Ibis Essaouira

Got up to another really tasty breakfast had a terrible nights sleep as some spanish girls that were staying in our Riad got up with the call to prayer at 5am and they were going off on a trip to the desert! You can go on a camel to the desert and stay overnight sleeping in a traditional tent and eating traditional food something that we would have done had we had more time.<br><br>We decided to go for a little walk around and try and buy ...

... us on. Eventually dismounting at Ground Zero (a decidedly g-forsaken tumble of thorny scrub that no Lonely Planet guidebook would dare to include among the "Gottasees in Morocco") Mohammad gallantly (albeit still dubiously) helped hunt amid the parched thicket til... we finally found the geoprize (an overturned rusty can concealing a trinket-filled tub of Tupperware) - yippeee!<br><br>Other Essaouria highlights:<br><br ...

... we were sore from the horse riding earlier, but it was most, most agonizing. I really did laugh &#8211; John was on a camel behind me and all I could hear were mutterings from him about &#8220;my legs were never meant to stretch this wide&#8221; and grunts and groans with every lollop of the camel &#8211; they are quite ungainly creatures and John was feeling every footstep. It was a whole new level of uncomfortable for him and I could do nothing for laughing! I think we ...

... 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 ...

... of the natives as well as the tourists, the gnaoua music whispering in the<br>background. The hotel is located in the heart of all that is happening in Morocco.<br><br><br><br>If you aren't sure how to start your day, a friendly hotel concierge would be more than happy to<br><br><br>be of help to you. The staff, though discreet, is always at your call to meet your individual<br><br><br>needs. Whether ...

... we show up late.  Now here we are back in Montana and trying to get adjusted to the time difference.  Even though we had been up and traveling for 24 hours yesterday, we both had trouble falling asleep after getting back, because it was 8AM Morocco time.  Now we have a weekend to recover before getting back to work.  It feels like we've been gone for a long time after all we've seen.  We both feel very fortunate to have been able to take such a wonderful adventure.  

... 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 ...

... by the wind. We ended up eating our dinner well after 10.30pm and then pretty much went straight to bed. Wednesday was our day to explore, so we headed along the beach for the half-hour walk to the town and spent the morning exploring the great souks. This was the place that i had saved my money to spend, and spend and haggle i did. By the end of the day, i had bought scarfs, jewellery, timber boxes, and some other little bits and pieces. The markets also ...

... your whole body in their flesh. It got hot! No sooner had we decided that it felt good to be covered in hot cloves, than a massive blast of warm water was - without warning - dumped over our heads. Scrubbing my hair as a groomer would scrub a dog who had just been sprayed by a skunk, this woman massaged the black paste into my scalp and then, I suspect, realized I had a hell of a lot more hair than she had reckoned, as it took another 8 pails of water for her to roughly ...

... stalls browsing the various goods. I managed to resist purchasing a really cute pair of pink pointy leather slippers (Cam was nagging at me "Ali, will you actually ever wear them?")and spent some time with an adorable little boy who made us smell every spice in his shop, cleared our nostrils with his special powder he put in a cloth (!) and then gave me a little terracota foot scrubber as a present - so sweet. At ne point we came around a corner and a guy shoved a ...