Essouria
April 18, 2007
Essouria seemed like Morocco “lite” to us and we knew it had once been a Hemingway favorite hideout . The energy was much nicer here with the ocean breezes and less frenzy due to the calm of a smaller town. I had seen so many soulful pictures though that I was a little disappointed as it did not look as gorgeous as the pictures did. It was a lot more dilapidated and dirty in reality. Even my pictures make it look prettier and more how I wanted it to look.
Maybe I am used to old, the Spanish way, like our village. It is as ancient as the Alhambra, but the villagers are busy whitewashing, mopping, sweeping and scrubbing it continually. Essouria was shabby chic taken a little too far for my taste. A part of me wanted to get scrubbing, painting and fixing up all the neglect and decay here and in Morocco or at least hire someone to do .
On the way in, we had a nice conversation with our Grand Taxi driver who DID have seat belts in front and back. How nice that we could finally put our baby in her car seat vest! She was not that crazy about the idea as she had gotten a little spoiled, sprawling out and doing as she pleased.
He spoke good English, was a father of three and he proudly showed us pictures of his sweet kids. He guessed our age as more than ten years younger than we are, so of course we liked him. Bright blue was the color of his Grand Taxi which surprised us at first sight in Marrakech, until we found out that all the taxi’s in Essouria are the same bold color. It matches most of the doors and windows there.
We stopped at a cooperative on the way in where the village women made a special oil out of a nut that only grows on trees in this area which they made all kinds of things from. We were not really interested in the products but enjoyed the tour and paid the women a tip for letting us take their picture.
We walked to the beach and the boats after we got in and enjoyed walking around the town and the much more mellow souks. The white and blue, seagulls and bright colors add a little magic to this place.
Essouria seemed like Morocco “lite” to us and we knew it had once been a Hemingway favorite hideout . The energy was much nicer here with the ocean breezes and less frenzy due to the calm of a smaller town. I had seen so many soulful pictures though that I was a little disappointed as it did not look as gorgeous as the pictures did. It was a lot more dilapidated and dirty in reality. Even my pictures make it look prettier and more how I wanted it to look.
Maybe I am used to old, the Spanish way, like our village. It is as ancient as the Alhambra, but the villagers are busy whitewashing, mopping, sweeping and scrubbing it continually. Essouria was shabby chic taken a little too far for my taste. A part of me wanted to get scrubbing, painting and fixing up all the neglect and decay here and in Morocco or at least hire someone to do .
On the way in, we had a nice conversation with our Grand Taxi driver who DID have seat belts in front and back. How nice that we could finally put our baby in her car seat vest! She was not that crazy about the idea as she had gotten a little spoiled, sprawling out and doing as she pleased.
He spoke good English, was a father of three and he proudly showed us pictures of his sweet kids. He guessed our age as more than ten years younger than we are, so of course we liked him. Bright blue was the color of his Grand Taxi which surprised us at first sight in Marrakech, until we found out that all the taxi’s in Essouria are the same bold color. It matches most of the doors and windows there.
We stopped at a cooperative on the way in where the village women made a special oil out of a nut that only grows on trees in this area which they made all kinds of things from. We were not really interested in the products but enjoyed the tour and paid the women a tip for letting us take their picture.
We walked to the beach and the boats after we got in and enjoyed walking around the town and the much more mellow souks. The white and blue, seagulls and bright colors add a little magic to this place.
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