Day trip into Essaouira

We got out onto the main road here in the village of Ounagha to wait for the local bus to take us into Essaouira. There were quite a few locals waiting as well, so we figured it must be coming soon. And sure enough, after ten minutes or so, it showed up.

It was pretty busy though. Ruth managed to get a seat, but I stood the whole way. The guy came by to collect fares and give us a ticket. Cost was 7 dirhams ($0.92 CAD, $0.68 USD) for the twenty minute bus ride.

Bit of a rickety old bus though. I wondered how many gazillion miles it had on it!

We arrived in Essaouira (the locals pronounce it "es-way-rah") about 10:45am and set off into the old medina area. 

Wheeling his fruit cart into the medina.

It's still pretty quiet. It's much busier afternoons and evenings.

The shops are all stocked up for the day.

We wandered a lot of little alleyways.

Nice little outdoor cafe.

Blankets and towels for sale.

Lots of old doors.

Me, in the Essaouira medina.

Dog and cat napping.

Definitely the most tourists we have seen since we arrived in Morocco. A lot of people come here for day trips from both Marrakech and Agadir. 

Notice the dog lying in the pottery display!

We walked up to the ramparts to have a look at the sea.

It is typically very windy in Essaouira.

Ruth enjoying the view.

The brass cannons all had dates stamped on them from the 1700's.

From there, we visited the fishing port. It's a much smaller port than the one at Safi, but still really interesting.

So many different types of seafood.

Essaouira Port.

You can see Essaouira Beach in the background.

There is always a cat around!

The fishing fleet!

Lots of birdlife looking for scraps.

We sat on a wall overlooking the big wide sandy beach and had some lunch that we had packed. It's a popular beach for kite surfing because of the constant wind.

We watched these boys playing soccer.

Then at 1:00pm we met some new friends!

Through the Senior Nomads facebook group, Gregg and Janet from Virginia had started following our blog. They are recent nomads, who currently have their daughter Erin traveling with them. They are in Essaouira for a few weeks, and asked if we wanted to get together.

Heading through the souk.

The butcher.

The strawberry guy.

Of course there was non stop travel talk with this couple, and it's also a great experience for daughter Erin who is with them for a few more months. We spent almost three hours together!

Kevin, Janet, Gregg, Erin, Ruth.

It was 4:00pm by the time we said goodbye. Pretty sure we'll bump into each other again at some point in the future. You never know where or when though!

Cute little kitten.

Back on the bus, and back to Max.

We've got a bit of a drive ahead of us today as we make our way to Agadir Airport. It's only 216 kms (134 miles) but we're going to take the coastal road so it'll probably take four hours or so! Oh well... we're in no rush and it's light out until 7:00pm now and we'll easily get there by mid afternoon anyhow.

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Huge price drop on Coleman's 15' x 13' Instant Screenhouse. Now is the time to buy for the bugs this summer!

And in Canada...

Blink Security Cameras are all on sale.