Essaouria, Morocco - Part One

 

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.