Belated Fez

Last Presidents' Day Weekend we traveled south to Fez, Morocco.
Morocco is fast becoming one of our favorite destinations and this
trip with traveling buddy, Lisa, was a memorable one.
We can't say why it took us so long to post these pictures.
(Excitement about the birth of our little nieto and our trip to the States in March
probably took priority!)  Anyhow...it was fun pulling
these pictures together 3 months later and "reliving" the trip.

We drove to Tarifa about 1.5 hours away and took the ferry to
Tangiers. There we met our driver, Ahmed, who
drove us a very long 6 hours to Fez. Along the
way we saw all the sights and scenery that make
Morocco so interesting, like this Berber woman pictured above.

Donkeys are as popular as cars out in the country.

 Everything you look at it
is exotic by our standards. Even simple stop signs.

The northern Moroccan countryside is surprisingly green with rolling hills.

Once we reached Fez, our first stop was at a pottery collective,
 regulated by the government. Despite Ahmed's
assurances that this was where locals bought all their pottery, the place
was crawling with tourists. 

Nevertheless, the place was interesting. We
 watched artisans throwing tagines.

The pottery in the show room was beautiful (and expensive).

We were told that prices were fixed. In a country where bartering is a way of life,
we decided to hold off making purchases until we got to the Medina
where we could try haggling.

Fez 

Ahmed told us we would visit the King's Palace. We later learned, you
walk around the palace, not through it! 

We stayed at the Hotel Riad Yacout.  A riad is a traditional
 Moroccan palace with an interior garden or courtyard.
This particular one was restored to its former glory and absolutely gorgeous.
We were sitting in the courtyard the first morning
having coffee, when this little guy landed on the chair.

We spent our first full day in Fez exploring the Medina.

The Blue Gate is the main entry to the Medina.

The Medina is an ancient warren of 9,000 alleys with no names and
no cars. You feel like you've stepped back into time. People live and work here.
It's feasible to never leave the Medina.  You can buy food and
everything imaginable. Kids go to school here. The oldest university in the
world is within these walls, as are many mosques.  It's a world
 within a world. We met our
guide Mustafa (not pictured here), who grew up in the Medina
.  Going around with a guide was very helpful. No chance of getting lost and
we felt totally safe.

We were impressed with Mustafa. He was a humble man,
excusing himself to go pray in the Mosque whenever there was a call
for prayer. He spoke openly about Moroccan life (including the practice
of taking more than one wife; which he did not). He knew his history, and
he was generally a good guy with a lot of integrity and information. Pictured
above is a man baking bread.

I guess we're never far from home, even here!

The textiles were gorgeous.

People were fascinating.

In the Medina, we visited the tannery. These vats are full of dyes. We had been
warned that the odor was overwhelming, but the day we were there, it wasn't
too bad. (A day in February might be better than the heat of the summer..?)

Hanging dyed hides. All the work is done by hand, the old-fashioned way.

"Dentists" held out their shingles throughout the Medina. Mustafa
explained that Moroccans have a lot of dental problems primarily because
of all the sugar they eat (try their mint tea and you'll know...). These
dentists are not medically trained doctors. They are self-
appointed people who are experienced in pulling
 teeth and doing general "teeth work."
 You can find "real dentists"  in the new city.

One of the highlights of our trip was going to a cooking class and
 dinner at Ahmed's home. We watched his wife, pictured above,
 make a delicious chicken tagine.

While dinner was cooking, Lisa and Deb tried on homemade traditional dresses.

Plates and utensils were set before us, but we noticed the
 family didn't have any.  We politely declined, choosing to
 eat like our hosts--- using our hands.
Bread was our spoon as we scooped up the different foods.
  It was all delicious.

Our trip back to Tangiers was a faster 4-hour trip. Along the way, we saw
more amazing sights and scenery, including these local ladies on their way to the market.

And here we are at the end of another memorable journey.
We can't wait to get back to Morocco
 in the fall when the kids (and nieto) visit.  Next time: Marrakech!
Hasta luego, Jim and Deb.

Walking Tour in Sierra de Grazalema

Last weekend we drove 1 hour and 45 minutes north to the Grazalema area
near Ronda. It was a beautiful day.

We call this photo "Layers" because that is just what it looked like:
four layers of  poppy fields, rolling hills, mountains, and sky. 

We met Brenda Jones, our guide from Spanish Nature (spanishnature.com)
Brenda and her husband moved from their native England to Spain six years ago.
Brenda is an expert on wildflowers in the area and takes people on
 private tours. (Her husband, we learned, has a passion for
 birding and takes people on birding trips in Spain,
as well as distant places like Gambia, Ecuador, and Kenya). 

We spent the day with Brenda, driving to different spots, hiking around,
and learning the names of different flowers in bloom, like this one-- Ferula or Giant Fennel.

We always thought of iris as a cultivated plant, but here Spanish Iris grows in the wild.

The Sierra de Grazalema was the backdrop to all these beautiful flowers.
We had been to this area before and passed it many times on our way to Ronda,
but on this day with Brenda, we discovered a lot of "back roads" with gorgeous scenery.

The area is loaded with different varieties of rockroses or Cistus.

The petals are so delicate.

Rockrose bushes are about three feet high and spread quickly.
They look lush and colorful in areas that are hot and dry.

We saw many fields of white and were surprised to find out it was
flowering cilantro. 

 Ironically, the Spanish grow
a lot of cilantro but don't use it much in their cooking (at least in Andalucia).

We took notes and photos all day long. Hopefully we have the names of these
flowers right. (Brenda, if you're reading this, please fill in and correct!)
 This is pretty Ronda Cranesbill.

We've included this little beauty but confess to not knowing its name.

We only saw one snake the whole day. Thankfully.

Sweet little orchids.

The Milk Thistle flower was as stunning as its variegated leaves.

Brenda told us about a number of really good hikes in this area, and we
plan to come back in June and do some serious walking . This was
part of the 14K LLanos de Librar.

Lovely pink Valerian.

 Another no name....

Tri-color Convulvia. Not photoshopped. Nature is perfect.

Some sort of prickly pear. So strange looking, right?

This is a "man cave"---the real kind. Brenda told us that in the
winter, men from the village take a break from their wives and hang
out here! It's got a fireplace, stone benches, a couple of framed
"girly photos."

The cave is located on a hill above the pueblo blanco, Montejaque.

The end of another memorable day.
Gracias to Brenda for a wonderful tour. We loved it!
Hasta luego, Deb and Jim.