Essaouira, Morocco
Enero 2025
Our treat to ourselves was a trip to the “warm” during the
Christmas/Hanukah/Tres Reyes break.
Donostia after the winter solstice is wet, cold and windy. We do not
live in southern Spain.
We take “El Topo” to the French frontier and from there,
catch a Renfe train to Bourdeaux, 2.5
hours from our home. From there it’s a quick flight to Essaouira. As we made
our descent to the Moroccan airport, the countryside was filled with low scrub
trees, befitting a desert. Only later I found out these were prized argon trees. The
tiny airport was charming and well maintained. 5 lines were available for
customs, one specifically for families and special needs.
It costs 150.00 Durams to take a taxi to town. Immediately in
the taxi, the driver stated he would need an additional 50 Durams. HaHa. The
driver was now dealing with Mr. Monkey Man, who loves to bargain and suffers not
a fool.
The first thing I learned about Essaouira (and other UNESCO
sites in Morocco) was that the Souk is where the food is sold, the Riad is the
entire closed city and the Casbah (where they be rockin’) is the fort/most
fortified area. So there.
There are 5 gates into the walled city. Around these gates,
men with carts are stationed to take you and your luggage to your hotel for
about 40 Duram. (4 euros/dollars) and is well worth the money, as GPS is not
reliable. I enjoyed talking to the young man who led us to the hotel. When I
asked about his children, he stopped dead in the street, pulled out his camera
and showed me fotos. It’s a small life inside the riad and throughout my stay I
would see him and he would always wave and smile in return.
The hotel was lovely, done in a modern Moroccan style. The
beds soft with plenty of pillows and a breakfast in the mornings of incredible
size.
Except for the main streets, alleyways are what one should
expect. Crowded and alive with artisans’ products with locals going on about
their everyday life. The souk was the same. it was encouraging to see how large
of an outdoor market it was. I mean, there’s a Carrefour in town -you don’t
have to have flies with that.
This was my first trip to Morocco, but The Monkey visited for a
long time in the 70’s. All those t-shirts with VW buses? Yeah,
that was The Monkey in his red VW van. What was surprising was how non-aggressive
the shop keepers were. It was a lovely laid-back experience to shop. Owners bargained
and they cozied up to you with conversation
while you shopped. It was easy to say, “thanks for letting me look,” and
walk away without histrionics on the part of the salesperson. Of the 5 days we
spent there only one shopkeeper followed me out into the street, in an attempt
to continue the sale.
