Our third and fourth weeks here in Morocco were much less busy: there were two consecutive days off in the middle of week three, where we decided to stay in Rabat and settle in a bit more; and after the long adventure of weeks one, two, and three: where we visited the Sahara, Marrakech, Fes, Volubilis, Meknes, and trekked all the way to the seaside town of Essaouira, we decided to stay in Rabat for the fourth weekend in order to get ourselves organized and to give us time to think about the future. For Taylor this meant figuring out a study schedule for the GRE (she’s taking it in Paris), researching more detailed information about her preferred Masters of Architecture programs, and learning about the requirements of the application processes. For Ann, it meant preparing her reading lists, ensuring we have all the details of our future travel plans, and writing in her journal about exploring potential opportunities for her next career move. During our very quick week three that was full of gaining new volunteers and losing some, we spent Wednesday and Thursday off (Happy Birthday, King Mohammed VI!), hanging out, and relaxing. Then back to school for one short day before embarking on our first trip around Morocco, as just the two of us (we were quite sad to lose our travel buddies from before – bye Eliza and Lauren!!). We travelled by train, bus, and car to make it all the way to Essaouira, located on the southern coastline of Morocco. This trek took us from Rabat to Marrakech by train (5hrs), where we transferred to a bus for another 3-hour segment, before finally arriving in the small beach city around 10:00pm. It should have been a 5-minute walk to our hotel… But somehow we managed to get lost (and stay lost) for almost an hour and a half before returning to our original location and then with the help of a taxi driver we immediately found the hotel in the appropriate amount of time: 5 minutes. Oops! As much as we love the old medinas, getting lost at 10:30 in the evening can be confusing and quite frustrating. Lesson learned, next time we’ll look up the location before leaving Rabat and our wifi. And talk about our hotel! We stayed in a gorgeous converted mansion just inside the medina walls, where we were greeted with welcoming smiles, freshly pressed orange juice, pastries, and dates (despite the late hour). We could have easily wasted away our entire stay enjoying the beautiful mansion’s courtyard, rooftop pool, and spa. Instead we chose to get up early, enjoy the wonderful and fresh buffet breakfast, and start our adventure exploring this small seaport town. Our trip (unsurprisingly) took us first to the beach, where there were surfers, swimmers, and sunbathers galore. While we were excited to see the beach, we were slightly uninterested in hanging out there, as we had an entire city to explore. It was pretty easy to agree, based on nothing else but the beach and our hotel, that we could easily make this trip again and it would be worth it. From the beach we headed to one of the largest fishing harbors in Morocco and explored the docks, and boy were they smelly – we enjoyed seeing the all the small boats tied together, new boats being built, and inevitably, we were able to experience the daily catch being unloaded from the boats. As we wandered through the fishermen’s stalls selling their daily catches, we realized why the cats in Essaouira seem to be much larger than the cats in the other cities we’ve visited – this was their haven of a fresh fish market with plenty to share. There were so many men selling fish of all different sizes and types, most of which we’d never seen before, this allowed the cats to take have their pick of the smaller/less attractive fish. As we walked around the harbor, it wasn’t long before we reached a point in the fish market where we both (at the same time) gagged and started running for the “safe” zone near the medina wall. No words needed to be spoken: we just turned and ran. Between the port area and the medina is the Skala du Port, a sea bastion you may recognize as a part of Astapor from Season 3 of Game of Thrones. We definitely had a great time wandering around this 18th century fort, taking lots of pictures and enjoying the stunning views of the coastline and the other walls separating the ocean from the medina. This area was the clear choice of homes for all the urban animals in Essaouira; between the coastline, the fishing boats and this beautiful fort there were many of the city’s cats, and the large amount of seagulls who also lived in this concentrated area were reminiscent of Hitchcock’s 1963 film “The Birds”. There were so many seagulls surrounding the Skala du Port and the port itself that we joked about how frequently visitors must get pooped on. Then we looked at each other, grimaced, and left the seagulls to explore the rest of this ancient city. Essaouira has been occupied since the prehistoric times, and despite being a small city, it manages to have a very long, documented history. As early as the 5th century BC it was used as a trading post, and sometime around the end of the 1st century BC, the Berber King Juba II established a factory that produced Tyrian purple dye using the shells from Essaouria. The exclusiveness of this purple dye, which comes from a particular seashell, was reserved as a color for royalty due to its exorbitant cost. There was also a 3rd century Roman villa found and excavated from on an island off the coast. It wasn’t until the 1760’s that the city was modernized and built up to what we see today, but the past is evident everywhere as you walk through the medina. As our walk took us along the interior of the 18th century walls, we found a teahouse that took up the 2nd-6th floors of a small building with gorgeous views of the ocean and yummy mint tea to sip, where we hung out for quite some time before deciding to see some of the artistry that this city is known for: their marquetry. While the city is known for artists of all kinds, such as painters, jewelry makers, and musicians – their woodcarving and veneering technique is some of their best-known work with a history and a skill that has been passed down through generations. The artist cooperatives throughout the medina are lined with everything you could think of to be made out of wood: small statues of camels, candleholders, trays, tables, and boxes in all shapes and sizes. It was a little overwhelming, but if you focused on just a few of the handmade items you could really appreciate their beauty and craftsmanship. We had a wonderful day enjoying everything the city had to offer and just as we were leaving to head back to our hotel, we decided to take a few more urban wildlife pictures (there was a very funny stand-off between a surly cat and an overly curious dog) when the inevitable happened. While taking a picture, Taylor dropped her camera and screamed eeewww! And Ann looked at her foot in disbelief. We were just pooped on. Taylor had a big glob on her head and Ann had some remains on her foot. After pulling out some baby wipes to clean us off, Taylor regained conscious thought and was so thankful for camera straps – her camera was dangling around her neck. After our successful (and a little bit icky) walk back through the medina to our hotel for a private hammam spa appointment (being a private spa, it was a totally different and more luxurious experience than our public hammam experience) we then took a relaxing walk back to the beach to catch the sunset over the Atlantic. The next morning we woke early for sunrise and to book our return ticket to Rabat – we met this quest with no luck, apparently that’s a ticket you need to book well in advance, and so we were stranded in Essaouira for another day… Or we could to solicit the assistance of the wonderful concierge at the hotel to arrange for a car. Since we didn’t have a day to lose, we accepted that this would cost us way more money than we wanted to spend to get back to Rabat, but we said ok, hopped in the nice, new car and enjoyed the sights of Morocco’s countryside while relaxing in the very cool air conditioning. In our fourth week we were in transition mode – not only did we move into a new home in Rabat, but we were also both moved to a new facility to teach new classes. We also used this time to do some planning and to think about our future and transitioning back into normal life after this whole experience. Yes, this was the first time we really thought about it, and it felt good to think about and plan for our upcoming transitions. From the very beginning in our classes we were given a direction from previous volunteers – so it was easy for Taylor’s beginner class to continue to focus on feelings, family members, weather, clothing, the difference between here and there, and other basic aspects of the English language and for Ann’s intermediate class to focus on grammar, pronunciation, and the different tenses. Preparing for these classes was simple(r) because we were given direction and could continue to teach the classes in the same manner as the previous volunteers. But we had to say good-bye to that old location, and now that we’ve started at a new one, we have totally different classes and preparation styles: Taylor is teaching advanced students with the intention of preparing them for the TOEFL and the IELTS exams and Ann is teaching beginners – starting with the ABCs. Now we find ourselves spending hours preparing for classes with the intent of creating lesson plans to be passed on to future volunteers. So even though we did not travel as much or get out and around the city during this fourth week, we were still busy working on some other (and no less important and exciting) aspects of our trip!
6 Comments
Janeen
9/10/2014 02:05:24 am
Speechless. Truly, amazing story and the pictures drew me right into the experience.
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Mary
9/14/2014 06:23:13 pm
Beautiful pictures!!! (Wish I could see a picture of Taylor's face when the bird pooped on her!!! Lol). The hotel looks wonderful and the beach amazing. Wish I was there with you!
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Hey Mary,
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Ken
9/15/2014 05:34:06 am
The sea port adventure and photos are amazing! Certainly made for wonderful reading, and I agree with Mary... Ann, you needed to be quick on the focus and snap that shot of Taylor just after she was pooped on!
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