My dog Finn has been really unhappy with me for the last week as he watched me pack gear and clothing into a duffel bag and backpack. But thankfully I am leaving him in very good hands. Yup, it's time to travel again. Tomorrow afternoon, I head to Tanzania for 3 and a half weeks with an 8 day climb to summit Kilimanjaro. This was not the kind of trip I would have ever imagined undertaking, but my buddy Alex was convincing. And why not? This will probably be the highest I ever go, and I'll only do this once - may as well do it while I'm physically capable.
Up until last week when I started packing, I didn't give it much thought. But in the last few days, it's starting to feel real and I find my mind racing about various situations and what equipment I might need. The safari to start off should be a fun relaxing week of settling in. So will the week in Zanzibar on the tail end. But the middle is what we needed to prepare most for. Probably 80% of what I packed was to deal with 3-4 days of the mountain where it will be cold and very likely wet. It's a relatively safe climb as far as mountains go. It's not technical, and we don't need any serious mountaineering gear. The major hazard is altitude sickness - we are climbing 19,341 feet. Our 8 days is considered long enough to allow us sufficient time to acclimate as we go higher, so the risk should be minimized. But I suppose when you're hanging out with Mother Nature, there is always risk.
A couple of weeks ago, I watched Everest (the Hollywood dramatization of the 1996 tragedy). That was entertaining enough, but knowing it was a Hollywood movie removes you a bit. Then last night, at another friend's suggestion, I saw the amazing documentary Meru. THAT was incredible. It also makes me feel like this is going to be a walk in the park compared to what those guys went through. I doubt I will feel like that when I finally see the mountain. But I am really really looking forward to the views. Once more unto the breach...
Sunday, February 28, 2016
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Essaouira - Final Day
Friday, May 3
Our final day in Essaouira was spent just wandering the port and doing some last minute shopping. I'll close this out by leaving you with some final images on our last day.
Our final day in Essaouira was spent just wandering the port and doing some last minute shopping. I'll close this out by leaving you with some final images on our last day.
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| Sunrise from Jorge's roof terrace |
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| Breakfast facing the ocean on Jorge's roof terrace |
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| "Viagra" apparently works in any language |
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| Essaouira's port and its blue fishing boats |
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| Preparing the nets for the next outing |
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| A view of Essaouira from the bastion |
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| The view for our final night's dinner |
Essaouira Day 2
Thursday, May 2
Essaouira stood in stark contrast to everywhere else we visited in Morocco. While you still have the occasional merchant trying to get you to buy something from them, the level of aggression was far lower. For the most part, most will let you come into their store and browse without disturbing you. It was a nice change of pace and we found ourselves doing a lot more shopping unlike in Fes and Marrakesh where we just didn't want to deal with aggressive merchants after awhile. In addition, prices in Essaouira seemed to be much better than Marrakesh and Fes, especially woodwork and paintings. If you are looking for either of these, buy them in Essaouira. There are lots of places to go shopping in Essaouira, but by far my favorite was the Rue de la Skala, a street that essentially follows the western wall of the city. The shops seemed tidier, the goods seemed to be of higher quality, and since I was looking for paintings, this street had a lot of options.
Restaurant recommendation: Triskala Cafe was recommended to us by Jorge. It's a cute little cafe located on the northern end of the Rue de la Skala. A rarity in Morocco from what we saw, this place was run entirely by women. They have a small vegetarian menu and a few seafood options. The menu was so small, we ended up ordering the entire thing. The food was ridiculously tasty but perhaps it was also just me who was craving a meal without all the heavy meat we had been eating. What was even more ridiculous? The price - our total came out to 120 dirhams. For all of us. Remember the first place that Mohammed took us to and we were charged 120 dirhams each? This meal was so cheap and so good, we felt guilty paying that little - so we left a big tip. For the price, this may have been the best meal we had on our trip.
Essaouira stood in stark contrast to everywhere else we visited in Morocco. While you still have the occasional merchant trying to get you to buy something from them, the level of aggression was far lower. For the most part, most will let you come into their store and browse without disturbing you. It was a nice change of pace and we found ourselves doing a lot more shopping unlike in Fes and Marrakesh where we just didn't want to deal with aggressive merchants after awhile. In addition, prices in Essaouira seemed to be much better than Marrakesh and Fes, especially woodwork and paintings. If you are looking for either of these, buy them in Essaouira. There are lots of places to go shopping in Essaouira, but by far my favorite was the Rue de la Skala, a street that essentially follows the western wall of the city. The shops seemed tidier, the goods seemed to be of higher quality, and since I was looking for paintings, this street had a lot of options.
Restaurant recommendation: Triskala Cafe was recommended to us by Jorge. It's a cute little cafe located on the northern end of the Rue de la Skala. A rarity in Morocco from what we saw, this place was run entirely by women. They have a small vegetarian menu and a few seafood options. The menu was so small, we ended up ordering the entire thing. The food was ridiculously tasty but perhaps it was also just me who was craving a meal without all the heavy meat we had been eating. What was even more ridiculous? The price - our total came out to 120 dirhams. For all of us. Remember the first place that Mohammed took us to and we were charged 120 dirhams each? This meal was so cheap and so good, we felt guilty paying that little - so we left a big tip. For the price, this may have been the best meal we had on our trip.
Essaouira - Day 1
Wednesday, May 1
In the morning, Rashid came to pick us up and drive us out to Essaouira, which was about 3.5 hours west of Marrakesh, out on the coast. In contrast to the road through the High Atlas, this was a wide smoothly paved highway that went pretty much straight out to the Atlantic Ocean. We all briefly woke up when Rashid pulled over to show us a very peculiar sight.
In Morocco, there is a nut called "argan" and it grows in a tree. These trees have fussy climate requirements and actually only grow in a limited area of Morocco. This area starts within a few dozen kilometers from the coast. Moroccans like to squeeze argan nuts for their oil, which has a very intense flavor - almost like a cross between a Marcona almond and a peanut. Because of the limited area in which the tree grows, this oil is not cheap.
As it so happens, goats are *very* fond of argan nuts. And they will go to great lengths to get it. Thus, we saw this when we pulled over:
For a few seconds, we were certain that the goat herders put them up there as a joke to get tourists to stop and give them some money. But nope, they really do climb the trees just to reach the nuts.
In the early afternoon, we reached our final stop - Essaouira.
Before we got into town we spotted a guy with a camel. Dante promised his nephew that he would be riding a camel, so that's just what he did:
As Rashid left us at the Port, Jorge Sanchez came out to greet us. We found his place on Airbnb and you can see my review there as well.
Our first meal in Essouira was at the fish market. It's off the main path but if you just follow your nose, you can't miss it.
In the morning, Rashid came to pick us up and drive us out to Essaouira, which was about 3.5 hours west of Marrakesh, out on the coast. In contrast to the road through the High Atlas, this was a wide smoothly paved highway that went pretty much straight out to the Atlantic Ocean. We all briefly woke up when Rashid pulled over to show us a very peculiar sight.
In Morocco, there is a nut called "argan" and it grows in a tree. These trees have fussy climate requirements and actually only grow in a limited area of Morocco. This area starts within a few dozen kilometers from the coast. Moroccans like to squeeze argan nuts for their oil, which has a very intense flavor - almost like a cross between a Marcona almond and a peanut. Because of the limited area in which the tree grows, this oil is not cheap.
As it so happens, goats are *very* fond of argan nuts. And they will go to great lengths to get it. Thus, we saw this when we pulled over:
For a few seconds, we were certain that the goat herders put them up there as a joke to get tourists to stop and give them some money. But nope, they really do climb the trees just to reach the nuts.
In the early afternoon, we reached our final stop - Essaouira.
Before we got into town we spotted a guy with a camel. Dante promised his nephew that he would be riding a camel, so that's just what he did:
As Rashid left us at the Port, Jorge Sanchez came out to greet us. We found his place on Airbnb and you can see my review there as well.
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| The view from our room. |
Our first meal in Essouira was at the fish market. It's off the main path but if you just follow your nose, you can't miss it.
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| These cats are living the dream! |
What you do is walk through the market and select the fish, squid, crabs, or shrimp that you want and tell them how much you want. Everything is freshly caught just that morning. They weigh it for you and then they have you take a seat, while they take your selection to the back and grill it up for you.
If we were to go a second time, what we would have done is refused the seat and paid for the bag of seafood. Then we would have taken the seafood back out to the main street and go across to where there was a nice clean courtyard with several restaurants around it that are all happy to grill your catch for you and allow you to sit in a much cleaner looking (and less...scented) environment. This was what Jorge recommended. But they took our catch to the grill before we could protest, so we just ate it there. In retrospect, it's a small miracle that none of us really got ill during the trip. But it's hard to complain - it was a very tasty meal. Travel sites say that the fish is expensive but that wasn't our experience. We ended up paying about $10 per person. That's not dirt cheap, but we had a *lot* of seafood.
After eating the late lunch, we found the local Ensemble Artisanal which was much smaller than Marrakesh's. Nonetheless, we found a silversmith there who created jewelry by taking small bands of silver and curled them into intricate patterns and then flamed them until they merged together.
Ouarzazate Day Trip and Marrakesh - Day 4
Monday, April 29
Monday morning, Rashid came to pick us up to go out to Ait Benadou and Ouarzazate, a town located southeast of Marrakesh. The drive would take us through the High Atlas Mountains, where I was expecting some spectacular scenery. It did not disappoint.
The drive through the Atlas Mountains was...interesting. We now believe it is entirely possible that Rashid could have been a formula one race car drive in another lifetime. Or a stuntman. The road through the High Atlas was a very narrow two lane road. It was just wide enough for two sedans to pass each other. A truck and a sedan could also make it. Two trucks would be highly questionable. Add to the narrowness of the road, the fact that the road takes some seriously tortuous paths (as you can see in the 4th photo above), and you have a very difficult road to drive on. Rashid assured us that he had done this drive many many times. We crossed our fingers and placed our lives in his hands as he raced through the pass at speeds close to 120 kph and passing very large trucks around blind curves. We assumed (hoped) that he had some way of knowing that there wasn't another car or truck coming the other way around these curves. As luck would have it (and we can only assume it was luck), we survived.
As we descended the other side of the mountains, the scenery drastically changed from the greenish mountains to brown desert. After a couple of hours of seemingly endless desert, we climbed a small hill. At the top of the hill, Rashid pulled over and we collectively gasped at the breathtaking sight of Ait Benadou appearing very much out of the blue:
If this looks familiar to you, it should. There have been dozens of Hollywood movies and TV shows that have been filmed here over the years. It's such a popular location for a shoot that there are now two major film studios located in nearby Ouarzazate. Some of the movies/shows you might have heard of or seen: The Living Daylights, The Mummy, Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, The Bible, and my favorite - Game of Thrones.
After Ait Benadou, we went on to Ouarzazate. The big attraction there was supposed to be the Kasbah - large castle like building. But quite frankly, after Ait Benadou, it was a bit of a letdown. Ouarzazate is a still nice place to stop just to get a nice lunch though. I'm sure there might have been a lot more to see, but since we were on a day trip, we really didn't have much time to spare. So we walked through the Kasbah, and prepared ourselves for another harrowing ride back through the Atlas mountains. We were so tired by then though, we pretty much slept for most of the ride back.
Monday morning, Rashid came to pick us up to go out to Ait Benadou and Ouarzazate, a town located southeast of Marrakesh. The drive would take us through the High Atlas Mountains, where I was expecting some spectacular scenery. It did not disappoint.
The drive through the Atlas Mountains was...interesting. We now believe it is entirely possible that Rashid could have been a formula one race car drive in another lifetime. Or a stuntman. The road through the High Atlas was a very narrow two lane road. It was just wide enough for two sedans to pass each other. A truck and a sedan could also make it. Two trucks would be highly questionable. Add to the narrowness of the road, the fact that the road takes some seriously tortuous paths (as you can see in the 4th photo above), and you have a very difficult road to drive on. Rashid assured us that he had done this drive many many times. We crossed our fingers and placed our lives in his hands as he raced through the pass at speeds close to 120 kph and passing very large trucks around blind curves. We assumed (hoped) that he had some way of knowing that there wasn't another car or truck coming the other way around these curves. As luck would have it (and we can only assume it was luck), we survived.
As we descended the other side of the mountains, the scenery drastically changed from the greenish mountains to brown desert. After a couple of hours of seemingly endless desert, we climbed a small hill. At the top of the hill, Rashid pulled over and we collectively gasped at the breathtaking sight of Ait Benadou appearing very much out of the blue:
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| This is the young artist I bought several saffron paintings from. He uses saffron oil to make the paintings and then slowly runs the painting over a flame that darkens the oil. |
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| Climbing to the top of Ait Benadou |
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| The view from the top |
After Ait Benadou, we went on to Ouarzazate. The big attraction there was supposed to be the Kasbah - large castle like building. But quite frankly, after Ait Benadou, it was a bit of a letdown. Ouarzazate is a still nice place to stop just to get a nice lunch though. I'm sure there might have been a lot more to see, but since we were on a day trip, we really didn't have much time to spare. So we walked through the Kasbah, and prepared ourselves for another harrowing ride back through the Atlas mountains. We were so tired by then though, we pretty much slept for most of the ride back.
Tuesday, April 30
Our last day in Marrakesh was probably the most relaxing. We visited the Jardin Majorelle (Majorelle Gardens) - a 12 acre botanical garden owned by Yves Saint Laurent since 1980. Yves Saint Laurent loved Marrakesh and adopted it his home. Reportedly, the inspiration of many of his fashions and fragrances came from Morocco. When he passed in 2008, his ashes were scattered throughout the garden. My shots don't do justice to the place, but it's definitely worth a visit, if you just need a breather from the hustle & bustle.
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| Dante claims he didn't know what this shirt meant when he bought it. He just liked the look of it. *wink wink* |
Across the street from the gardens is a row of stores that have items (crafts, jewelry, and clothing) of higher quality than your average Moroccan stores. In particular 33 Rue Majorelle had some really nice items that you're unlikely to find elsewhere.
A final note about shopping in Marrakesh: it is worth your time to first visit the Ensemble Artisanal before you buy anything. Please note, that it is NOT where TripAdvisor says it is. It is a collection of shops where the prices are generally fixed (but not really - everything can be negotiated in Morocco), the craftsmanship is of high quality, and you are getting genuine items (the silver, the gemstones, and the fossils are real). They won't be the lowest prices but you at least get an idea of what prices *should* be, and what good quality looks like, before you go running off to the souks where you have at least a 50% chance of being scammed if you don't know what to expect.
Marrakesh - Day 2
Sunday, April 28
We decide to take Sunday for ourselves and explore the Medina on our own. The tourist stops we made were at the Maison De La Photographie - a gallery of old black and white photos showing what Morocco was like in the early part of the 20th century. If you have an appreciation for photography, it's definitely worth a visit. Afterwards, we stopped at the nearby Musée de Marrakesh. There's not too much to say about this one. It's a museum and it's nice enough, but most of the signage was written in French so it was hard for us to learn all that much from it.
Our afternoon was spent wandering the Jemaa El Fna Square which is perhaps Marrakesh's biggest attraction. It is essentially Marrakesh's living room. During the day, there isn't that much to it - just a lot of street merchants. When the sun sets though, the square comes to life with street performers, snake charmers, falconers, and a countless number of outdoor food vendors. It's quite impossible to describe in words just how alive the square feels at night. Even photos don't quite do it justice. As the sun drew closer to the horizon, we found a rooftop cafe (terrasse) where we somehow got a table overlooking the square and facing the sunset and the Khoutoubia Mosque (Marrakesh's main mosque). And as the sun set, the final prayer calls came wailing out of the dozens of minarets throughout Marrakesh. When the prayer calls come through your poorly sealed windows at 4:30 AM, it can produce a headsplitting headache, especially when you've only had 3 hours of sleep. It is very very loud. But at sunset, from a rooftop, the chorus of prayer chants took on a beautiful hypnotic sound that sends a chill down one's spine.
El Fassia
Pascal's second recommendation was a Moroccan restaurant called El Fassia. From the outside, the restaurant looks small and unassuming. Inside, it was packed with customers sitting in comfortable luxurious booths around small tables that were barely big enough to hold our dishes. And yes, yet another winner from Pascal. Again, not the cheapest meal we had in Morocco, but definitely worth it. We spent $160 between the 3 of us, but it included dessert, drinks, and a very generous tip. We definitely could have ordered a lot less and been quite full. But we may never be here again, right? Get the roasted lamb shoulder - trust me.
We decide to take Sunday for ourselves and explore the Medina on our own. The tourist stops we made were at the Maison De La Photographie - a gallery of old black and white photos showing what Morocco was like in the early part of the 20th century. If you have an appreciation for photography, it's definitely worth a visit. Afterwards, we stopped at the nearby Musée de Marrakesh. There's not too much to say about this one. It's a museum and it's nice enough, but most of the signage was written in French so it was hard for us to learn all that much from it.
Our afternoon was spent wandering the Jemaa El Fna Square which is perhaps Marrakesh's biggest attraction. It is essentially Marrakesh's living room. During the day, there isn't that much to it - just a lot of street merchants. When the sun sets though, the square comes to life with street performers, snake charmers, falconers, and a countless number of outdoor food vendors. It's quite impossible to describe in words just how alive the square feels at night. Even photos don't quite do it justice. As the sun drew closer to the horizon, we found a rooftop cafe (terrasse) where we somehow got a table overlooking the square and facing the sunset and the Khoutoubia Mosque (Marrakesh's main mosque). And as the sun set, the final prayer calls came wailing out of the dozens of minarets throughout Marrakesh. When the prayer calls come through your poorly sealed windows at 4:30 AM, it can produce a headsplitting headache, especially when you've only had 3 hours of sleep. It is very very loud. But at sunset, from a rooftop, the chorus of prayer chants took on a beautiful hypnotic sound that sends a chill down one's spine.
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| What, me worry? |
El Fassia
Pascal's second recommendation was a Moroccan restaurant called El Fassia. From the outside, the restaurant looks small and unassuming. Inside, it was packed with customers sitting in comfortable luxurious booths around small tables that were barely big enough to hold our dishes. And yes, yet another winner from Pascal. Again, not the cheapest meal we had in Morocco, but definitely worth it. We spent $160 between the 3 of us, but it included dessert, drinks, and a very generous tip. We definitely could have ordered a lot less and been quite full. But we may never be here again, right? Get the roasted lamb shoulder - trust me.
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| El Fassia |
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| See what I mean about the roasted lamb shoulder? It tastes even better than it looks. |
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