member of the human race

Day 2- Essaouira...

woke up early cause we where supposed to set of something like 7:30am which some people weren't happy about cause they wanted to sleep, but I had already announced it the night before that we where leaving bright and early so to make sure that every one gets an early night or you could sleep on the coach, 2 hours was more than enough for sleeping.

we were going to a fishing village called Essaouira it's one of Morocco's main fishing ports but before reaching there we stopped off at what appeared to be a house, it was basically a cottage industry set up by UNESCO for the local woman who where in need of a job but weren't able to find one, so they set up an argon factory of some sort, where they produce oil, soaps, creams, it's a brilliant idea, it means that these ladies can have a weekly income and support there family.

the oil is delicious and healthy and can only be found in southern morocco but the way its planted is amazing, if we had come around September we would have seen argon trees filled to the branch with goats, seriously here's what it would have looked like...

The trunk of the argon is often twisted and gnarled, allowing goats to clamber along its branches and feed on the leaves and fruit. The fruit itself has a green, fleshy exterior like an olive, but larger and rounder. Inside, there is a nut with an extremely hard shell, which in turn contains one, two or three almond-shaped kernels.
When the goats eat the fruit, the fleshy part is digested but the nut remains and when the goat empties its stomach the nut is found, so yep argon oil with a hint of goat pooh, mmmm delicious.

The production of argon oil, which is still done by traditional methods, is a lengthy process. Each nut has to be cracked open to remove the kernels, and it is said that producing one liter of oil takes 20 hours' work.
argon oil is slightly darker than olive oil, with a reddish tinge. It can be used for cooking and is claimed to have various medicinal properties, such as lowering cholesterol levels, stimulating circulation and strengthening the bodyÂ’s naturaldefensess.

here are what the ladies have to go through on a day to day basis, plenty more baskets to go through..

look at the age of some of the ladies, as old as my grandmother subhanallah...

this lady is placing the roasted seeds found in the nut and grounding them so that a paste is formed and this is used for soaps, creams etc...

we left the ladies to the chants of zaghareet, which is a noise formed by repeatedly hitting thetonguee to the sides of the mouth, mostArabb ladies do this in times of happy occasions.Wee continued our journey towards Essaouira, most people had bought creams, body scrubs, soaps, itwasn'tt every day we get to visit theoriginall 'body shops' of morocco.

we got to Essaouira withing 20 minutes and walked around for a while, first thing you notice about it is the fact that its windy anda lott of people are wearing leather coats,Ii loved the weather, second thing is the smell, fish, fish and more fish...

and crabs..

obviously where there is fish there has to be sea gulls, we where dodging themIncase they decided to drop a present onto us, 2 years ago one decided to drop its dinner all over my foot, believe me it was not a pleasant sight,Ii was so disgusted, all this goo on me, and one of my friends wasfranticlyy looking for wipes when all of a sudden aMoroccann lady out of no where comes running towards me shouting

'are you married?'

me: 'wha...what?

lady: 'Ii said are you married, (she had gotten hold of my jilbab and was shaking me when asking me this question

me: Ii was looking at her like she was an alien) uuum noI'mm not

lady: massive smile on her face, oh wow, then this is a sign, its good luck, a present from the skies, when you go home your husband will be waiting for you.

me: laughing, yeh right, sorry ladyIidon'tt believe in this stuff, but seriously what would you have said ifIi had saidIi was married, we all know thatMuslimmwomann cant marry more than one man at one time..

lady: no no, if your already then married, then it would mean that a baby would be on its way

me: laughing, ok, sure, any way nice meeting you..

so that was 2 years ago andIi stillhaven'tt married yet, but understandablyIi was trying to dodge the birds...

some more gulls surrounding this old man who was cleaning the insides of the fish...

some scenic pic of boats...

so we carried on walking and got to large, rectangular, white square called Place Prince Moulay Hassan where there where tourists sitting in a few restaurants/bars and eating lunch. The renovated recently square looked more European, it did really, reminded me more ofFrancee..

there are ramparts in Essaouira,basicallyy a large wall built round a town to protect it, but they are placed between the city and the Atlantic Ocean on a cliff coast as well.

we had to head to therestaurantt for lunch but before that we walked into a wood shop where they built every thing out of wood mainly cedar wood, smells gorgeous, Essaouira is famous for wood work and they are good at it, they havea lott ofAfricanninfluencee in there work, pretty cool,Ii bought hair clips, every timeIi put them onIi can smell the cedar..

our stomachs were rumbling so we made our way to the fishrestaurantt, nowIidon'tt eat fish,Ii cant stand the stuff soIi had steak at a fish place, and every one else had different types of aliens uumIi mean fish...

here's ookitty and blondie waiting for there fishy meal...

after the fruit salad we went for a walk and founda lott ofjewelryy shops, and girls being girls we ended spending all our time haggling over the price of beads...

shortly afterwards we had to head back to the coach, it was time to leave Essaouira and go back to Marrakech, it was nice andIi was gonna miss the cool weather although the smell of fish they can have.

we got back to the hotel andIi told every one to rest and freshen up cause by 8 every one has to be down in the lobby to meet for dinner at a traditional folkrestaurantt,unfortunatelyyIi forgot to take my camera with me soIi missed taking pic, oh well, may be 00kitty took some.

dinner was nice and entertaining, got back to the hotel and went to sleep again thanking Allah for a good day....