Morocco in winter or a great idea to touch the exotic in December. Part 2
It was planned to get to Fez by plane from Marrakesh. You can read about how our trip to Marrakesh started here.
The cost of pleasure is 308 dirhams ($30), the flight was operated by Air Arabia.
From the terminal to the plane, we still walk, but if you have a business class ticket, you will be driven first to the plane in a black Maserati.
The flight time is one hour, so you can take a little nap after takeoff and wake up abruptly from the realization that the plane has already landed.
We read that there are 2 ways to get to the city center: city bus and taxi. We wanted to experience Morocco fully and chose the first option. To get to the stop, you will need to go through the parking lot.
And then you will see taxis standing in line - this is the stop. As for prices: a taxi costs 120 dirhams (moreover, the driver will be ready to put 6 people in the cabin: two in front and four others in the back), a bus - 4 dirhams, though you will drive for 40 minutes, but you will see the country from another angle : )
A little before reaching the center, we decided to get off near the bus station and buy tickets for tomorrow's evening bus to Chefchaouen. And just then the first correction of the route happened - there were no more tickets for the evening, and there were only 11 in the morning. For us, this meant only one thing - we had to get up in the morning in order to have time to see the famous dyers. Having accepted this idea and paid for the tickets, we went to check into our hotel.
The hotel was truly a relic of the past, a remnant from the good old colonial days.
But for one night it will do, and the prices are quite reasonable.
Well, in order to completely convince you to stay in this facility - there is a pool (we didn’t dare to swim in it, after all, it’s winter).
At the reception, by the way, a guy who knows Russian works, who consulted us about Shuar (they are also dye houses) and at the same time gave us a tip where to catch a taxi to the Medina and how much to pay (in the evening it is 20 dirhams). Since it was already quite dark outside, we went to the Medina for only one thing - to eat Moroccan couscous.
In general, for a set: tea, salad, couscous, you will need to pay 45 dirhams. As a bonus, they can bring more sweets, but to be honest, they didn’t come to me at all.
After waking up the next day at 8 am, we packed up, caught a taxi and arrived at the gate leading to Shuar.
Outside the gate, be prepared for offers to take you to Shuar and boldly refuse, Google map will lay the route for you without any problems. But right before the very entrance to the dyehouse, you may not be let in and very aggressively impose the services of a guide. This is exactly what happened to us, and starting negotiations with 50 dirhams per person, we agreed on 20.
We absolutely did not regret that we paid our guide - in 20 minutes we were shown absolutely everything, including several rooms where leather processing takes place at different stages (more details can be seen in the video report).
Leather processing skills are passed down from generation to generation and people have been engaged in this craft all their lives.
There is a terrible stench on the territory of all dye houses, but you will feel the strongest pockets of a terrible rotten aroma near places where animal skins are dried after primary processing.
The workers themselves do not smell this smell and work as if nothing had happened.
The final place of our tour was the terrace, where our esteemed guide told us the latest facts about the Shuars and a little about Fez (he spent the whole tour in French, which we do not know, but this did not prevent us from having a dialogue, clarifying some details , using English, Russian and even Polish).
We discussed what we saw for a long time while driving to the bus station, and even when we got on the bus to Chefchaouen, we still heard this unpleasant and disgusting smell.
You can read about our time in Chefchaouen here.
If you want to know more about our trip to Morocco, I also recommend watching the video report.
