Hotel Cap Sim Essaouira

A visit to the coastal city of Essouquira was a very nice change for all of us after having experienced countless medina's for the previous weeks. A quiet town which catered to tourists on their holidays was relaxing and beautiful. The mixture of old with modern was clear on the beaches when you sat and watched tourist ride camels down the ...

... gifts for people in the Souk its just really hard saw loads of things for people but try and haggle is annoying I just want to pay a price and it seems silly haggling for like 7 quid nearly bought you a bag Alex but the man was doing my head in so will have to try and find you something else ha ha.

Had some more mint tea in the square and then back to the Riad as Ian is going to the Hamam this is a place where all the locals go ...

... into a vibrant local "garage sale" (if there's a "Goodwill" in Morocco, by golly I'll FIND it!) where a cluster of scarf-clad matrons (at first clearly skeptical of a lone tourist with a camera barging into their cloistered midst) soon amicably melted (as I made it clear I wouldn't dream of snapping photos in such a private domain.) Indeed, eventually I negotiated for a somewhat tattered (but nonetheless ...

... two hours. When we arrived, it was such beautiful! We walked to the defensive fortress built right on the cliffs, there are many cannons which looks ahead on the ocean. The waves are crushing on the cliffs under the fortress... And the wind of course! It knocks you down as if you were a puppet... Incredible feelings... Then we went to the deep part of the fortress, to the town itself. We visited ...

... camel ride.  Barrett didn't love it, but it was a pretty cool experience (i love camels).  No spitting; the camels were pretty used to the experience, and they seemed to get nice treatment. We also stopped at a woman's cooperative where they make argonne oil from hand (one woman cracks the nuts, one shucks them, one grinds them, one pounds out the oil -- was amazing). We stayed the night in Safi.  I don't have much to say about this place but though it's beautiful to see ...

... of Arabia, and lots of people would travel back home to their families, so they put an old rattling bus back on the road and it came just at the right time. There was one seat left and it was next to a middle aged woman in a long dress so I wasn't too sure if it would be ok for me to sit there or would I get thrown out of the bus after only 50 meters, but I guess I was tolerable to the community ...

... fairly large sized Dory fish that Nadia selected, a good choice. Sorry Nemo, we ate Dory! Walking home, the streets were filled with people. We are told that the 27th night of Ramadan is a special night when everybody prays all night together in mosques or at home. People take food to the mosques so they can eat together and not have to leave. They finish at 4:30am. Nobody knows exactly when the last day of Ramadan is because they wait to see what the moon is doing ...

... sommes dirigés vers le centre de Casablanca dans le but d'une visite éclair de la Grande Mosquée Hassan II et de la vieille Medina. Une fois de retour sur la route, nous avons poursuivi pour décider de s'arrêter à El Jadida. Dans ce « Deauville marocain » classé au patrimoine mondial de l'Unesco, nous avons visité la cité portugaise (anciennement nommée Mogador), et pris un déjeuner copieux de crevettes ...

... down into Imsouane! We arrived at dark, sweaty and tired, and were welcomed by the super hospitable folks working the hostel. Craving chocolate, we pigged out on chocolate bars and later, home made dinner was served in a sweet group dining room, with French and Spanish surfer types sitting by candlelight, and the resident goofy German shepard dog named Rocky, wandering around happily. We met an older French lady ...

... to the locals... most of which were friendly except a few boys who decided to throw rocks at Maria and I whilst on our hill top drinking. The hilltribe is very basic but not as basic as the one in Sapa, Vietnam. We slept on cushions, 3 to a room. I shared with Thomas and Gary. For dinner we had a Tagine along with salad and fruit for dessert.