Day 21 - July 19th

  Essaouira, Morocco
Saturday, July 19, 2008

It was veryyyyyy difficult, but we succeeded at waking up at 6 AM! We ran quickly to get another little hunny bun thing and then got on the bus for Essaouira! I wish I could tell you what happened on the way to Essaouira, what sights we saw, etc. but I really couldn't - we were knocked out from the second we got on the bus! It was about a 4 hour drive so when we stopped for a potty break, the driver asked us if we were alright, because we were definitely knocked out the whole time! We needed it!

At the rest stop, we bought some chocolate (yes, I got some twix) and listened to some Moroccan folklore. Then we boarded the bus, again. One stop we made along the way was to the Argane house. We saw this tree outside - little did we know what that tree meant to these people. The tree was an Argane tree, and from the fruit nuts in the tree they make oils to cook with and cosmetic oils, lotions, scents, and creams that are 100% natural and great for your skin! They worked so hard - have to get the nuts, crack them, pull out the seed, steam them, grind them, etc. into creating these oils. And, it's so light. Hard work!

The Fruit from the Argane Tree

Making the Oil

They Taught Me how to do it

We finally made it to Essaouira!

The City of Essaouira

Essaouira is another city in Morocco - on the coast of Africa. It's absolutely beautiful!

The Water

Water breaking on the rocks and the beautiful seabreeze drowning out the heat that was outside. Can you believe it - we were at the ocean that is shared with the US! The same sea, just on the other side - pretty darn amazing!

So Peaceful

Our trip to Essaouira was great - we got to see the ocean, walk around in the market, and meet some wonderful people! We got some Henna tattoos (which were supposed to last 3 weeks but are pretty much rubbed off already) and met a man in one of the shops.

Getting Henna

I can't remember his name but he was one of the Berber people. He spoke 7 languages! Can you believe it? Americans are so ignorant! He never went to school a day in his life - as a matter of fact he lives in the Desert, taking people on tours for most of his life. His occupation is trade - he's good at it - as a matter of fact, he was begging for us to give him some Tylenol (because they can't get medicines in the Desert) for a lower price. He told us that we were just like Berber people...thought we had the look, the way we act, etc. - so he dressed us up and taught us the traditional head dresses of the ladies.

I'm definitely leaving a lot out, but once again, another fabulous, very peaceful day in Morocco - it was gorgeous!

The City

I don't remember if we slept on the bus back but we made it back to the hotel. Later that night our concierge was nice enough to give us some tickets (the tickets were originally for his family but he chose to give them to us instead) to go see the closing ceremonies of the arts festival at a Palace in town.

We got ready and got in a taxi to head to Palas El Badii. First, it's funny how things happen - the taxi driver dropped us off in a place (in the city walls) that was clearly not the palace - we had no clue where we were. We were walking around, lost! It's a darn good thing we accidentally went there the night before because we were able to walk around until we found it - so glad we did, it was definitely about 11 PM.

Once we made it to the Palace, we stood in this very crowded area to try and work our way into the festival. I got a little scared for a second as I witnessed a police officer smack a woman and push her out of the way as she scurried away with her head down - I'm not quite sure what she did, but that definitely disturbed me. Shajine (Fatima) and I locked arms quickly as we said, okay, we're not going to do anything wrong, we're going to make it inside. ...and we did! We safely made it inside and I wish the pictures would do this place justice - it was magnificent! It was a Palace! The walls, the décor, the lit walkway, the water surrounding the path, etc. - words can't say enough.

Part of the Palace

We watched a beautiful closing ceremony with dancing, singing, acting, and camels!! We met a Moroccan lady next to us who thought we were Moroccan and she helped us to understand a little bit of what was going on in the show (the skits were in Arabic, couldn't understand).

Our Moroccan Friends

At the Festival

We learned that most of the acts were about Allah - and one of the dances was a wedding tradition. It's funny, Shajine (Fatima) taught me a very important lesson-given the condition of relations with the US, we shouldn't say that we were Americans - we were Jamaicans (and we had been doing this for the whole trip) - but when we met the Moroccan woman she started quizzing me about Jamaica - how rude! What's the capital? They speak English in Jamaica? Uh, yah! It was crazy. But, I'm glad she helped us out a little bit - she told us a little bit about what was going on.

My Camel

Folklore

After a long day, we headed back to the hotel (unfortunately no Patreek to get us a taxi, we had to get one on our own) and went to bed.