After a morning jaunt to Jardin Majorelle I returned to the Medina destined to witness the art of leather making. A world class header shared with some kids in a dead-end street. I am clearly going to have a great day. I take a wrong turn and end up in a familiar, but wrong place. This time a free guide missing a front tooth decides to show me the way. Now he moves through the crowds with unbelievable ease. I struggle to keep up, my best crowd navigating skills shamefully inadequate for the challenge. He waits, and we continue. He pawns me off to a guy at the tannery who shows me around. This new guide show me the tanks of chemicals, Berbers slogging through poisonous liquids. Blood, guts, feces, and fluids converge in the dirt gutters streaming towards some downhill location. Here the leather is treated, prepared, and cut. Within the bordering houses, the leather is sewn into the final product. It takes two months for the leather to go from raw material to final product. The aroma is no worse the Greeley, which I guess says a lot for Greeley. From here I am taken to the rooftop of a rug store where I can see down on both the Berber and Arab taneries. So I settle for a rug, tip my tannery tour guide, and continue towards the hotel. Pleasantly enough I run into my first guide. He asks me what I bought and tells me that I got a great price. Now he asks for a tip of a cigarette. Of course I don't have one, so we settle for a pen. This is good to remember, when traveling always have a smile and a pack of smokes or a case of pens. I find myself eating lunch overlooking the main square. A persistent desert wind cooling the air and flipping the pages faster that I can fill them.
11 February 2006
Tannery Tour
After a morning jaunt to Jardin Majorelle I returned to the Medina destined to witness the art of leather making. A world class header shared with some kids in a dead-end street. I am clearly going to have a great day. I take a wrong turn and end up in a familiar, but wrong place. This time a free guide missing a front tooth decides to show me the way. Now he moves through the crowds with unbelievable ease. I struggle to keep up, my best crowd navigating skills shamefully inadequate for the challenge. He waits, and we continue. He pawns me off to a guy at the tannery who shows me around. This new guide show me the tanks of chemicals, Berbers slogging through poisonous liquids. Blood, guts, feces, and fluids converge in the dirt gutters streaming towards some downhill location. Here the leather is treated, prepared, and cut. Within the bordering houses, the leather is sewn into the final product. It takes two months for the leather to go from raw material to final product. The aroma is no worse the Greeley, which I guess says a lot for Greeley. From here I am taken to the rooftop of a rug store where I can see down on both the Berber and Arab taneries. So I settle for a rug, tip my tannery tour guide, and continue towards the hotel. Pleasantly enough I run into my first guide. He asks me what I bought and tells me that I got a great price. Now he asks for a tip of a cigarette. Of course I don't have one, so we settle for a pen. This is good to remember, when traveling always have a smile and a pack of smokes or a case of pens. I find myself eating lunch overlooking the main square. A persistent desert wind cooling the air and flipping the pages faster that I can fill them.
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