Villa Maroc Essaouira

... about, I stumbled upon a very tres, tres chic hotel with wifi in the lobby! Thus, with my trusty little iPod I was able to swiftly log in here and post an entry. Easily entered the date 'n place, but... when I got to the interface for pecking the "Story" - alas for some strange reason my iPod (actually I believe it was a travelpod glitch) wouldn't bring up the keyboard so I couldn't type anywhere ...

... behind the fish stalls – where your freshly bought seafood is placed on a bbq and a few minutes later its in front of you on the table ready to eat.

Anyone who knows me well, will know that I don’t eat any kind of fish or seafood (except fish fingers – which don’t really count as fish, lets face it) – its been the longest psychological battle in my mind over food and I’ve no idea where it came from, I just have never been able to ...

... workshop where local masters make different and and extraordinary things using the tree Thuja. Diiferent small souvenirs, tables, boxes, cupboards, hangers, toys... All that can be found here, such beauty things...

Then we had some free time to walk around the city and shops by ourselves, and then we met again to go to Agadir again.

While on the road, we saw local trees Argan ...

... the city formerly known as Mogador) this rare gem of a hotel
offers more than one could ask for within the medina walls.
Featuring 35 luxurious African, English, Portugese and Oriental themed rooms and suites, this
grandeur Morroccan house turned five star hotel holds true to the cluster of cultures that have touched the surrounding land. The hotel is appealing to both the business traveler ...

... The road to Essaouira is partly along the coast where some huge waves attract surfers, but at 17 degrees water temperature at this time of the year, it appears somewhat pale compared to Hawaii. So I guess they come here if Daddy's cheque didn't arrive in time for the flight to Honolulu. Essaouira is a town with a great atmosphere. It is right next to the coast, a walled city that looks unchanged ...

... are fond of these little riddles and jokes. Bugger off. We just want to drink a quiet tea. We checked out the bus situation and then headed to the bus terminal to see the options for Asilah buses in the morning. It was dark and late out and this is a fishing town so everyone carries knives. We walked quickly. The luxury CTM bus was not leaving until midnight the next day so we went for a very low cost, bus falling apart, local rig that left for Casablanca at 6am. Joy.

Essaouira, population 69,000, is located on the Atlantic coast. It was nice for a change to have a nice ocean breeze cooling off the air. It actually would get cold enough for a sweatshirt jacket at night. The laid-back town was a welcome change. The streets of the medina were much larger here and there was a relaxed atmosphere about. Not as much pressure to shop but ...

... hours of scrubland scenery, I should mention the different standards of what it is appropriate to do in public. By no means do I mean to belittle the Moroccan people-- I just mean to say that the culture is diffrent. I have seen not one, but two, men use their keys, q-tip like, to clean their ears. One of these occasions was on the bus. In the souks, I saw one man clipping his toenails in front of his stall. (It wasn't a very good marketing strategy.) Their was ...

... more friendly moroccans, another splurge at a groovy riad--this one is where jimi hendrix supposedly stayed when he visited (and we even got 'his room'--if we can believe it!), a loooooong, gorgeous beach full of holidaying moroccans/horses/irritating camel guys and wandering berber cookie salesmen, a couple of black henna (or was it hair dye??) tattoos, and a terrific ending for our 2 weeks of sistah tripppin!

We are now in Essaouira.  Our guide book lists it as one of the most desirable places to 'hang-out' in Morocco.   Unfortunately, it is not the place for us.  Aft** 10 days in Marrakech we w**e ready for eith** anoth** full-on Arabic city (like Fez) - having felt as though we had just mast**ed the art of one - or to go into some more peaceful surroundings, enjoy our books (Him: Jonathan Coe's Rott**s' Club; H**: J**emy Paxman's The English) and get the city out of ...