Morocco 2023-2024 Day 5 (12/23/2023) Essaouira

December 26, 2023

Today we spent the day touring Essaouira. This is Zak's Home city. In my opinion it is the nicest city we have visited so far. It has a port filled with fishing boats and a beautiful fort. Zak's mother lives here so we are off this evening to her home for a tradional Moroccan Meal.

View from our hotel room at sunrise

Panaroma of bay

Classic Moroccan breakfast starting with Harira (graditional Moroccan Soup)

Sun is up so off we went to visit the home that Zak & Sarah are building here for themselves.

Sami met us at the door with his guitar

Front of the house under construction

Zak's mom was there with Sami, She has been supervising the construction for Zak & Sarah

Love the tradional Tiled walls

The workmen are real artists with plaster work

This will be the kitchen when completed

This garage below the house would easily hold eight cars

One of the three bathrooms

Another bathroom with a tub

Workmen were there while we visited

Roof Patio, the house is up on a hill and has an ocean view

Front door

Typical type of windows they use

Snack break time

Zak and his Mom

On the property next door, there is a shepherd's hut. Apparently they graze sheep here at certain times of the year

The house overlooks the ocean and about a mile away is a small harbor area where fishermen launch their Skiff type of boats,

Great beach

Beautiful with the waves crashing on the rocks

Video Link to Beach in Essaouira - Beach in Essaouira

There is even a blowhole here

We then headed off to the local village to pick up items for the dinner at Zak's mother's home. They hold these markets in the small villages once a week.

pretty much every part of the lamb is used, there is a lamb's head for sale

Butcher

Walnuts and almonds

Besides food, you can buy any thing you need.

Dates

Nice fresh beans

Potatoes, onions,carrots

Clemantines (mandarin oranges) one Kilo 2.2 lbs) is a whopping 20 cents

Great selection of Vegetables, Morocco supplies much of Europe with fruits and vegetables

Baby Chickens

Bread fresh out of a traditional oven

Zak's mother took some for dinner and we took some for the drive back to town

When we got back to the harbor, we went to the tradional fish market

They have all kinds of fish, many I have never seen before

Thresher shark, some of this one became shark steaks for dinner

Up around the ramparts of the old fort

Various cannons that guarded the city

Bronze Portugese Cannon had a date on it of 1786

We walked through the Medina of the old city on the way to Zak's Mother's home looking into one of the shops, you can see the intricate woodwork Essaouira is famous for.