! |
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| Famous Arch leading into the Medina with the site of the Mosque in the distance |
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| Typical street in Medina |
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| A small Palace in the Medina where we got to go in and head up to the terrace too |
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| Sanad Jack and I |
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| A carpet store comprised of hundreds of thousands carpets, rugs, and tapestries, all made by a group of widows in Fez |
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| A fabric shop |
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| The tannery that we went to was the oldest in the world, dating back nearly nine centuries. To work here your family must have done so before, otherwise it is nearly impossible. |
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| A master potter showing us how it's done on a self-spin wheel |
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Other artisans making the different shapes in order to form
the mosaics that are classically used for fountains and palaces.
You can see the same diamond shape the man in front is making
down in the right corner. |
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| This is the next step for the mosaic, putting the cut pieces into a specific form to make a bigger design. |
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| A finished product of this type of pottery. |
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We encountered these painters also who were mesmerizing to watch as their technique
seemed impeccable and it looked so easy.
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Now we move to the desert!
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| Jack getting into my shot... |
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| The seemingly endless road to the desert |
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| Inside our Haima |
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| Camel ride! |
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| ISA directors following us from behind |
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| Haley with her "many camels" |
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| Making our way to the Grand Dune |
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| Looking out over the Sahara |
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| Me, Abby, Jack, and Haley hanging out on top of the Great Dune |
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| Galen and I taking a pic |
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| The guys: Eli, Sanad, me, Galen, and Jack--our tents are somewhere way off in the distance to the left |
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| Ellen riding a camel! |
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| Haley and Abby posing |
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| Shadow shot |
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| A sand beetle burrowing its way underneath to cool off |
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Me playing some guitar with the Morocco drum circle/funk band
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Here comes the sunset/sunrise shots:
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| Sunset from the jeep 4x4 |
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| A couple sunrise pictures from the morning where I went off with a berber man to see the sunrise over the Great Dune. It was just him and me walking for a good 25 minutes through the desert, speaking Spanish and then looking out over the dunes in silence. I would not have been able to go so far away from the camp without him as my guide, and it was one of the best sunrises I have seen in my life. |
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| And of course I had to do some light painting in the desert right? |
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Here's a picture of the start of our return trip to Meknes and then Spain
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| Here is a picture of when we got stuck in a blizzard (yes a blizzard) in the mountains of Morocco. It delayed us a good 2 and a half hours during our trip to Meknes--definitely never a dull moment on the trip! |
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| View from our ferry window of the Strait of Gibraltar |
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| I thought I'd leave you guys with two of my favorite photos from this trip overlaid with each other. |
Hope you guys enjoyed! More to come on Thursday with my adventure during Semana Santa!
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