Holy crackers! What a day yesterday, especially for a travel day. It is 7:20 am but I want to get as much as this down before the next bonzo day in Fez begins.
We left Chefchaouen at 8am. One last look at the beautiful city in the mountains as we left the valley. We drove through some beautiful green farmland, over hills and through valleys, greener and greener. You have a mental image of a place. Morocco does not bring to mind fertile fields of new growth.
Car window pictures are terrible but here is a sample so you get the idea:
First stop, Volubilis, a Roman Ruin which I know nothing about because I immediately go deaf to the guide when I take pictures. in case you (or I) are interested: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/836/
We had great fun, like a bunch of kids, scrambling around the ruins.
A couple of hours there and then back in the van. More beautiful scenery. We stopped to look over one valley that remind me of Peru's Painted mountain. We just pulled over on the highway, unlike the day hike to get to Peru's version. My pictures do not do the view justice
Time for breakfast so I will break here. We haven't even gotten to the crazy parts (plural!) of the day.
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Oh my gad, it's ten hours later and we just got back and I only have an hour before dinner!
Ok, let's do the next stop at least. We stopped at a women's cooperative that G Adventures supports for lunch. It was just supposed to be lunch. But when we arrived, a vanful of musicians had just arrived. Mohammed said something special must be going on.
I can't access my phone videos on blogspot so I'm trying something new, create a link. I pre- apologize if it doesn't work
https://photos.app.goo.gl/pRm1RofQKQuKYNAs7
It turned out that one of the Moroccan football players who had just come back from the World Cup, and who was from this village, had just been signed to play for Qatar for 70 million euro! Sofiane Boufal. His whole family was in the restaurant celebrating.
We were ushered up to our lunch but the music quickly moved into the floor below us and it was very lively down there. So, we sat quietly eating our lunch until we finished. Then they came up and invited us downstairs for a little visit.
The band was dragged away from their lunch and played us a song. The women brought out chairs for us, although I don't know why because we were dragged up to dance almost immediately. I'll try to upload a video from my phone when it is recharged.
Songs in Morocco are not a few minutes long, they are many, many minutes long. Like 15 or 20 minutes long. So we all danced for the whole song.
Eventually, the song ended, the band were allowed to go back to their lunch, and the ladies of the family hugged us and thanked us for celebrating with them, and we were off. It was awesome. They were all taking videos of us so I imagine Sofiane Boufal is watching me dance as I type.
We got to the hotel pretty quickly after that.
First task, survive the hard sell on participating in a hammam. A hammam is a ritual bathing thing where women scrub you down. It is supposed to be to be clean to go to the mosque but in our case, it is also for tourists. I did not survive the hard sell. I booked in for 6:30 for a 60 minute treatment. Dinner departure scheduled for 8.
I showed up at 6:30. There was an attendant who I think was chosen to make any woman feel better about getting naked in public. Well, not quite naked. They kindly offered me some 'underwear' I could wear. She handed me a packet the size of a pack of matches. There was no way anything that fit in that is going to fit over my butt. I pulled out the disposable undies. And then laughed for about two minutes. They were a strip of some sort of thin gauze with flimsy elastics to make a bikini situation. I just wore my own underwear. But that was it.
Now, mostly starkers, I was led into the next room. One of my group and another woman were in the jacuzzi. I was sat at a sink where my attendant washed my hair and then most of the rest of me. My undies were soaked in seconds. There was some boob action with the soap but it wasn't too bad.
Next, I was put into the sauna where I sat for 15 minutes. Then, onto a concrete slab. A very slippery concrete slab. Front down. I think I had been passed off to the next lady at this point. She proceeded to use what must have been gravel to scrub my back. Oh, man, it was brutal. I am wearing my full old lady briefs but no matter. They were yanked down, then up, then over in one direction and then the other. I might as well have left them on the floor.
Flip over. All of that again but in the front. I spent most of the time shaking with laughter, it was so ridiculous, not to mention painful. The highest peaks and the lowest valleys of planet Joanne were still unexplored so I was still doing ok. Once she decided that I didn't have any skin left to remove, I was hosed down and told to hang onto a bar on the wall. Then the oiling began. Yup, all points of interest were hit at that stage of the process. Oh! Dr. Livingston, I presume! The global map is complete! If she had told me to cough, I would have had to show my medical coverage.
She slid me off the table and over to the jacuzzi. It was no more than lukewarm, which was a shock after the sauna. Elspeth and I had a nice naked chat for about 30 minutes. Which was difficult because the very loud and powerful jets would turn on sporadically and churn up the water so much that it would fly into our faces and mouths and eyes, making talking very challenging.
Elspeth was taken away for her massage. I was left alone. They turned off the jets so now I'm just sitting in a tepid bathtub. This gave me a great view of the red welts rising on my legs. I hope that is just abrasion and not some communal bathwater borne disease I'm developing.
The two attendants started to clean the room and then themselves. Now we're all naked. And some guy shows up and hands them some sandwiches through the door. So, now we're all naked and two of us are eating sandwiches. Finally, I was wrapped in a robe and led through the lobby of the hotel (thankfully mostly empty) to the massage room. I see a clock. It is 7:40. Dinner is in 20 minutes!
A ten minute massage in my soaking wet undies. Very relaxing. I'm all oily but I get dressed and rush up to my room (back through the lobby where my group is all sitting, ready to head out in a few minutes). I was in the lobby by 8 pm. I looked like hell but I have to admit, I am smooth and silky like a baby. They even scrubbed off my 7-day-in vacation leg hair!
Unfortunately and thankfully, I have no pictures of this experience.
Next up, dinner and a show. All Mohammed had said was a belly dancer but it turned out to be quite the variety show. First a traditional Moroccan band. Then belly dancers. Some of our table were dragged onto stage to 'perform'. Then an Berber band, one of whom was quite smitten with Catherine, the Canadian guest. She got coaxed into the act. then me, and onward until several of the group were dancing. They were very lively. Have I mentioned the length of Moroccan music. Still true with Berber Moroccans.
At some point they had Rachel play a bride. Which apparently, I never took a picture of. I have a three minute video someone else took but I won't even try to upload that.
