The next day, we got in our same little bus with our original tour guide Josef and drove to a beautiful beach town called Essaouira. On the way we made a couple stops, the first of which being at this tree. It is exactly what it looks like: a tree full of goats. Apparently there is a type of goat in Morocco that climbs up into trees and just stands there all day eating the leaves.
I got to hold this little baby and it was so cute and sweet! I know, I made a lot of animal friends in Africa.
Our next stop was to see how argan oil is made. It's a long process that starts with cracking about a million nuts, about a million times. The women that were doing it were so fast. I gave it a try and was a lot clumsier than they were.
When we got to Essaouira we took a short tour of the city, through the outdoor markets, the port, and the fish markets. We went out to a point where you could stand over the water and it was so beautiful. I could feel the mist off the water on my face and the waves were huge. Watching them crash over the rocks reminded me a little bit of La Jolla cove. It was a really relaxing and reflective experience for all of us.
I took a short video to try to capture how big the waves were.
We went to a wood-carving place where they showed us how they make all these little wooden figures by hand with a type of wood that is only found in Essaouira. All of the wooden elephants reminded me of you Dad!
We had lunch at a really cool outdoor fish market where Josef told us "the real moroccans eat."We looked at all the raw seafood, chose what we wanted, and negotiated a price for the table, and then they grilled all of it right in front of us. We got lots of different kinds of fish, squid, crab, lobster, and stingray all for about 700 dirham (7 euro) a piece, along with cokes and bread for the table. It was delicious and very fresh.
YUM
It was a beautiful last day in Morocco. I literally couldn't believe I was in Africa (or "the gateway to Africa" as Muhammad called it). It was such a surreal experience. It was so cool to be in the city one day, driving through the desert, the valleys, and then on the ocean the next. Being near the water again was one of my favorite parts. There was much more poverty in Morocco than anywhere else I have been and it was heartbreaking to see women sleeping on the streets with their babies. On our last day we all went around and handed out our left over dirham to them. Everyone was very kind to us and we felt very lucky to get to experience such a different culture.
We got home just in time for Halloween, which I was too tired to celebrate. It was an amazing weekend.
Next stop: Amsterdam!
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