Cmkd Safi

... to Safi to see this incredibly delightful and hopeful boy. After we left the coffee house Ahmed tried again to get me to buy him alcohol. I refused so he asked if I'd buy him a sandwich, to which I agreed. At the restaurant he ordered four meat skewers, salad and bread, supposedly for the both of us, even though I repeatedly said I was not hungry. As the food arrived a visibly drunk man entered the restaurant and came to ...

We arrived at around 11pm to the sounds of the ocean and a heavy wind. As we sat on the balcony of the hotel in the very small village we dreamed of what waves we might be greeted with the next day. I definetly had a moment whilst Proudy was playing a guitar tune and I had my feet dangling over the balcony whilst taking in the stars, the ocean and a mosque right in front of me. It was one of those rare travelling ...

I can't spend more than 24 hours here without making a visit to my old village. Luckily, there is plenty to see there so I don't worry to much about boring guests. I warned Katie, my travel buddy, that we'd have to do a lot of visiting but I'm not sure I adequately prepared her for the four day sugar high of drinking tea with ten families a day! We ...

... sort of a cross between a sauna and a beauty parlor. Women go once or twice a week to bathe and gossip. For Moroccan women a visit to the bath can be an all-afternoon event and they usually have mountains of stuff they take with them including at least four layers of fresh new clothes to put on afterward (wouldn't want to catch cold!). Even bathing at a liesurely pace I tend to be in and out in under an hour, take only ...

... had ended up in some kind of run down surburb miles from everywhere. We managed to hail a petit taxi who took us to the medina wall and then we wondered around for about an hour trying to find a hotel which wasnt full. We saw one at the north of the medina which was only 174 dirhams and had a room so we took it. it was quite nioce although the plaster was flaking onto the floor and any time you touched it you got covered in white powder. We went onto the ...

... economic and cultural differences are vast and of course what makes coming here so fascinating. Morning here usually starts with a call to prayer from the nearest Mosque. Yesterday our campground was within hearing range of 3 or 4 of them so it was quite a blur of prayers as they competed together for the faithful. Not knowing Arabic, I don't know if anything other than salvation is being offered, and it's not as though a lot of people start ...

... so for all we know it might be a hidden gem-BUT, the truth is it looked sad and bland, and the only reviews or info on the place is scientific papers about blood borne pathogens and pollution. Next was Sidi-N-Moktar, which was a dusty busy busy main street stop, surrounded by shops and restaurants, and lots of goods being unloaded and picked up. After Sidi, the PM donkey traffic really made Anna giggle, because for anyone who has ever heard a donkey speak, you know how comical ...

Sunday, time to go home. Of course, we couldn't do things the easy way!!! A big thanks goes out to Thompson Fly for our 7 or so hour delay on our flight!!! boy was I glad to get home that night, at one stage it looked like we were stuck in Morocco!! enough said!!!

... weather for all of our tour so far. We were wet and cold within half an hour of arriving and quickly getting miserable. We had a quick look at the markets and found that the prices were half that of Marrakech. I bought some scarves and some gorgeous earrings for a pittance. We ate lunch then decided to get back to Marrakesh ASAP. The problem was that our return bus was at 6pm or so and it was only about 1pm. We caught a taxi to the local ...

The port city of Essaouira was our last stop on the tour. We've had quite a bit of free time in Marrakech as well as here for shopping and relaxing. I've been glad as its provided me with the opportunity to catch up on my travelogue! Our only stop on the way to Essaouira was to see goat in trees. (!) Goats climb the thorny argun trees and stand precariously on the limbs to eat the fruit. Once the goats digest the fleshly covering of ...