Fez, Monkeys and the Middle Atlas

Much as I'd like to have purchased a fez in Fez, the realization that it would have looked about as urbane as an Iowan wearing a sombrero in Tijuana (or perhaps more recently, folks in Venice walking around with gondoliers hats) caused me to think twice.  Still, I've lost the opportunity to do  Peter Lorre Casablanca imitations in my living room and that's a shame.

We took a delightful, rural drive for about two hours from Moulay Idriss to Fez.  I was dreading the drive into Fez, having read all sorts of awful things about touts attacking on motorcycles as well as swarms of guides trying to steer us to different guesthouses,....just the usual stuff you'd experience in India.  In fact, we were only approached by two motorcyclists on the edge of town and one person when we parked.  The guesthouse owner (Karim) met us at the parking lot and escorted us into the maze that's the Fez medina.  The old town dates back to 800AD (and "It looks it", to quote James Fox in Performance after Turner--Mick Jagger--tells him a carpet he's just flicked ashes upon is 1000 years old).  Anyways, we spent a couple of days hanging around in the medina and even sprung for a tour guide for one day.  She took us to several different mosques, museums and palaces, but her lack of good English made the tour uneventful.  Best thing was to just wander around, get lost and then try to figure one's way back to the riad (fancy Moroccan guesthouse/B&B); special shout out to Google Maps and a Moroccan SIM card.  Finally got some decent Moroccan food, with one dinner in a gorgeous old riad and the other in a sidewalk cafe in the middle of the action. We ate pastillas (a stuffed bread coated with powdered sugar and cinnamon) and some yummy chicken tajines, which included olives and preserved lemons.  This is an excellent cuisine when done right.  Our guesthouse was much better than the place in Moulay Idriss, though the beds were a bit hard (this was something we'd learn to expect) and the room was very small.  Those expecting a more real Moroccan experience versus staying in the outlying chain hotels have to put up with a certain amount of discomfort while letting go of Western expectations. Riads can range in cost from $30/night to around $100 and while we stayed at the higher end of the scale most nights, they all seemed to be lacking in one way or another.  Nonetheless, I wouldn't want to come to Morocco and stay at the equivalent of a Holiday Inn.

The Blue Gate, Fez

After Fez, we headed into the Middle Atlas mountains and the strange little town of Ifrane, built by the French to model an alpine village in Switzerland.  It's also home of one of Morocco's most prestigious universities.  We took a loop off the main road and visited some lakes and a Berber market.  While the lakes weren't very impressive since it's the end of the dry season, we were surprised to see the fall foliage.  We continued to the Cedar Grove in search of the famous Barbary Apes (they're really monkeys, not apes).  Didn't have to look too far before we came upon a heavily touristed spot full of people feeding the macaques.  So much for an authentic nature experience, though it was still pretty cool to see monkeys in Morocco.

 We spent the night on an organic farm South of Azrou.  The farm was run by a guy from Switzerland and his Moroccan wife.  While the beds were still rock hard, at least the rooms were sizable and both breakfast and dinner were included (a good thing since we were in the middle of nowhere).  We drove towards the Sahara the next day with a long detour through part of a National Park in the area.  We got lucky and met up with a troop of wild macaques who seemed unhappy to see us.  Finally, some real nature.  So far, the rural areas of Morocco have been stunningly beautiful, at times seeming like a trip into the distant past.  Farming is still very rudimentary and most rural families travel via donkey cart rather than car.