Dec 6 – Drive to Essaouira

We had a massive carbohydrate breakfast at this hotel.  Five kinds of cold breads, three hot breads and four kinds of cakey/desserty type items.  Plus a few other items.

After a few more photos of the hotel before heading out.

We have a long drive today but we are getting some sightseeing in before we head out.  The first stop was the Souk El Had.  According to Mohammed the souk is the largest in Africa.  While we couldn’t confirm that on the internet it is certainly the largest by far that we have visited.  It covers almost 30 acres and has over 6000 shops.  We hit only a small part.

And they had absolutely everything from clothing and toiletries to live chickens and pet birds and cats (which was hard to fathom paying for a cat since cats wander everywhere in Morocco).

There were lots of produce stands...

and of course olive stalls...

and date stalls (and nuts and figs and raisins and other snacks).

There were all types of housewares available,

clothing and shoes,

And any number of other types of shops.  It was like a massive WalMart with everything you could possibly need.

Klaus bought a tajine and then needed to find a spice shop to buy a tajine spice blend.  These often have 35 to 40 spices in them.

And the people watching was pretty good here.

We then drove up to the Kasbah.  It was pretty much destroyed in the 1960 earthquake.  Some of the walls are pretty much intact but most of the central buildings were destroyed.
  

Over 15000 people were killed and most were buried in a common grave in the center of what was the Kasbah.

There were great views of the bay...

and the harbor from the Kasbah.

No.  This is not a camel massacre.  When we came down from the top of the Kasbah the camels that were there to give rides to the tourists had decided to take a nap.

After that we headed out for the day’s drive.  Much of the drive was along the coastline.

Eventually we headed inland.  Much of the scenery is a bit reminiscent of the California Sierra foothill.  Along the way we saw a herd of camels.  Looked like they might be wild but we couldn't tell for sure.

One of our bio breaks was at an Argan Women’s Cooperative.  The Argan trees grow in abundance in the area and they use the nuts to make oil for household use (olive trees are not gown in the area).  They also further process the oil to make skin and hair care products.  We were given a demonstration of the process.  The women crack the shells by hand.

Tara had to try her hand at the cracking.

The kernels are then ground with a hand stone mill to get the oil...

and the remaining paste is used as a skin scrub.

Some of us then did some shopping.

Many tourist posters show the argan trees with goats climbing in them.  Apparently this is relatively common but we didn’t see any.  There was a very friendly dog that wanted to be best friends with everyone.

We arrived in Essaouira in good time and again have a lovely Riad just inside of the medina.

There were great views of the beach and bay from the rooftop of the Riad.