Essaouira

It's my last night in Morocco.  I am staying in a fancy Riad but I am just staying in my room.  Only issue is I can't sign onto wifi with my computer. It works fine on my phone.  Anyway, I am writing this on the app so I can't upload many pictures. 

Ok, back to a few days ago. 

We left Aroumd and drove for a while.  I have surprisingly few road pictures and none of particular beauty or intertest so I'll spare you.  We stopped at a grocery store to pick up some lunch and then we stopped at a cafe and ate our lunch in their garden. Only stipulation, we had to buy drinks there.  Good deal for a garden and a bathroom.  I am quite used to my late morning cafe au lait so it worked out well.

This is in the grocery store bulk section

Apparently, this is the only picture I took of the garden

Some authorized shopping.  An Argan women's cooperative.  First the requisite demo of how they make argan oil.  And then the hard sell.  I found it quite expensive so even though I really wanted some, I knew I could buy it cheaper elsewhere.  

Argan berries?, fruit? 

Coming down the mountain was like the dance of the seven base layers.  Not as sexy as the dance of the seven veils but probably more satisfying (well. at least for me). Over the course of the day,  Off comes the second hand toque.  The Mountain Warehouse scarf and gloves, the Eddie Bauer coat, the Value Village fleece, and eventually even my ever present LL Bean green sweater.  I did manage to keep on my Costco t-shirt.

We arrived in Essaouira.  A beach town.  Abdul dropped us off outside of the medina walls and we had to hike our stuff through the walls and a bit into the medina.  I was still able to leave my extra bag of purchases in the van so I could carry my own backpack.  Essaouira has a lot of charms but for me the main one was the amazing shopping!  So, my own-bag-carrying days were short lived. 

These pictures were just from the walk to the hotel.

The hotel was nice, down a little alley.  But terrible plumbing.  Pretty much all of our hotels have had really awful showers.  This one was either boiling hot or freezing cold.  I asked the desk for a bucket for my next shower.  I just made my own warm water.  Living in Mexico has taught me a thing or two.  Buckets are usually the answer to all problematic bathroom issues.

The lobby.  

We had an hour to wash up and rest and then Mohammed took us to a nice seafood restaurant in time to watch the sunset from the rooftop dining room.

From left:  Elspeth, Catherine, Kevin, Verity, Eric, 
Denis (not shown), Mohammed, Trevor, me, 
Kim, Tom, John and Rachel

I haven't really talked about how well we all got along as a group.  There were 12 of us from three countries, 6 men, 6 women, marrieds, singles, ages from 25 to 72.  And we all got on like a house on fire.  Plus Mohammed was super and put up with our shenanigans and endless questions.  Kim would ask the best questions.  Things I didn't know I wanted to know and if I had probably would have been reluctant to ask. I can honestly say, I could not have been luckier than to get stuck with this bunch. Every one had the driest, greatest sense of humour!

I mention this here because this night with this group of friends was so much fun, I don't even know how to describe it.  Let's start with the fact that Kevin and Catherine bought wine for the table to thank us for being patient with Catherine's fall on the trail that morning.  Absolutely not necessary since we were happy to do whatever she needed but still, the wine got the evening going.  There was a live band and a couple of other tables of very happy people so the mood in the restaurant was already very festive. 

Lots of talking and drinking and eating.

Verity and Trevor bought the next couple of bottles of wine.  One of the other tables was another tour group.  they were dancing and at some point stole Denis because they had a plethora of single women and needed a dance partner. Well, that just encouraged some more dancing at our table and general quasi-drunken merriment.  I may have some pictures on my phone but I can't add them without wifi. Here's the one I have one my camera.  

I hate to leave that evening, even the retelling of it, but we must move on. The next day was a free day.  I really needed a free day, our last few days of driving and freezing had been exhausting.  Plus, there were so many shops to explore! 

First, Mohammed took some of us to a silver shop.  Essaouira is the silver capital of Morocco.  Trevor and Verity bought me a pendant for my upcoming birthday and then I got jealous of the ring Rachel chose so I bought one too ( I promise I am not single white female-ing her but she is worthy of it).

After that, some of us wandered over to the beach.  Where we had a beverage, cafe au lait for me!

We split up at that point,.  I headed into the medina.  It is the calmest medina we have encountered with shops with non-pushy vendors. I had to pick up my laundry at 4pm and that was my only schedule until dinner at 7.  

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next day, I managed to tether my tablet to my phone's connection to the internet!  Who am I?! Desperate times call for extraordinary efforts!  I would like Sandra Bullock to play me in the movie version of this  tale. (actually, thank Eric who happened to mention this is a thing just yesterday).

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Back to Essaouira.  And shopping.  I hadn't even made it two shops out of the hotel before I found my painting.  As you all know I like to buy at least one painting from each trip.  The cat one from Chefchaouen does not count.  And then, right next door, an argan shop, with much better prices. 

I don't think I actually bought that much when I come to think of it.  There may have been another bedspread and scarf in here.  But mostly it was just wandering around and loving the shops and the things contained within.  Here are a million pictures, only 79% of which are cats. 

I don't really remember where we had dinner that night.  I didn't take any pictures.  I do remember that some of the group headed out to shop a bit but I went back to the hotel.  I was shopped out, if that was possible!  

The next day was my birthday so I am going to leave this for now because my birthday (which in my two worlds is 33 hours long -two time zones included) is going to be a long post.  Probably from an airport or two.  For now, I have two hours to head into the medina before I leave for the airport.  

The trip to/day in Mergouza (the edge of the Sahara Desert)

 I have about an hour before dinner so let's see how far we get. I'm still two days behind.  But I think we have some free time after dinner.  Unless a berber drum situation arises AGAIN! 

Morocco is a land of very diverse landscapes.  Surprisingly so.  We left Fez and entered the forest.  And snow!  We went through a town that Mohammed called Swiss Morocco because of the slanted roofs.  In the rest of Morocco, the roofs are flat but here they are slanted because of the snow. There is a thriving Moroccan tourist industry here.  People come to play in the snow, toboggan, there is even a very terrible ski hill.

I have no idea what this lion is about but there was a
massive line up to get a picture with it.  So, I thought
I better have one too.  And now so do you.

tobbagan rentals on the side of the road

Then we stopped in a town famous for its apples.  Kim bought two kilos for the bus.  I bought some strawberries for breakfast the next day (time to wash them).  The strawberries were good but the apples were TERRIBLE.  Someone, Eric I think, described that as the taste and texture of apples reconstituted from powdered apple dust.  At this point, I think Kim is handing them out to children.  

This day was the day we all just started buying bus snacks and it became a smorgasbord of food.  There was candy and nuts and fruit and chips and chocolate bars.  

There was a lake somewhere near here so when we stopped for lunch I ordered a trout.  I shared with Kevin which was probably just as well but I almost wished I had a whole one.  The meals here are very big.  I can never seem to finish my plate.

It was really quite delicious!

I bought a silly road trinket from this guy.

The birds here are brown and sparce but the occasional one does wander by. 

Bird!  Not in my crappy, crappy Moroccan bird book.

Mohammed had told us we would be staying in a hotel in (around) Mergouza that was built out of mud and straw.  I was assuming a modest mud hut situation.  Wrong!  It's the desert, mud and straw structures are huge and durable.  And they really hold in the cool.  Which would be great in the summer, less great in February. 

We arrived at sunset.   Our first views of the Sahara.

My room was not the best.  There was a bus full of kids there (high school age-ish).  They took up most of the rooms.  There is only one water heater for the whole complex and our rooms were at the far end.  Plus my heater didn't work.  My first night was so cold!  Remember those merino wool base layer pants I brought for our one night in the mountains.  I pulled them out, I was so cold.  But I didn't bring the bottoms!  I had accidentally packed a top.  I wore it anyway.  

mud and straw (and a bird)

My 'hut'

Laughing doves nesting in the light fixture.

The next morning, some of us booked to go on a 4x4 tour of the desert and meet with a Berber family.  There were six of us so we had two jeeps (modern hatchback jeeps, not cool oldy-timey jeeps)

Our hotel, and all of the other hotels, are right on the edge of the dunes. On the other side is hard scrabble, hard pack, pebbly, dry landscape. But first the dunes!

A visit to the camel corral.  

This is a Black Wheatear.  I also saw White-crowned Wheatears

Our driver took us through some sandy bits.  It was tippy and fast.  Eric had to remind me to put on my seatbelt.  He is a nice person so at the time I figured, that's nice of him.  He is also a smart man so perhaps, in retrospect, he was thinking, if we crash and Joanne is unsecured, I am likely to die with her.  Either way, no one crashed or died.

Next stop, Berber camp.  What can I say.  I never want to live in a Berber camp.  There were tents/temporary structures scattered over the hard scrabble landscape.  Did I mention how cold it had been the night before.  And I had solid walls.  These people are sleeping under rug walls.  

When the driver heard where we were going he was excited to tell us that there was a baby there named Omar. I thought he said baby camel so I was excited too.  Then someone corrected me and said, no, a human baby.  I was bummed, I wanted Omar to be a camel.  

But it turns out Omar is a little charmer.  He followed us around.  He didn't interact with us, we were probably scary although he did accept an orange from Eric.  If we were looking at chickens, he was chasing chickens.  If we were looking at goats, he was chasing goats.  If we were eating, he stared at us until we gave him food that he shoved in his little cheeks.  

Omar with his orange

Goats

Woah!!  GOAT

Bird!  Greater Hoopoe Lark

Omar was quickly hired as our new driver so we could take him with us.  Not really, she added unnecessarily.  

Next stop, a Sudanese '?' place of some sort.  Coffee?  Gift Shop?  No idea.  We came in to the courtyard, sat down and some Sudanese musicians played some awesome music.  Can't complain too hard about that.   History (likely incorrect), Sudanese slaves were brought to Morocco a couple of hundred years ago to dig wells and probably other slave activities.  Dates and activities to be fact checked.  *reference needed.  

Mint tea accompanies most activities, 
even the free ones.  

We stopped at a kohl mine at some point.  Where I bought some little mountain top shop gifties for the girls.  Not Kohl.  Do not put any mountain top mine shop purchases near your eyes, just saying, pro-tip.

The mine.  Not sketchy at all.  
All industrial safety measures met! 

View from the top of the mountain

My shop keep in his shop. Not sketchy at all.

I think we headed back to the hotel at this point. Let me check the photos...  No photo (or maybe a photo on my phone) but I remember we stopped for a coffee.  

We had an hour or so of downtime. I wrote up the Fez post.  No rest of the weary.

Ok, brace yourself, this is going to be an onslaught of photos.  Camel ride!!!!  

The camels arrive

The camels wait

Before we could get on our camel, we had to put on our turbans so we would blend in with the other nomadic peoples wearing eddie bauer puffy coats. 

Fully kitted out, it was time to meet our beasts.  the first couple of camels that were mounted made such a racket of displeasure, I was a bit worried but my guy was a trouper.  The camels were tied in groups of three.  I got the lead and I like to think he was the senior manager of our group.  He was very well behaved.  Tom was on the camel at the back of our train and his camel was not well behaved.  He did not like being at the back.  But Verity on the middle camel took the brunt of #3's misbehaviour.  

Anyway, I got on my camel and then he had to stand up.  I'm sure some of you have been on a camel. But for those who haven't.  You mount this giant animal while they are on the ground with the long, long legs tucked under them.  Then they stand up starting with their back legs which means you lurch forward, and then their front legs so you lurch backwards.  It is all very startling and lurchy.  I may have (definitely) let out a small scream.  

That's my camel with the yellow blanket

My camel train guide

I'm up!

Once I was up (way up, that camel was TALL), the walking part was not bad.  We had four groups of three, each group led by a guy (there is probably a title, camel guide, let's go with camel guide).  Mohammed came along but he ran up the dunes. It was a bit of a game - spot Mohommed as he popped up on a dune and then disappeared down another.  

Eight million pictures of camel riding in the dunes.  

We were heading up to watch the sunset over the dunes.  But first we had to get into the dunes.

Eventually we stopped and the lurching reversed until the camel was back on the ground.  I let out a little scream again.  

We hiked further up into the dunes to get a better view of the sunset.  It wasn't exactly over the dunes but it was spectacular.  

As the sun was setting, the full moon was rising in the opposite direction.  It was perfectly synchronized.  Half the sun was down, half the moon was up.  The sun set, the whole moon appeared. It was hard to know where to look.  

Then back down to our waiting camels.  I got on mine and he was just done with the whole thing so he got up before I even had a chance to grab on.  I don't think I screamed this time though.  Hard to say.  

I don't think any of my camera pictures turned out in the low light with moving targets but you are getting them anyway.  I will try to load some from my phone which does better in the dark.

We made it safely back to the hotel.  No screaming for the disembarkation.  I'm an old Berber hand by now.  Our feet had barely hit the sand before out camel guides had whipped out blankets and spread them out on the sand to display their wares. I called it camel mall shopping. I did not buy anything but I can't say that is true for everyone.  (I am trying to seem virtuous because things go downhill in the shopping department later on)

Dinner.  The best meal  I have had in Morocco so far!  Meatbol tagine.  It does not sound amazing but it was!  Really.  I ate two portions.  

Time for bed?  Don't be daft.  Time to head back outside for some Berber drumming around the fire.  The musicians were great.  The guests who got to paddle on some drums were not.  But it was good fun.  

I think this is camel shopping mall but I dont have time to move it

And that was it.  I think I may have managed to upload exactly one video from my phone.  Sudanese musicians.  

Next day is starting so I better get started too.  Now we are only one day behind.