The Tannery

So I was honest about my rocky relationship with Morocco, and I was interested to see that in the comments, some of you reported similar experiences both in Morocco and in other countries. Maybe we just all belong to the wussie traveler club and we should toughen up, or maybe it isn't us. But I'm not all negative, because today I'll share two cool things about our trip there: 2.) the food is really good. Couscous and dried apricots and dates and tagines and camel burgers. And sweet mint tea. We were well fed. And 2.) The tannery.

We were in the city of Fez, which has one of the oldest continually operating tanneries in the world. We went, and then almost dropped dead from the smell. But we powered through and captured the snippets below. The guidebooks all swear that you can't get down on the tannery floor and can only view it from a balcony, but we lucked out with a "tour guide" (special price for you my friend!) who apparently held the keys to the whole establishment. We got right down in the mess, dodging pack donkeys and stray chickens, past animal carcasses and men up to their waists in huge ancient vats of what we were assured are very carcinogenic dye chemicals. It was noisy and colorful and so very, very pungent. It was fascinating.

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