After the hustle and bustle of Marrakech, we arrived in Essaouira in relief to find people here far more at ease and friendly. I woke up early this morning to seagulls. Not like, “oh seagulls” but “those fucking seagulls!”. The call to prayer started shortly after that and so I just stayed awake listening to the sounds of the city waking up. We started out at about 8am, which was so great because the streets were still bare. We took our time wandering through the Medina and then headed out to the port where the famous blue boats are. It blows my mind to think that I was standing on the beach on the continent of Africa looking at the Atlantic ocean. We then met up with our contact Hassan and he showed us a great place to have breakfast. A large piece of bread and an omelet with tomatoes and olives paired with a coffee and orange juice. A perfect start to the day. It cost us a total of 70 dirham for both of us to stuff our faces. (that comes out to about $8.25 us dollars!!) We met up with Hassan later had lunch with his family. It was the biggest tangine of couscous I had ever seen. No plates needed. Everyone gets a spoon and digs in. We did the rest of the shopping for the day and took in more of the city. Both Liz and I both love Essaouira and pushed back our bus to Marrakech until late tomorrow to enjoy it as long as possible.
We met up with Havede in the evening for some Tea Royal and then we went shopping in the market for the ingredients for a tangine. We literally picked up a fresh fish from the fish market and added it to the “pot”. We ate dinner with our fingers and pieces of bread and of course had more tea. Talking with Havede has been so insightful to the traditions and culture of Morocco. So glad that we had the opportunity to connect in a real way to someone here.
