I never thought I’d say this while visiting Morocco in August, but today I felt a bit chilly. Seriously!
We left Marrakech this morning, where it was very hot and dry, and drove a few hours to Essaouira, where it is VERY windy and cool. It is BEAUTIFUL here – we love it! The medina is small and it’s easy to find our way around. The area is known for woodcarving, and the wood products are very inexpensive so we couldn’t resist making a few purchases. We visited the fort, the port, and had a great dinner at Tazos, where there was an AMAZING magician. He did a trick where he told us to pick an imaginary card from an imaginary deck, and then he pulled the card we were thinking of out of a real deck. Very cool. On the way to Essaouira we also had a camel ride (and Abdou tried to force me to drink camel milk), and stopped at an argan oil cooperative. Our riad, La Fontaine Bleue, is beautiful.
Some photos from today…
Riding camels within city limits, led by an 8-year-old boy. What could go wrong?
The argan cooperative…it is SO MUCH WORK to get the nuts out, but Elizabeth is considering a career change:
Our first glimpse of Essaouira:
Our beautiful riad:
Shopping!
The fort…
The port…
And the magician from dinner, Youssef. At one point he made a bottle of wine appear. We’ve spent the last two weeks hunting for wine and he pulled it out of thin air. My hero.
We’re headed back to Mohammedia tomorrow!