Essaouira:
Here it is the last post on the Morocco series finally! After spending quite a bit of time in Moroccan Atlas mountains and Sahara, we headed back to the Atlantic coast and a laid back city of Essaouira.
4-5 hour comfortable bus ride took us to the bus station in Essaouira Medina’s wall gate. The moment we got off the bus, it was an instant feeling of calmness accompanied with the fresh ocean breeze. Totally different from where we came from in Marrakesh.
The first task as always was finding our accommodation inside medina. Unlike Fes and Marrakesh medinas, Essaouira Medina was a breeze to navigate in, we found our lovely cozy place which was running with a friendly French lady, called Dar Darek quickly, such a little cozy gem inside medina but almost next to the medina wall.
We got some valuable recommendation on where to eat and how to get around town from her and head straights out to explore.
Just before sunset, we followed the crowd into the main street of the medina with fresh produce stalls and shops, souvenir shops and fancy art galleries on both sides. Every few meters, there was a wall with the gate in it which took us to the next layer of the medina heading straight to the ocean side. Everything was tastefully colored with white and blues. On the way to the ocean we passed the city fish market and ordered some fresh fish, they then got cleaned at the market and grilled and we had an early dinner at the fish market.
With our bellies full, we got to the edge of the medina wall overlooking the Atlantic ocean just on time for the sunset. First thing that attracts attention is the number of blue wooden boats sitting tightly together at the harbor, all have their unique Arabic names which I just loved the idea that we could read them 🙂 and then see the big Artilleries from the Portuguese era. Then the much bigger fishing boats unloading fresh fish and local women selling them right in front of the boats. along side that, it was packed with locals enjoying the cool sea breeze accompanying with fresh mint tea while kids were enjoying fresh made local ice cream. It was such a lively atmosphere. Sitting on the rocks in from of the ocean, there’s nice view over the city wall and few tall white washed buildings of the medina. Here are few photos to show the vibe better.
Agadir and Taroudant:
After spending few relaxing days in Essaouira and even buying a Moroccan rug there, we headed south to Agadir. An easy 3 hour bus ride by Atlantic coast took us to Agadir, one of the big developed urban areas in Morocco. For us, Agadir by itself didn’t have much attractions rather than, we could fly directly from Agadir to Casablanca to fly back home and it also was a good hub to get into more southern part of Morocco which is less touristic, in our case we visited Taroudant.
Agadir was the only place in Morocco that we stayed in a hotel, since they weren’t many option to stay in more authentic places but that was ok since we just used it as the base to explore the area. We’ve spend the first day in the Agadir Souk to find the supplies for packing our Moroccan rug, and leather puffs that we ended up buying in Essaouira.
From Agadir, with shared taxi, it only takes just more than an hour to reach Taroudant. On the way, you can see the famous scenery of the Morocco, goats on top of Argan trees! Since we were in the shared taxi, we didn’t get a chance to get out and take photos. Another good reason to come back to Morocco in our own car!
Taroudant was beautiful, authentic and alive! As soon as we got there’ we knew that we wanted to stay there for few days rather than a short visit but we were glad that we managed to be there even for a day.
As we were walking around the souk alleys and hidden corners of the town, we got to a big square which was really interesting. Around the square, there were lots of people giving speeches, selling medicinal herbs, showing magic tricks or even doing calligraphy. It was packed with locals and it definitely was one of the highlights of the day for us.
After spending few days in Agadir area and Taroudant, we flew back to Casablanca and from there back home. We definitely want to get back to Morocco but this time with our new car. Morocco is one of those countries which is well visited with westerners due to its easy access by Europeans and reasonably short flights from east coast of America but it still has its own charms. Apart from that, its architecture and craftsmanship of its artisans sets it apart for me. I always fancy buying a riad in a medina somewhere in Morocco to stay in few month a year. will see how it goes 🙂
It took forever to finish this Moroccan series since we were really busy with or car build in 2022 and were documenting it but I’m happy that it is finally done.
From here, I’ll start writing about our recent trip in our troopy, Chaapaar in North Island of New Zealand before starting to document another adventure which we haven’t documented yet and we’ve done few years back. More on it later. Please stay tuned for update. I’ll promise to keep it coming more regularly. Till the, take care.
michael Chernishov
February 17, 2023 at 7:34amWow! What an amazing place! I loved it how the entire medina seemed to be colour co-ordinated in white and blue – even the boats were the same colour. It made for great photos. The indoor market was impressive too – loved the colours and variety of fruits and vegetables. The guy with the long shovel for doing transactions looks very pleased with himself – I bet it takes him a while to set up his shop each day! (Or does he leave it set up like that all the time?) The old architecture looked striking to me – archways, bridges, castellated walls, turrets etc all cut from stone. You don’t get architecture like that in New Zealand!
God bless you guys. Keep the blogs coming. I really enjoy finding out what you two have been up to. I was thinking about you both over summer and wondering what your latest adventure has been. We climbed to a remote mountain lake in the South Island, called Lake Wilson, over New years – there’s a video on my YouTube channel about it if you’re interested. (Type “2023 Lake Wilson Trip” into YouTube)
Kind regards,
Michael Chernishov
Amir
February 19, 2023 at 8:08amHi Mike thanks for reading our blog, yes I saw your videos and keep it up very nice.