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| Essaouira from the Skala du Port |
We were ready for a little chill-out time, and what better place than the beach town of Essaouira (pronounced Essa-wee-ra). Steph and Jer continued on with us from Marrakesh (I guess they are not sick of us yet!), and we were greeted by madness at the Gare Routiere (bus station) in Essaouira. Touts almost coming in the doors of the bus, which we hadn't seen the like of in Morocco yet. We accepted one touts help, and he showed us to a very nice 2 bedroom apartment (with kitchen), which was very inexpensive, and the 4 of us moved in. This meant we could make some of our own food, and we also managed a large salad, as veggies have really been lacking in Morocco.
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| Essaouira ramparts, Skala and port from our hotel |
Tackling the local markets for all the items is, as always, quite fun. We also managed to find a small, friendly liquor store and tried some of the local wines - the first alcohol I've had in over a month. That's got to be the longest I've gone without any booze for 20 odd years!!
The town did have a great vibe to it, even walking down the main strip with our backpacks on. Funky restaurants and cool chill out lounges, obviously spurred on by the increasing number of tourists to the town, but the people were exceptionally friendly and hospitable, while also being very relaxed. Although, our apartment owner was a bit of a grumpy old guy, both on arrival and departure. It sure would have been nice to visit this town before the influx of tourists, as I've heard it was excellent, but also a bit hippy. Apparently, Jimi Hendrix spent some time here back in the 70's and the locals still say that the old ruins on the beach inspired his song "Castles Made of Sand".
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| Locals on the Ramparts for sunset |
Essaouira is not all about tourism. It still has a large, commercial port, and the closer you get, the more fishy the smells. Not to mention the masses of hovering seagulls waiting for a free meal from the fish cleaners. Just outside the gates of the port are a bunch of little food stands, with some colourful and delicious looking varieties of seafood available for BBQ-ing. They seem to weigh it all up (including trays), then adapt a price for you with extra for bread, salad, drinks, etc. It was kind of a weird experience, and I'm not sure the four of us came out of it with that great a feeling. The guy just wasn't listening to what we wanted, and kept throwing on different fish and giving us a price. We weren't trying to bargain, just get the seafood we wanted based on what we could afford. I don't think he was entirely happy settling at our price, and neither were we. Just hoping our food didn't get too much "Spit" on it!! Too bad, as we were hoping for a good experience, and good food. We ended up with a huge rock crab, baby calamari, a delicious red snapper, and a small tuna + salad and bread for $25 US. Can't be too upset about that I suppose.
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| Jeremy and Steph in Triskala |
It was with great sadness, we said goodbye to Steph and Jeremy after 2 nights. The final night out with them was at a really cool little lounge called Triskala, set up like a cave with comfy cushions in different areas, listening to some live music. In the morning, we were on our own again, so we moved out of the apartment, but found a super cheap place up against the sea wall ramparts, complete with old Portuguese cannons, and plenty of locals sitting on them while watching the sunset. We had waterfront views for only $12 a night, and some great sunsets.
There were also some interesting fortifications near the port, so we climbed up the Skala du Port, and enjoyed the views over the port and towards the city. This is where all the postcard photos are taken, as you get seagulls soaring and floating all around, in front of the main view of the city against the city walls.
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| Sunset from our Hotel Terrace |
The rest of the time was spent on the beach when possible. The winds here can be quite strong often, so good for kiteboarding, but makes you feel like you are getting sand-blasted when trying to relax on the beach. Maybe this was foreshadowing for what was to come. We could see ourselves coming back here and maybe spending a month or two, relaxing and working on my kiteboarding skills. *Stub
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