Essaouira, Morocco

We've stayed in three places so far in Morocco, and each place has been better than the previous. Here in Essaouira (esa-wera), we're at the Riad Emeraude. (A riad is a traditonal town house set around an internal garden). We have a cosy room on the top floor. The bathroom is more modern than ours at home, straight out of a interior design magazine. The bed has curtains all around. Outside our room are a number of little tables to sit and read or eat or sip mint tea.

We took a grand taxi from Oualidia to Safi. A grand taxi is a car, normally (over)shared here with six passengers. We split it four ways with a french couple we met in our hotel in Oualidia, to be in comfort. The car itself was a Mercedes circa 1984, (there are a lot of old Mercedes here). From Safi, we took a CTM bus to Oualidia. The bus station is just outside the medina (old walled city), and we walked to our reserved room at the riad. We were both amazed at the beauty of the riad and room (and for Dh400!)

We cleaned up (one of the nicest showers I've had travelling), and then went out for dinner. There is an outdoor fish grill near the harbour, and that's where we headed. Along the way we sampled escargot from a street vendor -- ladled from a hot peppery broth into a tin cup (you also sip the broth) (for Dh10!). We watched a beautiful sunset from the harbour, and then made our way to the fish stalls. We picked out some seafood -- red snapper, calamari, prawns, and whiting, which were then perfectly grilled, and served with khoobz (the artisan bread), and tomatoes and onion. Mmmm. On the walk back to the hotel, we bought some Moroccan slippers for use inside the riad. They're both in traditional funky colours.

Morocco is mostly Muslim, and drinking alcohol in public is frowned upon. However, there are wine stores (mostly catering to tourists), and so we picked up a bottle of Moroccan red. Heather and I drank it on the roof-top terrace of our riad, and chatted the night away under the stars.

This morning we had breakfast on said terrace -- freshly-squeezed orange juice, french pastries, and tea (Heather had a cafe au lait). We then walked along the boardwalk to Borj el-Berod, a ruin half-buried in sand, about 4km outside the medina. It's really windy in this town, and we were blasted by sand at a few points.

The PCs in this internet cafe don't have available USB slots so I can't upload any pics. Otherwise you could check out our new shoes!