Riad Asmitou Essaouira

O.k. perhaps I best explain...

Coming up for air here after many adventures all across Morocco. Am presently in Essaouira - a most lovely seaside town along the Atlantic coast, about 3 hrs. southwest of Marrakech.

The techno explaination:

I arrived yesterday (well actually "today" as it's now Oct. 4, but I shall leave the date above as that's when I first arrived) and whilst ...

... are followed by a baby donkey, apparently his mum died 6 months ago and he doesn’t seem to realise he is a donkey, he thinks he is a horse and keeps trying to get milk from the horses, which would be a miracle if he actually got any as all the horses are male!!!!

This is actually the start of something for me and John, it has sparked an interest in both of us – we are going to arrange some lessons when we get home. Next time I want to be able to just get on ...

... Then I found myself in a slightly surreal situation in which *I* was the one sitting on the street outside the shop watching the tourists go by. Weird being on the other side of the equation.

Eventually he DID try to get me to go home with him. And then it was time for me to make my graceless exit. Yup, I am a tease. But I have a blanket policy of NOT going home with Moroccan guys I just met.

Hey, at least I paid for my half of lunch!

At 7 A.M. we already left the hotel to move north to the ancient port town Essaouira. It was a Pirate port and has a lot of history to tell and to show us.

The trip was much more dangerously now. The Serpentine is so scary, and the driver of the bus drives like a mad man, but of course, he's just very experienced, but sitting near the window made some people almost sick. The road took ...

... of the natives as well as the tourists, the gnaoua music whispering in the
background. The hotel is located in the heart of all that is happening in Morocco.



If you aren't sure how to start your day, a friendly hotel concierge would be more than happy to


be of help to you. The staff, though discreet, is always at your call to meet your individual


needs. Whether ...

Breakfast was surprisingly wonderful in my little hotel along the road, I got a very nice French Crepe, a thin crispy pancake, and a fruit salad. The bus to my next destination Essaouira left at 8 am but I didn't want to spoil the day with the sound of an alarm clock. I was sure there would be some other possibility to get there, and I was right. It was the time of some mutton-eating festival in ...

... start to the Moroccan cuisine scene. After dinner we headed into the square itself to soak up the atmosphere. There were women offering various henna designs, a boxing match which had drawn a huge crowd, a game involving picking up a coke bottle with a round object (which looked like a magnet) hanging from the end of a fishing line, and food stalls galore. I saw one guy walking around with ...

I always say that if I lived in Morocco I'd want to live in Essaouira but I thinkI might have to take that back now. It's had a tourism boom in the last few years that's really changed it. At first I thought it was all for the better, making the ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...