Essaouira is my favorite city in Morocco. It is a windy, port city on Morocco's Atlantic coast - about 3 hours west of Marrakech and 4 hours south of Casablanca. The medina has narrow alleyways run by well-fed street cats and bustling with arts and crafts, bars, rocky beaches and constant tropical winds. It is a great place for windsurfing, kiteboarding and other watersports. Essaouira is also featured on Game of Thrones as Astapor, aka Slaver's Bay, where armies of the Unsullied were sold.
I've been to Essaouira twice (in 2020 with Yeshe and in 2022 with Karen), both times for a night and both times, I felt like I didn't get to spend as much time as I would have wanted to because my heart was just so happy to be there. The general vibe of Essaouira with respect to the overall Moroccan culture makes it seem like the Austin of Texas, a little hippie, a little hood and lots of soul.
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Essaouira is also known for Gnaoua and hosts the Gnaoua Music Festival each year. Gnaoua (sometimes spelt gnawa) is like the Moroccan gospel. It combines poetry, prayers, traditional music and dancing and it is such a wonderful time. I don't have a video of any performances but here is a video of Zakaria and his friend teaching us how to play the drums.
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Zakaria's friend's family owns this 50 year old music instrument shop where they sell and repair traditional instruments.
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My favorite thing to do in Essaouira is to visit the wet seafood market. Vendors sell literally any seafood you can think of and in the corner, the "restaurants" charge you to cook them. None of the restaurants by the seafood market actually have a menu, they literally just grill your seafood over open fire for a small fee then serve it with bread, olives, lemons, cumin, pepper and salt.
It is my 100% my favorite wet food in the world and I plan on making a stop there every time I visit Essaouira.
My first time in Essaouira, Yeshe took me to her favorite sushi restaurant there. I went all out with miso and a platter of sashimi, nigiri, and rolls. Living in south eastern Morocco, I hadn't had sushi in 6 months so I wanted to get all I could before heading back.
My second time in Essaouira, we went to what turned out to be my favorite bar in Morocco, Dar Baba. It is a lively, fun place with lots of art, plants and interesting decor in every corner. The staff are also incredibly friendly and you are guaranteed to have a swell time. I highly recommend checking them out!
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Per usual, artisans in the medina sell handmade leather goods, carved wood, Argan oil, oil paintings on canvas, traditional rugs/pillow cases etc.
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You can also exit the medina to walk along the pier or the beach to explore other parts of the city.
Now that I am back in Morocco. I intend to visit Essaouira as often as possible... then maybe add more to this post.
FEZNA
When we were not working or sleeping, we were exploring! In late February, 2020, some friends and I hired a tour guide to take us to see the ancient subterranean canals as well as the out door installations in Fezna.
We all lived in the Draa-Tafilalet region, which is in the south eastern part of Morocco and location of Fezna. We took buses from various locations to Jorf, which is the closest city to Fezna, and the tour guide picked us up at a gas station.
We started with a stop at the canals that used to make up the waterways for the region. There is a gift shop and rest area up front, we didn't realize tea was included in our tour so that was a pleasant surprise.
We needed a tour guide because the art installations are literally in the middle of nowhere; you need an off road vehicle to get there due to the fine sands of the Sahara; Peace Corps Volunteers are not allowed to drive; you need to know the actual location and; the tour cost a total of 300MAD ($30) which came down to 60MAD per person. Therefore, it was worth it to just pay for a tour that included education while supporting local businesses.
Exterior of the canals with contraption that was used to pull water out of the wells.
Hole through which water was pulled out... I have a photo later on with us in the canal and one of these holes above us.
Entry way to the canals
In the canals with one of the well holes above us. It was shwiya creepy but really cool.
Walking out
They have animals on the grounds and we got to meet Aisha and her 10-day old fuzzy baby.
Afterwards, we drove about 30 minutes to see the outdoor art installations by Hannsjorg Voth in Fezna. Entrance into the art installations is 150MAD ($15) per person however, they were closed on that specific day so we just drove around the 3 sites and goofed around big time!
Stairway to heaven installation
On our way back to Jorf, we stopped to visit a nomadic family. They lived in a traditional fort and served us tea with bread, olive oil and olives. I didn't take pictures out of respect but it was a really nice time. Overall, the company was great and even though we didn't get to go into the installations, I think the tour was worth the price. Highly recommend!
