Sorry Nemo, We Eat Dory! Hash & Fishing
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2007
1
152
221
Trip End
Ongoing
Essaouira,
Morocco
Sunday, September 28, 2008
We hailed a taxi from the main square in Marrakech and let the driver rip us off because it was too early and he was friendly. He kept repeating the word Taxxxxiiii! using Nadine's accent. Then we would say it louder back ans so on all the way to the bus terminal. A few taxi drivers got in our personal space and had a laugh with us by exchanging friendly banter
the city of Essaouira
. People unashamedly stare in your face in the street in Morocco, they really stare. They don't like their photographs being taken though and get angry if you are taking a picture of the scenery behind them. Others will jump in your photos and then ask for money. There is not much theft in Moroccco because Moroccans know how to seperate you from your money in other ways. The photo issue is difficult because it is a very photogenic country and i have been sad to miss some wonderful shots. There is no way i could intrude on people's lives by shoving my camera in their faces as i have seen many ignorant tourists do. People take pictures of scenes like children playing and beggars in the street without asking permission or giving any money, it's horrendous and makes me embarassed. I sniper them from the roof.We decided to try for a plush CTM bus for the journey and got lucky on some seats. We consider taking the touristy bus cheating because it has rest stops at touristy shops selling fossils and overpriced Pringles chips and you miss all the bus action with the locals. It is faster but you don't see all the little towns. We made it to Essaouira in time to take an afternoon walk around town. An enthusiastic young tout met us at the bus terminal and considering we had no guide book or map, we decided to let him lead us to an un-marked budget hippie style apartment in someones house, many people have turned areas of their houses into rooms for rent. Turned out to be one of the best and cleanest places we have stayed in Morocco
Marrakech to Essaouira
. We were the only guests. Thumbs up! It even overlooked the Atlantic Sea and Jimi Hendrix might have stayed here once. Only problem was that it also overlooked the large cemetary on the ocean. Nadine and i both had strange nighmarish dreams that night. Nadia dreamed she was plucking eyebrow hair that grew and grew and never ended and i dreamt a very weird event involving swimming inside a house sized ovarian cyst. Spirits of the dead must have come to visit us during the night, we should have put our Fatima hands out on the windowsill to protect against the evil eyes. Nadine had already been visited by a ghost in Marrakech when we stayed at the old riad in the medina. Spooky.
Essaouira is a small fishing town on the Atlantic Sea and despite common misconception, Jimi Hendrix's song "Castles Made of Sand" was written two years before he visited the castles of Essaouira. Hotels and cafes still try to cash in on the fact that Hendrix stayed in Essaouira. The town was a major hippie hangout in the 70's. There are only a few hippies around now but the hash is still in abundance as we found out during our stroll around town. We were asked over and over if we wanted to buy hash, the dealers keen to make a sale. An old guy wearing one of the popular hooded dressing gown style jellaba suits asked Nadine if she wanted to buy opium. There were also loads of guys walking around with trays of innocent looking cookies that were actually Space Cakes (hash cookies).
The beach is really not that pretty but there is good surf there
fresh mint
. We were surprise to find a restaurant on the beach where we could buy a Casablanca brand beer called Beer 33 which we drank with complimentary olives whilst watching the locals play beach football (soccer). Some boys nearby did hip hop moves on someones car and a sad looking dirty dog followed us around. We met two dreadlocked rasta hippies who welcomed us to their town and had a chat. These guys were really the first people we have met in Morocco who did not want anything from us. They were not doing the Ramadan fasting so were happier than the rest of the population who are grumpy and aggressive from lack of sleep, food and water. Straneg things we have seen carried on bicycles include a satellite dish, exercise ball and a monkey plus many more weird and wonderful items. We walked through the narrow alleyways of the medina taking in the tall whitewashed buildings with their blue shutters and heavy blue doors. The medina is home to many small arts and crafts businesses, notably cabinet making and wood-carving (using roots of the Tetraclinis tree), both of which have been practised in Essaouira for centuries. There was also many fancy pants doorknockers that regular readers know i have a fetish for. So far i have tried unsuccessfully three times to bargain for antique Fatima hand door knockers here. The town is quite small so if you get lost in the medina you can just walk straight in any direction and you will eventually come out at one of the medina ramparts
boats at port
. Ramparts are defensive walls that used to defend a city from potential aggressors and also had important symbolic functions like representing the status and independence of the communities they embraced. Essaouira's ramparts are largely still intact and quite impressive. The life behind the walls was interesting as children, cats, dogs and their families scattered around delivering food to each others houses and filling up water containers from the fountains around town in preparation for break the Ramadan fast. We wandered through a very interesting market street where all kinds of thing were for sale like pigs feet, fruits, spices, meats, animal skins and live chickens, turkeys, ducks and rabbits sold alongside faux branded belts, costume jewellery and Barbie backpacks.We checked out the port area where here was some intense fish market action happening in the afternoon. There were hundreds of little blue wooden boats and fishing trawlers and lots of fishermen and their wives selling the catch of the day which included lots of sardines and eels. Fish were being cut up all over the place and the remains thrown away for the seagulls and cats to eat. There were nets and fishing paraphenalia everywhere as well as young fishermen lazing around on wooden boxes. Hash and fishing is the life for these lads. We ate at one of the tiny fresh fish stalls near the port. There is a deceiving priced menu out front of the stalls but when you go to buy something you find that you pick from a display filled with fresh seafood like seabass, dory, whiting; squid; lobster, crabs and sardines
boat paraphenalia
. Next they weigh your catch of the day and you haggle over the price and get them to throw in a free salad and soda. You end up spending way more than you thought but it is still a bargain. We ate little lobsters, calamari and a fairly large sized Dory fish that Nadia selected, a good choice. Sorry Nemo, we ate Dory!Walking home, the streets were filled with people. We are told that the 27th night of Ramadan is a special night when everybody prays all night together in mosques or at home. People take food to the mosques so they can eat together and not have to leave. They finish at 4:30am. Nobody knows exactly when the last day of Ramadan is because they wait to see what the moon is doing. We really need to know because all of Morocco and the Islamic world grinds to a halt for four days of celebration. This means limited transport and no shops open for tourists. We need to know if we have to stock up on tinned tuna and sardines or not. We also need to book flights to Cairo, Egypt. Would love to see everyone go nuts and party a little bit though. On the way home we were lured into a place called Cafe Des Artes by the siting of a little candle lit room on the second floor of a building which we could see through some shutters. There was a little lantern lit staircase leading up to the table. We decided to have a mint tea and a young intellectual, Moroccan guy sat with us and serenaded us with his guitar then showed off his English by telling us lame jokes like Why did the man not starve in the desert?- Because of the sand which is there. And this one, What did one wall say to the other?- Meet you at the corner. Moroccans 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.
