Essaouira

Ok time for a sweet story about our day trip to Essaouira. From our first taxi driver to multiple storekeepers to Kyle's friends to Becky's book, everyone said we should take a day trip to Essaouira, a small coastal city that is increasing becoming a resort destination for western travelers. It's located about 2 hours from Marrakech, and we took a taxi there (we got ripped off obviously, but it cost 90 euros there and back and the driver waited there for us). As soon as we got in the taxi, the driver started trying to convince us to go to the mountains instead. He claimed the king was coming through that day, and we would be stopped in the road for hours. We assumed that he was just trying to scam us somehow, trying to make more money by driving us elsewhere or by getting our business for two days. We insisted on going to Essaouira.

As we drove along we realized the driver may have been right about the king driving by. All along the road and on every building there were Moroccan flags. Everywhere you imagine a flag hanging we saw one. There was also a soldier approximately every twenty meters on either side of the road. As we approached the first town outside of Marrakech, we could hear the commotion on an otherwise quiet road before we could see the town. Both sides of the town center (along the main road) were packed with people lined up to see the king. Policemen and soldiers were blowing whistles and setting up gates to keep the people off the road. Bands were playing with band members dressed to impress. We watched in awe as we drove through the first town, and continued to be impressed with each upcoming town. However, our ride was smooth sailing without stops until about 45 minutes from Essaouira. In a tiny little town consisting of about ten small family shops on either side of the road, a mosque, a school, and more animals than people, our taxi was pulled over to the side of the road and parked in a field. Realizing we had no other option that to wait, we joined the crowd on the side of the road. As soon as we reached the crowd, everyone turned to stare at us. This small town must not see foreigners very often, b/c we were stared at the entire time we were there.

A few minutes after our arrival, Dan Liza and I decided to seek out a bathroom. Unfortunately every shop in town was closed for the king's arrival. We finally found a nice local man who took us way back off the road to a local school where he let us use the squatty potties. Apparently students who have to travel from far away stay at the school during the week so they don't have to commute every day. We asked the man what time he anticipated the king's arrival, imagining that it would be less than 1/2 hour. He replied 3 pm. It was 1:15. And so we waited. We tried talking to some of the locals, but our attempts were pretty unsuccessful. Finally just before 3 o’clock, after several helicopters flew over and lots of whistles were blown, Mohammed 6 arrived. His car barely slowed down as he drove through, despite the crowd. He cruised through at about 30-40 mph, but he did appear out of the sunroof to wave to his people. And although we missed most of our day in Essaouira, it was totally worth it, b/c we saw the king.

Finally, around 4 p.m. we arrived in Essaouira and agreed to meet our taxi driver at seven. We headed first to find something to eat, as we were on the water, we chose seafood. Very fresh seafood. The restaurant was a little outside stand with a display of fresh, whole fish. There was no menu…we simply went up to the display and picked the fish we wanted. We asked the man what Liza could eat, since she’s a vegetarian. He thought for a second, and then pulled out a fish, and said “She can it this one. It’s a vegetarian fish, it only eats plants not animals.” We laughed and thanked him for his suggestion. Ten minutes later our fish arrived, skin, heads, tails, and all. Even though Kyle and I weren’t looking forward to eating the creature on our plates, we sacrificed the gross factor for the sake of experience and dug into the fish. It was decent tasting, but definitely worth it for the experience.

After eating we tried to profit from the rest of the sun on the beach. We played in the sand for a while, and even dipped our feet in the freezing cold Atlantic. We also wrote “I love you” in every language we knew in the sand (we had over ten languages!). After beach time we headed into the city and explored the market there. It was pretty similar to the Marrakech market, though much smaller. However it did have some interesting different products, including some cool shirts which Becky bought. Dan also managed to find the hookah he’d been seeking there.

At seven we piled back into the taxi and headed back to Marrakech, listening to another chorus of “I told you so” from the taxi driver.