Today we went on a tour of Fez. My favorite place we visited was the tanneries. When you enter the building they hand you mint to sniff because of the incredibly awesome animal smell that makes you want to gag. Which was a pretty good idea... The mint smelled amazing, the tanneries, not so much. It was interesting to watch the men stretching and dying the animal hide. At one point a man through a hide into the wrong color, retrieved the hide, and threw it into the other barrel of dye. A very forgiving job until it concerns his health. The man that we talked to there told us that within five years of working in the dyes (as you will see the men doing in the photos) they have serious cases of arthritis, however, they continue to work as long as they are capable of doing so. Nick thinks it may be more than that, perhaps heavy metal disease. I'm doing a little research on it and maybe in the future I will have more info.
The building is about 4-5 stories high with different leather goods on each floor. I didn't do a lot of shopping in the tanneries however I noticed the first,main, floor has nothing but house slippers. I slightly regret not trying to get a few at a "good price". The top floor where we took most of the photos is covered wall to wall, floor to ceiling, with leather bags of all shapes and sizes. Nick and I definitely got some great souvenirs in the shape of an awesome leather briefcase and purse/laptop bag. Thank you mama and papa Baker for the Christmas presents.
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