Morocco - coast and Essaouira

Another long day of driving. When we first left Taraoudant it had been raining. People said it was much-needed rain after four years of drought. It soon cleared up and became sunny.

We reached the coast, and a city called Agadir. This was very modern-looking city, and we soon had our first views of the ocean. We stopped for lunch at a beach that was full of tourists from Europe that come for the surfing. It really felt like a coastal resort town.

We continued to Essaouria. We stopped outside the edge of the old town, and unloaded the bags.  This was as far as we travelled by the van, and we said goodbye to the driver.

We stayed for two nights in a 'riad' in the old town. A riad is a Moroccan style building, which has a open courtyard and the rooms on the different floor around it.

After checking in, we all went out for dinner at a place that had live traditional entertainment.

The next day we started with a guided walking tour of Essaouira. It is a fishing town, and there is a port filled with blue fishing boats, around a 16th century Portuguese tower.

From the port there is a view of the old town.

We walked through the markets of the old town. The narrow alleys are crooked on purpose, to block the wind. We passed a Jewish museum, and learned there is quite a Jewish history here. We passed a local fish market. There are restaurants there, and the custom is to buy raw fish at the market, and take it to the restaurant and pay to have it cooked.

We stopped at a circular fortress with cannons. 

There are small islands just off Essaouria, that were occupied by the Pheonicians in 600 BC.

We also visited some artisan shops. At one of them a wood craftsman gave us a demonstration of how he does the wood inlay. 

We finished the tour at a silver craft shop.

This was the day of a World Cup game of Morocco vs. Croatio for third place. There was big screen in the plaza. This time, however, Morocco didn't play so well and lost, so there wasn't that much excitement. 

We had dinner at a restaurant with a great view over the fortress, at sunset.

Afterwards we walked around the markets, which become very busy at night.

The next day we had the morning to look around, before catching a bus back to Marrakech. I walked on my own for a while, and went inside the Jewish museum. There was very interesting, old black and white footage of Essaouira from early 1900s - a lot of the buildings and traditional activities of people looked the same as today.

At lunch time, several of us met in a  part of the old town to look for a place to eat. In Morocco, it seems, things do not open very early. We found a restaurant down an alley that just sold octopus, and the owner was just setting. Seeing a large group for lunch, he opened right away, sent his wife to buy bread, and started cooking. It was the best octopus I'd ever had. And we made back to the hotel in time walk to the bus station.