By the time Jane and I set off from Chefchaouen, we had stayed a night longer than expected both there and our first stop, Asilah. We did so once again in our next destination, Meknes. During our time together, we had several conversations about the difference between tourists and travelers – both falling into the latter category. We (like others I’ve met who self-identify as travelers) tend to be interested in kicking back and getting the feel of a place, a slower pace which often lends itself to staying longer than expected.
While in Chaouen, we got to pick the brains of Terry and Suzanne (our guesthouse hosts and long-time Moroccan expats, as mentioned in my previous post) about things to see and do while in Morocco. We’d been considering a visit to Fes, but they indicated that it’s quite the tourist trap – worth a day trip at most – and that we might want to stay in Meknes instead. We already wanted to visit Volubilis, the 2nd century Roman ruins about 40km north of Meknes, so decided to heed this advice.
On arriving, we pulled into the main parking lot and figured out that we could leave BOB (my trusty steed, short for Big Orange Beast) there for 20dh per night (about $2.25). Then we were faced with the somewhat daunting task of actually finding the riad where we’d reserved a room, given that it was deep in the heart of the Medina. While I set to the now too-familiar task of unloading all of our gear off of BOB, Jane set off with the somewhat dubious assistance of one of the local touts, who abandoned her to her own devices with a dismissive “that way” wave once she’d made it abundantly clear that we weren’t interested in his services as a Medina tour guide after we’d settled in.
A while later, she returned with Samir – cheerful, charming and mostly toothless, he’s one of the brothers who own the place we were staying. He helped us enlist the services of one of the many fellows who make their wages pushing carts of luggage, goods and so forth through the Medina, and off we went.
Meknes was my first experience of an expansive Medina – at first, seemingly a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. We enjoyed wandering aimlessly within its walls and close alleys, peeking our heads down this passage and that, seeing what’s just around the next corner. We didn’t enjoy the steady stream of young men attempting in vain to entice us into their restaurants in the Place L’Hadim, just outside the Medina and across from the famed Bab Mansour gate, considered one of the finest Berber-style gates in Morocco.
Some highlights of our time in Meknes:
– Upon approaching a crowd gathered in the plaza, Jane was singled out and drawn inside the circle to act as assistant to the cheerful fellow performing magic tricks. He drew lots of laughs from the crowd with his running commentary, mostly in Arabic but with bits of French when talking with Jane.
– Exploring the food souk – vendors of all sorts of olives, preserved lemons and pickles; many butchers, where you could buy chickens, rabbits, beef and lamb, even a whole cow’s head if you were so inclined; spice merchants with huge colorful mounds of cumin, ginger, turmeric, prepared mixtures of spices for tagine; lots of breads, little colorful sweet pastries; dried figs strung together like delicious rosaries, raw and roasted almonds, dates of many different qualities.
– Man, sometimes it seems like everyone wants to sell you something. The most awkward and amusing of these was the guy who walked up to us as we were engaged in an intense conversation, gesturing at us with three or four live chickens in each hand. No, thank you, we don’t want to buy a chicken right now. No, really.
– Sampling local Moroccan wine! This entailed visiting the Marjane – a Morocco-wide “hypermarket” chain, and one of the few places to buy alcohol (remember that Morocco is an Islamic country, and as such alcohol sales are heavily controlled). Domaine Rimal, Bonassia and Cuvee du President were all pleasing choices – if not particularly refined or complex – available for around $5-6 per bottle. Apparently if you step up into the $15-20 range there are some very impressive wines available, but I haven’t yet made such top-shelf selections.
For me, the main attraction of our visit in Meknes was the day trip to Volubilis. While it is primarily thought of as a Roman ruin, its history extends back before the Roman incursion into North Africa. Covering an area of 45 hectares (about 130 acres), Volubilis – known to Moroccans as Oualili – is a very impressive spot, and well worth the visit. We hired a guide, and were both very happy that we did. He was an older guy, and had spent most of his life in Volubilis in some capacity. He began spending time there as a youth, when his father was hired as a cook for the French archaeologists who were excavating and restoring the site, and eventually knew enough about the site to begin working as a guide. He told us much about the site’s history, expounding on the public areas, olive oil production, waterworks throughout the city, homes of wealthy merchants (some as large as 800 sq m, or about 8800 sq ft), and even the local brothels.