Morocco Trip Day 2: March 23

This morning, the hotel manger invited us to see his uncle's pottery factory. It was amazing. Smith and I got a personal tour from the manger, who walked us through the entire process. They quarry gray clay from about 8km away. All the clay in Morocco is red except for this gray quarry near Fes. They soak it in pits before drying it in the sun and then wetting and pounding it to make it malleable. They then throw them on traditional wheels powered by the artist's legs. Absolutely everything is done completely by hand. After the pieces are shaped and dried again, they are painted. This is also done entirely by hand and completely done from the imagination of the individual artist--no stencils or preset patterns. Each piece is absolutely unique. The pigments are all natural minerals--kohl for black, saffron for yellow, but the proud, especially local product is cobalt. Painted on in a gentle lavender, firing turns it an intense, dark blue. The kilns are fueled by crushed olive pits, which are spread in mounds and plots around the factory, baking the in sun. The kilns reach almost 1,000C and it takes about a week of gradual cooling to prevent the sudden temperature drop from shattering the contents. Most of what is cooked is tile for making mosaics. Each tile is chipped by hand into one of about 750 standardized shapes for mosaic tables, fountains, mirror frames, etc. Everything is done by hand with a broad chisel. On any given day,the manager told us, there are about a hundred men working in the factory, laying tiles in the sun, shaping teapots and dishes, painting intricate designs, fueling the kilns, chipping the tile, and chiseling the enamel.

Smith and I then took the afternoon train to Rabat. For several hours, the tranquil, rolling Moroccan countryside flew by our window. The compartment was just the two us at the beginning, but it filled quickly with a diverse group, speaking French and Arabic into their cell phones.

Rabat is the capital, and is quite modern and Western in comparison to Fes. After finding a cheap hotel and watching a bit of Arabian basketball on television (go Al Nasir!) we explored the older part of the city. Spying a beautiful wall, we decided to see what was behind it and we found ourselves in a massive graveyard. As we ascended to the top of a hill, we were quite startled to see the ocean. We had no idea we were in a coastal city. We walked along the beach and out onto a jetty, enjoying the company of hip youngsters. After grabbing some delicious potato chips fried right before our eyes in an enormous kettle of oil, we explored the old fortified casbah and the sultan's palace gardens before walking back through a lively night market to our hotel. The gardens had some of the sweetest smelling plants I had ever experienced. Orange blossoms, lemon grass, and a tree of enormous white flowers with a name that I couldn't understand. Tomorrow, Smith and I intend to explore Rabat a tiny bit more before continuing our whirlwind tour with an afternoon train to Casablanca.