Desert Vibes

We ate dinner in the square and since it was the first night both of us chose traditional Moroccan dishes.  Debbie had a chicken and lemon tagine,  Tagine is actually both the name of the dish and the terracotta cone shaped cookware used to make it.  It is basically a slow cooked stew with sliced meat and added vegetables, fruits or nuts.  I particularly liked the beef tagines we found that had dried fruit.  I had a chicken pastilla, which combines sweet and savory.  The chicken was shredded and cooked in butter with parsley onions and other spices, then put in crepe like dough and topped with almonds, cinnamon and sugar.  It was pretty good, but the traditional pastilla is actually made with pigeon and I kept psyching myself out thinking I was getting pigeon and couldn’t eat it the next time we had it lol! Morocco is very affordable, and we found that most dishes ranged anywhere from $3.50 to $12.00.  My Pastilla for example was $9.00 USD while Deb’s was $6.50 USD.  Keep in mind we were in the tourist area so it will be even cheaper the farther away from that you go.  We got liters of water for about $.80 USD in grocery stores, and about $2.50 USD at restaurants.  If you have picky eaters, spaghetti bolognese and omelets seemed to be a standard on every menu.  A nice compromise were chicken or beef skewers which were also served everywhere.  In Morocco tourists should be very careful about what they eat so as not to get sick.  You should only eat fruit or vegetables that have been peeled, washed or thoroughly cooked just prior to eating.  Avoid salads altogether unless you’re sure they have been prepared hygenically.  Hot food cooked quickly is usually safe to eat but avoid food that may have been stewing all day in the sun and then reheated late in the afternoon or evening.  Avoid drinking tap water or using ice unless you know the water used to make the ice has been filtered.  Speaking of drinking, Coke was widely available everywhere while Pepsi was nowhere to be found except at KFC.  Most restaurants did not have Diet Coke, but they did have Sprite and Fanta. 

One thing we were uncertain about before coming was clothing.  We had read so many conflicting opinions on what you should wear.  Some said clothing should be modest, and your knees and shoulders should be covered, so we went out and bought a bunch of dresses and harem pants to bring on the trip.  We really didn’t need to be so concerned.  There were many tourists in shorts and t-shirts, and nobody blinked an eye.  Obviously, you shouldn’t wear booty shorts in respect to the culture, but long shorts were perfectly acceptable.  A lot of people even wore tank tops with spaghetti straps and brought a camisole to put over it when they entered stores or restaurants.   This might be different if you are going to the smaller cities, but in the touristy areas it is fine.  The only place we were really required to cover up was in Casablanca in the Hassan II mosque. 

After dinner we headed back to the hotel at about 6:00 p.m.  When fighting jet lag, we like to try and stay up until early evening, (we’d been up about 34 hours at that point) and then go to bed early, so we’re fine the next morning.  It seems to work, and we don’t really have any problems adjusting to the new time zone (Returning home is always a different story lol!).  

One of the places we really wanted to see was Essaouira, a little fishing town about three hours away from Marrakech.  We were told by people who had already taken the tour that you reached Essaouira just before dark, and then you left early the next morning, so you really didn’t get to see much.  We wanted to spend a little more time there, so we decided we were going to be adventurous and take a bus there for the day.  The first bus left at 7:45 a.m., so we got up at about 6 and let ourselves out of the riad.  Since there were no keys to the outside door of the riad, and we weren’t sure we could easily get a taxi at that time of morning I had Debbie stand by the door holding it open while I wandered out in the medina to see if there were any people around.  After a few twists and turns a man jumped out of an alcove and asked if I wanted a taxi.  I said yes, but I needed to go back for my friend.  He said “ok”, then jumped back in the alcove, picked up a huge club and said, “you come”.  I again said, “I have to get my friend, I’ll be back”.  So, I went back to Debbie and said, “either I’ve found us a taxi, or we’re about to be mugged, I’m not really sure which”.  Ever the trusting soul, she came with me and low and behold our friend did walk us to a taxi.  We weren’t sure how much the ride to the bus station SHOULD cost, and we probably got ripped off, but he only asked for 50 Dirham (DH) (the equivalent of $5.00 USD) so we thought it was a great deal by US standards.   Some taxis in Morocco have a meter so you should either use the meter or agree on a price in advance or you may be over-charged.  Sometimes you can even bargain for the price of the taxi ride.  There are two types of taxis in Morocco, Petit taxis which are used to get to locations within the city, and Grand taxis which are used to go between cities.    

As we were driving to the bus station, I noticed a digital clock on a bank that read 1:30 a.m.   When we got to the bus station, they had a huge clock out front that also read 1:30 a.m.  Since the time difference between home and Morocco was 6 hours. we immediately panicked thinking we had not changed our clocks and had mistakenly gotten up at 1 o’clock in the morning due to the time difference!  Luckily it really was 7:40 and for some reason their clocks were just wrong, or we would have had to go back to the riad and go to bed lol!  

The bus company we used was Supratours – and since my only frame of reference for buses in exotic countries was from the movies (think Romancing the Stone), I had visions of a rickety, dusty, crowded bus and someone would most certainly be carrying a cage full of live chickens.  I could not have been more wrong.  The buses themselves were regular tour buses with nice coach seats. You were assigned a seat so there was no worrying about crowds and the cost for the whole 3-hour journey was the equivalent of $8 USD!  On the way back we splurged and took the “first class” bus for $11 USD which included reclining seats and wi-fi.  I think my biggest fear of coming to Morocco outside of a tour was how to get from city to city safely.  Had I known about the Supratours buses we may have considered doing it alone. 

We arrived in Essaouira at a little before 11.  Essaouira is known as the windy city for the winds that whip over the beaches, making it a great place to wind and kite surf.  The port here is famous for the dozens of fishing boats all painted the same color blue.  When we arrived, things were in full swing with all the fisherman selling their catches, and the kids swimming in the water.  

The entire town is very walkable, and the medina is a lot more laid back than the one in Marrakech.  It’s a great place to shop for souvenirs with a little less hassle then Marrakech. 

One of the things Essaouira is famous for, is that it served as the filming location for Astapor, or Slaver’s Bay in the Game of Thrones TV series.  This is the place where Daenerys Targaryen bought her army of 8600 Unsullied to join her forces, and then released her newly bought slaves to tear down the city of Astapor and kill the slave masters in the process.  There is a fort near the port that you can go to the top of to get nice views of the city. There are also ramparts with rows of cannons which served as the “Walk of Punishment” in Astapor though they had to hide the actual cannons for filming. 

On the path to the fort is a popular Instagram spot, the round hole through which you can see the city.  They even have steps for you to climb up, and a podium for your paparazzi to take your picture on. 

Being that this was a fishing village there was no shortage of fresh seafood, so we found a restaurant with a terrace overlooking the souks to have lunch.  Debbie had seabass and claimed the mint tea they served was the best she had all trip. Be prepared for the fact that it is not deboned and comes with the whole head, which I had to tell her to turn so it wasn’t looking at me the whole meal (I’ll pretend I didn’t have spaghetti bolognese so my foodie friends don’t groan at the thought). We wandered the city until about 5:00 p.m. looking at the buildings, the mosques and the clock tower – then we returned to Supratours to take a bus back to Marrakech. 

The next day was technically the first day of the tour, but we didn’t have to be to our hotel until 7:00 p.m. for the tour meeting.  Check out time in our riad was 12:00 p.m., so we had a leisurely breakfast on the terrace, and then had them hold our bags until 3:00 p.m. when we could check into our new hotel.  We spent the morning wandering around the souks buying souvenirs now that we had a better idea of what was there, and how to barter.  Bartering is expected in Morocco and you should never pay the first price you are given.  They say that you can usually get people down to about 30% of the original price, which we found to be true.  We found a specific pattern of blue pottery that we loved and wanted a few pieces, so we walked around a bit and asked for prices at a few stalls to get an idea of what the general starting price range was.  I am not a natural born barterer, so the technique I used was the “slowly walk away a few times” bit lol.  Once I was given a price, I would shake my head and say it was too much, they’d give me a new price, and I would say, “no that’s too much” and start to walk away.  They’d then ask me what I wanted to pay and me not being a barterer would just shyly shake my head and start walking away.  At that point they’d usually give me a price close to a third of where I’d started.  As the trip wore on, I got the hang of it and started telling them what I wanted to pay or would tell them that the stall down the row had offered me a lower price and they would usually meet it.  At one point I even took their final price and said, “only if you throw in that coffee mug” and to my surprise I got it lol!  One tip is to know what you want to pay and keep that much money in a separate pocket in your bag or pants.  When you are bartering, pull it out and tell them that’s all you have.  If they’re willing to go that low, they’ll accept it. There were some hard-core bartering tourists in the souks, but honestly, if I got down to the average 30%, I was happy as we would pay a ton more for the same things back home and these people have to make a living too.  We did however make a rookie mistake and bought a bunch of pottery at the beginning that we then had to carry around and buy a new carry on bag to bring it home in.  Luckily on the tour you use the same bus and they let us keep the souvenir bag in the hold of the bus the entire time. 

There are a few scams to look out for in the square and the medinas.  The number one rule is don’t take anything from someone because they’re going to expect you to pay for it.  Just say no, smile at them and keep walking.  They have people who will volunteer to give you directions and when they take you to where you wanted to go (or someplace entirely different) they will expect you to pay them.  The henna women have a scam as well, they will take your hand and start painting, and then tell you that you owe them for the service.  Make sure you take your hand back if they grab it.  One of the girls on our tour did not and she definitely over-paid for a henna tattoo that she didn’t even want.  The woman claimed she wrote the girls name in Arabic, but our guide told her it meant something to the effect of Allah lol!  Another issue is that black henna is sometimes used in Morocco and this can burn your hands leaving a permanent scar.  If you do need to get a henna tattoo, make sure they are using the reddish-brown version.  Make sure you do not take a picture of the snake charmers or they will ask you for money and hassle you until you hand it over.  Pickpockets can be an issue too.  They will often times have children distract you while someone is going for your wallet. We packed a very small cross body bag to carry our passports and money in that we could keep on the front of us and used that when we went into the medinas or the square and didn’t have any problems.   

Moroccans use the Dirham (DH) which is technically a closed currency.  We were able to order some DH from our bank (Wells Fargo) prior to the trip, but you can only bring in $1000 DH a person, which is the equivalent of $100 USD.  I would definitely recommend getting some money before you go so that you can pay the taxi driver or porter when you arrive.  Our tour guide brought us to ATMs every day throughout the trip, so we were able to get money when needed – and were generally able to get 2000 DH at a time.  Whenever you can, get small bills.  Many times, we were unable to buy things because the vendors did not have change, and public toilets in Morocco can cost 1-2 DH to use – so save those coins!  Speaking of the toilets, make sure you bring a roll of toilet paper and carry some with you as many times there is none in the stalls.  Most of the toilets we visited had Western toilets in the stalls, but there were some with the squat potties – I was never quite brave enough to try it. Keep in my mind many Moroccans “clean” themselves with their left hand rather than toilet paper, so it is offensive to eat or shakes hands with your left hand.    

After an afternoon of shopping we took a taxi to our first hotel, the Blue Sea Le Printemps in new town.  Most of the hotels on the tour were the same, average, unassuming places with spotty wi-fi, somewhat hard mattresses, and free breakfast.  The bathroom in this one tickled us because the shower did not have a curtain or door, so trying to keep the water in the tub was a challenge.  There was also a frosted window between the shower and the bedroom giving whoever was in bed a peep show if someone in the shower leaned up against it lol! 

We met our fellow travel goers at 7:00 p.m. where our tour guide Abdul went over the schedule for the next few days.  Abdul was GREAT and very accommodating helping people with whatever they needed and sharing his own personal experiences.  When someone wasn’t feeling well, he had the bus stop at a pharmacy, one day someone overslept, and he held the tour for a half hour while he woke them up.  Abdul was very upbeat and constantly trying to get the group to engage in conversation on the bus.  He told us that most names in Morocco start with A, and there were many Abduls.  It must be true because the bus driver was named Abdul too lol!  There was one other American on the tour, but most of the kids were from New Zealand and Australia, and all of them appeared to be in the midst of trips ranging anywhere from 6 months to a year.  Apparently, the thing to do there is work a few years after college, save your money, then just travel for a year.  These kids had been everywhere, and I was in complete awe.  At home, people think I’m well-traveled, but we had been nowhere compared to them.  They seemed to meet up in one country, then each leave and meet up with other kids in a different country  It set off my OCD to hear several of them say on the last day, “oh, I’m going to Porto tomorrow” or, “I’m going to Spain, but I haven’t booked a flight or a place to stay yet”.  I totally admired them and wish that was the norm in America and that I had traveled that much before I settled down. 

There was an option for a group dinner which we chose to join, and we went to a restaurant with a prix fix menu.  It was a nice opportunity for everyone to introduce themselves and get to know one another.  Debbie had a nice beef tagine and I had a plate with beef and chicken skewers.  After that it was back to the hotel and bed in preparation for our start the following day.  The first morning we drove to old town and our tour guide walked us through the medina and the Jewish Quarter. We walked by the Koutoubian Mosque and the Saadian Tombs, but as with most Mosques in Morocco you are not allowed inside if you are not a Muslim, so you can only see the exterior and the grounds.

It was a fast-paced walk and we were told that there would be time to explore the souks on the last day – luckily, we had already been.  We then visited the Royal Palace, which was a beautiful estate with intricate tile and glass work. 

Next, we hopped on the bus to make our way to Essaouira, stopping at a little rest stop/restaurant for lunch along the way. One of the things I wanted to see most was the climbing goats in the trees on the way to Essaouira.  The goats climb argan trees in order to get to the pulp of the fruit growing on them. The nut of the argan tree is used to produce the much sought after argan oil produced in the area.  Farmers want the goats to eat the fruit because they can’t digest the nuts, and instead strip away the skin, eat the pulp and devour the nut whole.  The nut then passes through the digestive system, softening in the process and is passed in the excrement.  The nuts can then be gathered and ground to produce argan oil.  Abdul told us that the goats will go in the trees naturally, but entrepreneurial locals will also coax the goats into the trees so tourists will stop and take pictures (for a small fee of course ).

The next stop was women’s Argan Oil cooperative, nary a tour will proceed without stopping at one.  There is a small building where the women demonstrate the process of grinding the nuts to make the oil.  Debbie was excited for this one and bought several bottles to bring back to friends.  We later learned the oil itself was actually cheaper in Essaouira than it was at the cooperative though. 

We arrived in Essaouira about two hours before sunset.  The group had an hour at the hotel, and then Abdul was going to take them on a walking tour of the city.  Since we had already been and it was my birthday, we elected to skip the tour and took a quick walk through the medina. We timed it so we could find a nice restaurant near the water to watch the sunset.  I must admit since we had already been in Morocco for four days, and it was my birthday – I chose a French restaurant, La Coupole so I could have something other than Tagine for the evening lol!  It was a great choice. Debbie had an amazing dish of Duck breast with balsamic and orange reduction, with a touch of honey and cinnamon.  I, so not the foodie, had a delicious cheeseburger with really yummy fries.  Their drinks were great – I had a Eucalyptus Sour with amaretto, lemon juice, egg white, and Eucalyptus honey, while D had the signature, white rum, basil, red fruit, lemon juice, brown sugar and sparkling water.  For dessert we just couldn’t decide and since it was a celebration, we had all three!  Citrus crème brule, apple pear crumble with cinnamon vanilla ice cream, and red berry cheesecake.  

Needless to say, we waddled back to the hotel.  We left early the next morning and the others told us they didn’t see much of Essaouira since it was dark, so I’m glad we took the extra time at the beginning of the trip.  The only complaint we had at this stop is that Deb gets warm very easily and the hotel did not have any A/C – other than that it was great.

The next morning, we went straight to Casablanca which is a fairly industrial looking city.  We stopped to have lunch on the water and went to a cute little restaurant called Chewka that had couches for seats overlooking the water.  D had a beef tajine with almonds and prunes, while I had one with beef, tomatoes, onions and raisins.  Here we visited the Hassan II mosque.  It is the largest mosque in Morocco, and one of the few that tourists can visit the inside of.  It is so large, that it will hold 25,000 worshippers in the main hall, and another 80,000 on the outside grounds – it even has a retractable roof!  The detail on the columns inside was awe inspiring and the minaret at 690 feet is the tallest religious structure in the world.  This was the only place that we were required to cover up our knees and shoulders on the tour.   We were also asked to remove our shoes so if you don’t want to go barefoot you might want to bring socks. 

We then took a quick visit through the medina stopping to take a picture at the famous Rick’s Café along the way.  What most people don’t realize is that in reality Rick’s Café was just a nightclub built on the Warner Brother’s lot for the movie Casablanca.  This Rick’s Café was opened in 2004 by an American woman to recreate the Café in the movie – but that doesn’t stop tourists from swinging by to take a picture.  When we first thought about visiting Morocco, we actually considered doing it as part of a cruise.  All the cruises we looked at spent the day in Casablanca and I’m so glad we didn’t do that or we would have missed out on seeing so much!

The next morning, we continued along the coastline to Rabat, the capital city of Morocco. We visited the Kasbah overlooking the river, the Royal Palace, the Chellah Ruins, and the Mohammed V Mausoleum and Hassan II tower. 

After that whirlwind tour, we got back on the bus and headed for Chefchaouen, the Blue Pearl of Morocco.  Chefchaouen, or “Chaouen” as the locals call it was one of the main reasons we wanted to visit Morocco.  The entire city is painted in various shades of blue and the visual effect is stunning.  Abdul brought us to the main square, showed us the famous Instagram street, and then gave us a quick walking tour of the medina.  After that, the group had three hours of free time to explore the city.  Half the group walked up to the Spanish Mosque (which looked really far up the hill so we did not lol!), while the other half explored the city.  One of the downsides of being on a tour, is that there are not enough hotel rooms in the city to accommodate a large group.  For that reason, the group had to get back on the bus when free time was over and drive an hour to Tétouan for the hotel.  The next morning, they came back to Chefchaouen where there was another three hours of free time from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.  Since Chefchaouen was one of the places we really wanted to explore, we arranged to rent a riad in the medina for the evening on our own.  TravelTalk was great about it and we just met up with the group again at 1 p.m. the following day after their free time.  It was nice to just relax and not spend that extra two hours in the bus, especially because I got a little motion sick the day before going through the Atlas Mountains.  Luckily four of the girls on the trip were doctors and one of them gave me some motion sickness pills she brought with her.  (Thanks Zee!)  We were able to get up in the morning before all the other tourists arrived and take pictures on the mostly deserted streets.  There were so many different beautiful spots that it was easy to see why the town was Insta-famous.  For those with mobility issues you should be forewarned, Chefchaouen is in the mountains and the medina is full of steep paths and hills.  Due to its proximity to Spain, most of the menus and signs were in Spanish rather than French or Arabic.