A wonderful day in Essaouira, Part 2

Oh geez! I just realized that if I don't write this now, it's not going to get written unless I do it on the bus to Casablanca tomorrow. So, I'll at least get a start on it now. BTW, the problem with tomorrow night is that we have our farewell dinner and I have to pack. I mean, I've been packing every other day, but I haven't had to really pack everything, since the biggest fossil has been riding in the back of the bus, safely strapped in with a seat belt. 😂 Have I mentioned that Sayid is the absolute best?

But the worst part is that my flight out of Casablanca is at 8 AM. Which means I will get very little sleep tomorrow night. What was I thinking?? Actually, I know what I was thinking. This schedule gets me back to Raleigh around 5 PM, i.e., at a reasonable time.

But, to carry on, today was Essaouira day. If it weren't for the fact that I have had many other excellent days, I'd think they'd saved the best for last. We started the day with a tour with a local guide, who took us through the port area to start. The fishing boats are jammed in. I had wondered in Agadir, where they were moored in the same way, like sardines in a can, how anyone gets out to fish?

And our guide had the answer: when a fisherman wants his boat, he pays someone to extract his boat from the muddle. After the fishing trip, the fisherman turns his boat back over to the boat mover, leaving some of his catch in the boat as the payment for the mover. Pretty cool. It was an interesting part of the tour. And, as everywhere, there were cats. I should save this picture for my upcoming cats of Morocco post, but I can't resist.

From there, we moved to the ramparts, though that's not what the guide called it, and then into the old city. I took lots of pictures, particularly pictures of doors. It was a labrynth (I've used that word a lot, haven't I?), but not a bad one. This is the one old city and souk that I could find my way around without feeling I was about to disappear forever (from getting lost, not from any danger). This is just a sampling. I took hundreds of pictures today. (Note the date about the first door: 1336!)

From there, we were released into the souk. Abdul had said throughout the trip that this was a good place to do our shopping, as it's safe and low-key—the vendors were not aggressive and the bargaining was in good fun. I took many more pictures and I did my shopping. One of the interesting things about this souk is that Moroccans were shopping alongside the tourists. In the shop where I bought saffron, I was in line with local women in hijab. Another unusual feature here was that I saw dyes & pigments for sale. I loved the colors! One of the vendors explained to me that the colors could be used in all kinds of paints, like water colors and acrylics, or mixed with egg whites. (I think it was egg whites, but I'm not positive—most of these conversations were held in a mix of French (primary), English, and some Spanish thrown in.)

After wandering for a while, I stopped in a sidewalk restaurant. My neighboring chair was occupied by a cat, who slept through my entire meal of omelette and coffee. It was a wonderful experience, watching the people go by. When the cat woke up, I fed it the (few) scraps of my omelette that remained, then moved on.

Then I plunged back into the souk. Here is a sampling of my images. The olive vendor offered a scoop of product for me to try. The guy selling mussels (I think that's right) tried to get me to eat one raw. If you're interested, I said yes, please, to the olives and no, thank you to the raw shellfish being stored in a 5 gallon bucket of ... maybe water?

By now, my backpack was full and I decided that meant it was time to walk back to the hotel.

I dropped the bag off in my room, and, after a short break, decided to head back out again. It really is a wonderful souk. I loved the atmosphere.

Entering the Medina

I met some of our group also wandering, and walked with them for a while. I bought a few more things. At this point, I was with only one other person from the group when we decided it was time to move back to the hotel. On the way back, we happened upon a street singer. I recorded only a small part, but hearing Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah in Morocco somehow seemed appropriate.

He cut off at the end because he heard the call to prayer starting. I was sorry I hadn't heard more. And speaking of the call to prayer, here's a small sampling from midday today, with the call coming from several mosques in the area. (Sorry for the wind/car noise.)

This time I was back at the hotel for good. I wrote the earlier blog post, ordered room service, took a long bath, and packed.

Tomorrow we're off to Casablanca for our last day in Morocco. And, yes, I'm a little sad about that. It's been a wonderful trip, but I feel like there is so much more to see.