Eight Boots Abroad

While geographically close, the transition from Madeira to Morocco was fairly dramatic for our family. We woke at 3am to catch our flight, and by 11am we found ourselves fully immersed in the chaos of the Casablanca airport. We located our luggage, navigated our way through customs, attempted to use 4 different ATMs that didn’t work, and negotiated train tickets to the town of Fes. We sprung for “first class” tickets – 4.5 hour ride on a 50 year old train, in a very warm and very small compartment with local Moroccans… our luggage piled on our laps.

A small, traditional riad within the busy Medina of Fes was our home for the next 3 days – from here we ventured out into the maze of very complex, pungent, and chaotic alleys surrounding our riad.

Within the walls of the 1,200 year old Fes Medina there are 400 neighborhoods and over 9,450 narrow, pedestrian-only cobbled alleyways filled with busy stalls selling living essentials for the 100,000 inhabitants of the Medina. The Fes Medina is recognized as an UNESCO World Heritage Site for being the world’s largest living medieval Islamic city, the Medina also contains the oldest university in the world (which currently serves as a mosque).

Also found within the walls of the Medina are thousands of feral cats (sacred animals in the religion of Islam), horses, donkeys, and goats.

These lovely, endearing animals also provided our adventurous children with a fantastic opportunity to contract fleas. Itchy flea bites plagued both of them for days… now taking bets on total number of times our kiddos get fleas over the next year.

While in Fes, we also took a day trip to the nearby Roman ruins of Volubilis – the most remote outpost of the expansive Roman Empire, tucked within rolling hills covered in olive trees. I think the thing we found most fascinating about our visit is that we had nearly the entire place to ourselves! No timed-entry tickets to buy months in advance, no long lines to stand in.

The reconstructed portions of Volubilis were especially beautiful. We enjoyed the contrast between original Roman grey stones and the red hues of the small stones and bricks used for reconstruction. The kiddos found amusement in imagining they lived in the city – pretending they were running important daily Roman errands (when I asked for specifics I was told this included things like going to the bakery and spending the day lounging in Roman baths).

Unfortunately, our last evening in Fes took a turn for the worse when our first bout of traveler’s GI issues showed up – pretty impressive, as we’re less than 2 weeks into the year. Gah!!! So we rescheduled our next several days and spent an extra day and night in Fes, trying to get everyone in a bit better condition before moving on. While Howie and the kiddos stayed at our riad, I navigated the labyrinth of the Medina to locate a pharmacy and used Google Translate and about $10 to purchased what I was assured was Cipro and some Moroccan anti-nausea medication:

Following our extra day in Fes (due to the “full Moroccan experience”) we headed overland by car through the Middle Atlas Mountains towards the Sahara Desert. My inquisitive mind was bursting with so many questions for our driver as we passed through numerous rural towns. The mix of Arab, African, and European culture and traditions had my mind spinning.

After seven very eye-opening hours (filled with a plethora of questions by Sonya and answers by our driver, Amar) we arrived in Merzouga, on the northern edge of the Sahara Desert known as Erg Chebbi. It was here that we set out on one of the most touristy things we have ever done – a camel ride into the desert and overnight stay in a Sahara desert camp. We shared this experience with 40 other tourists – sadly we missed some memo about needing at least 3 different extravagant wardrobe changes for the evening. Fantastic and amusing people-watching opportunities ensued, and I think the camels appreciated all of the humans’ fashion efforts.

Despite all of the over-the-top tourist antics that surrounded us, riding the camels was an experience we will all remember fondly. We had a very sweet camel driver who seemed to really enjoy having the kiddos in our smaller 4 camel sub-caravan. For those who are wondering, camel riding is not an especially comfortable experience. Of the 40 tourists who rode to the camp on camels, only 6 of us rode back out in the morning (the rest returned to Merzouga by comfortable SUV).

Our night in the desert was followed by 2 more days of travel by car to Marrakech. Along the way we drove through an intense Saharan sandstorm and passed through the High Atlas Mountains. The mountains of the High Atlas are dotted with patches of evergreen trees and switchback mountain passes, which reminded us all of home in Colorado.

Our last day and a half was spent in Marrakech. After days of passing through small rural villages and towns through the interior of Morocco, there was a definite cosmopolitan feel to Marrakech. We also noticed a distinct difference walking through the Medina of Marrakech – while the Fes Medina felt ancient, the Medina of Marrakech was definitely more of a modern market, buzzing with mopeds for transport; the alleyways much wider and cleaner, stalls selling more modern clothing, and restaurants serving Western foods.

It was here that one kiddo convinced us that snakes couldn’t give her fleas, so of course this had to happen:

And now, our time in Morocco is finished – moments have been beautiful, desolate, intense, amusing, confusing, heart-breaking, and inspiring. Above all, it has been memorable. Time for another culture shift – we’re headed to the Balkan region of southeastern Europe.

Howie’s addendum: I found Morocco a challenging experience. Here’s why!

First, the highlights:

I loved the feeling of being on the edge of something vast and unknown in the Sahara! The dunes were more beautiful than I had imagined, and my favorite part of this leg of the trip. Also, I’d like to take a moment to appreciate Pinkie Pie, Boulder, Sir Camelot, and my personal favorite, DromeGary, who were magnificent companions to carry us to our desert camp. Sure, it was a completely manufactured tourist experience, but at the same time, our family was for a brief moment our own little camel caravan across the Sahara, and that was pretty neat.

The Roman ruins at Volubilis were fascinating, and the chance to explore them up close and without crowds was quite special.

It was memorable to deliver a cautionary lecture to our children about the importance of not approaching wildlife too closely, open the car door, and find that within thirty seconds there was a barbary macaque atop everyone’s head except for mine.

The souk within the medina of Fes was delightfully chaotic. It was fun to see the kiddos navigate the narrow alleyways and market stalls, sharing the same space with locals, thousands of stray cats, and at least a couple of heavily-laden donkeys carrying dozens of propane tanks that I liked to think of as “turbo-donkeys”. We also observed two men driving motorcycles at significant speed while carrying full-grown sheep on their laps, which seemed to me to be perhaps not a well-thought out scheme.

Now the challenges:

It was difficult to see how differently our children were treated due to their genders by many of the people with whom we interacted. In general, we felt very welcome as visitors to the country, and had many warm interactions with people in all the places we traveled through. I do however find it challenging to personally hold a balance in my mind between the respect for differences in cultures, understanding that these differences are part of what makes our world the rich and varied place that it is, and the clearly evident observation that the place of women and girls in this society (where many are not free to choose the path they follow) was not something that I think is OK. Clearly our own culture has work to do in this respect as well, but I left Morocco feeling grateful that my family does not live under such an environment.  I would like to specifically note our interaction with one young man, who took time to share with us his hopes for how Morocco will change in the future – his views were sincere, gentle, forward-thinking, and rooted in the optimistic hope that he could be a part in making his world better. He was a gem of a person to have encountered.

Also upsetting was observing the widespread poverty so directly contrasted by the wealth controlled by the monarchy. Vast tracts of manicured land, palaces, and royal golf courses dot the landscape across from drought-stricken dusty streets, crumbling infrastructure, and struggling villages. We also passed several large scale mines controlled by foreign corporations, granted access to the land they mine by a government not accountable to its population. The towns in the area clearly were not benefitting from the wealth extracted from their land. Morocco’s Wikipedia page is a fascinating read if like me you were unfamiliar with much of the history that has led it to where it is today – if you have time I recommend a look.

It was distressing that at one point, ninety percent of the insides of my body simultaneously decided that they needed to be outside of my body as quickly as absolutely possible, and took whichever exits were closest at the moment. To further this distress, Moroccan cuisine had long been among my favorites of the world. After this event I have been forced to reconsider my relationship with chicken pastilla – we need to spend some time apart before reconsidering where this is going.

Lastly, to end on a good note – I was delighted to learn that the words for beautiful and camel sound very similar in Arabic. I now thoroughly enjoy telling Sonya that my amazing wife is indeed looking very camel this evening.