after a long day of travel we arrived in fes. we are staying in a beautiful riad, tall ceilings and a tiled floor that is very hard when you fall out of bed at four in the morning. ouch. zar is ok after having an oversized crumpet for breakfast. fes is hot and luckily found a pool for a bit of relief. headnig back there now.

missing...mr and mrs luca and zar doll. last seen enjoying a moroccan breakfast of pita and apricot jam.

if anyone has information on their whereabouts please contact zar. a reward will be offered to anyone providing information leading to their successful recovery.

the party keeps on going...

we catch a train to fès tomorrow.

still in essaouira and bands are sound checking on every stage. meanwhile we are playing on the beach and burying zar and riding camels and eating honey pancakes and dates. zar is asleep now getting ready for a big night of dancing and partying. have a look at the web site.

http://www.festival-gnaoua.net/

we are still in essaouria. ricky has new thongs and zar has a new miffy towel. there is a world music festival about to start and the town is buzzing with musicians and tourists from all over europe and africa. so we thought that we would stay here a little longer.

essaouira is what we imagined greece to be like white washed with blue trims. the fort is picturesque. it was the setting for orson wells othello and alexander and hendrix and dillon came here to relax. we had dinner last night in a converted jewish school. we sat in the courtyard and thought of all the kids at gan keshet.

good shabbas from morocco. we went to a five hundred year old shule and jewish cemetery that are still active. the jewish guide at the shule was also five hundred years old and only spoke french and hebrew so it was lucky that he could not undestand zar when he asked him why he did not have any eyes.

today zoe visited a hamam and had a traditional bath and massage. the marble room was humid a la bikram yoga and the massage therapist entered the room in a birka, she then stripped down to her undies throwing buckets of water at me as i lay on a thin strip of lino on top of a wooden table. she exfoliated me front and back, top to bottom and now i am ready for the beach.

tomorrow we leave for essourria {the beach}.

morocco is famous for it;s leather and a few days ago we were lucky enough to be taken on a guided tour of the tanneries. it was the most disgusting thing that we have ever encountered. we were given a fresh bunch of mint to assist our breathing. it did not help. we were thinking about anna being ill at the site and stench that surrounded us. boys and men stood knee high in the the mix of pigeon poo and blood scrubbing the hides. it was foul.