Morocco 2/16/2024 - 3/2/2024

Friday 3/1/2024 - Bastion of the Port, Bastion of the Kasbah, Gnawa Music Workshop, Farewell Dinner

Today we woke up at 7 a.m. and could see the sunrise from the small windows in our room. We went downstairs to breakfast at 8:30.There was a fire in the fireplace in the dining room, and several strategically placed heaters. We made it a point to sit as far away from the heaters as possible. The morning air was refreshingly chilly, and we welcomed the breeze when the door to the dining room was left open.

There was a small buffet table set up with chocolate cake and fruit. We helped ourselves and sat down, but soon realized that this was just a precursor to breakfast. The wait staff delivered a plate of crepes, msemen, and baked goods, as well as orange juice and coffee. We each ordered omelettes. It was a very nice breakfast and we realized that we wouldn't get to enjoy it tomorrow morning as we would be leaving for the airport too early.

Jamal came to collect us at 10 o'clock. Everything was within walking distance today, so we wouldn't be seeing Majid until our farewell dinner this evening. We started out our day tour in Essaouira with a walk on the beach and dipping my toes into the chilly Atlantic Ocean. It seemed surreal that on the other side of this ocean was home. We had started our Moroccan adventure on the ocean in Casablanca, and we would end it here on the ocean in Essaouira.

Essaouira was quite breezy, and I would be struggling with my skirt all day as it threatened a Marilyn Monroe incident at any given moment. My skirt was floor-length, but that didn't stop the wind from catching it and trying to blow it around. The last thing I wanted to do was to be disrespectful in a modest Muslim country, so I had to hold my skirt down all day.

The three of us walked down the sandy beach together taking photos, until we reached the port.

According to Wikipedia:

Until the 1960s, Essaouira was generally known by its Portuguese name, Mogador. [...] The present city of Essaouira was built during the mid-eighteenth century by the Moroccan King. Mohammed III tried to reorient his kingdom toward the Atlantic for increased exchanges with European powers, choosing Mogador as his key location. One of his objectives was to establish a harbour at the closest possible point to Marrakesh. The other was to cut off trade from Agadir in the south, which had been favouring a political rival of Mohammed III, and the inhabitants of Agadir were forced to relocate to Essaouira[...] From the time of its rebuilding by Muhammad III until the end of the nineteenth century, Essaouira served as Morocco's principal port, offering the goods of the caravan trade to the world. The route brought goods from sub-Saharan Africa to Timbuktu, then through the desert and over the Atlas Mountains to Marrakesh. The road from Marrakesh to Essaouira is a straight line, explaining the king's choice of this port among the many others along the Moroccan coast.

All of the fishing boats were in port today because it is Friday. The fishing boats are all painted a cheerful shade of blue, paying homage to Essaouira's 3,000 years of murex production. Murex are a type of sea snail in the area, whose glands can be used to create blue/purple dye. Around the end of the 1st century BC, Berber King Juba II established a Tyrian purple factory, which processed murex shells found at Essaouira to color the purple stripe in the togas worn by the Senators of Imperial Rome.

The blue wooden boats were all packed in, with no water visible between them. Fishermen were selling their catch. There were plenty of cats around, hoping to be given a scrap of fish.

We walked to the end of the jetty, where large concrete jack-shaped structures protected the sea walls. The next thing we knew, Jamal was climbing up onto the sea walls. I got a few photos of him, and then he encouraged us to climb up as well. I wasn't sure that I could make it in my flat sandals with no traction, and Craig wasn't sure if he should be up there with his walking cane. But Jamal helped us up, and it was worth it. We would worry about getting down later. There was a great view from this elevated vantagepoint. To our left were offshore islands, and to our right were fisherman mending their crimson nets at the port. The sea breeze threatened to make off with Craig's hat. The weather was sunny but the breeze kept the temperature quite pleasant.

We had passed two British tourists on the sea wall. They got down before we did and were walking up the jetty when they saw us attempting to get down. They turned around and came back to where we were, asking Craig if he needed assistance getting down with his cane. We were able to get down with Jamal's assistance, but we were very touched by their offer.

We passed through the Bab el-Marsa gate. It was built in 1769 by the English "renegade" Ahmed El Inglizi , under the orders of Sultan Mohammed Ben Abdellah, of the Alaouite dynasty. We entered the Bastion of the Port (also known as the Sqala Du Port), also built in 1769. Stones from former Castelo Real (built by the Portuguese in 1506) were used to build the Bastion of the Port.

There is a very cool circular "window" in one of the brick walls. It looks out over the Kasbah. It is obviously a popular spot for taking photos, as there is a little step stool in place to help you get up to sit in it. We climbed up and Jamal got some photos of us.

We climbed up the Fort tower Borj el-Barmil from which we had beautiful views of the Atlantic Ocean, the Kasbah, and the bastion below. We posed for pictures in the guard towers, which reminded us very much of Castillo San Felipe del Morro in Puerto Rico.

After touring the Bastion of the Port, we walked through the Place Moulay Hassan, a square near the water where Jamal told us that concerts often take place, especially as part of the annual Gnawa music festival in Essaouira which was started in 1998. We saw a man feeding seagulls some of his fish scraps, and the seagulls were insane!

We walked to the Bastion of the Kasbah (Sqala de la Kasbah), which was built at the northwest tip of the Medina in 1765 to defend from sea attacks. Sixteenth century bronze cannons are still in place. As we entered the bastion, a seller gave us a free sample of a snack to try, and we liked it very much. We bought three for a dollar and shared them among the three of us. We saw a gate which was used in "Game of Thrones", and the fortifications that were used in Orson Welles' 1951 filming of "Othello". It was quite windy here and I had to constantly struggle with my skirt to keep it from the gusts.

We walked through the Medina to the Mellah (Jewish Quarter) and stopped in at Bayt Dakira (the House of Memory), which is a Jewish museum adjacent to the late 19th century Simon Attias Synagogue. A mixture of Arabic and Hebrew welcomes visitors to the House of Memory: "Shalom Aleykoum, Salam Lekoulam." ("Salam Aleykoum" means peace be upon you in Arabic, and "Shalom Lekoulam" means peace to everyone in Hebrew). This mashup symbolizes the friendship between Muslims and Jews in the city. At first, we couldn't enter the museum, as one of the King's Jewish advisors was having a meeting here. But once the meeting disbanded, we were allowed in.

The Medina had picturesque doorways which led into a variety of shops. When it was prayer time, people would simply put a broomstick across the doorway to the shop, indicating that they had gone to pray and would be back soon.

Next we had an excellent private Gnawa music workshop with m'allim (master) Najib Soudani and his sons. We walked down a little alleyway and found his hole-in-the-wall studio where we were invited in and had a seat. The small space was packed with musical instruments and compact discs (though he didn't actually have any of his own CD's for sale). A TV played silently in the corner.

We were given mint tea and some ring-shaped cookies. Master Soudani played a 3 stringed guinbri which he made himself, plugged into an amplifier. We played cymbals called krakeb. The krakeb evoke the sound of chains from when the Gnawa ancestors were enslaved and taken out of sub-Saharan Africa. Master Soudani's ancestors came from Mali and Sudan. The music mixes Sufism with pre-Islamic African folk traditions. He did a call and response vocalization. It was entrancing.

The music emanated out onto the street, and we could see people peeking in at us. Master Soudani showed us a binder filled with press clippings about Gnawa music in general and him in particular. He spoke Arabic and Jamal translated for us.

I had mentioned that I played a bit of guitar in high school, and Master Soudani handed me a guinbri to try to play. It has no frets and was a bit difficult to finger, but I managed to eke out a short melody.

We spent two hours here, and the time passed quickly and easily. We had an absolutely lovely time! We are so grateful to Experience Morocco for putting together this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Gnawa Music Workshop

After the Gnawa music workshop, Jamal asked what we wanted to do. Did we want to wander around some more, or go back to the riad for a short siesta before dinner? We were fine with walking around some more. We walked through an area where people bring unwanted household items and auction them off.

Then Jamal asked if we had any interest in going to a thuya wood workshop. Jamal was very good about never pushing anything onto us; he always gave us options of what to do. Having both had fathers who were hobby woodworkers, we were interested to see the thuya wood cooperative. Thuya wood (Tetraclinis articulata) is in the cypress family, and is endemic to the western Mediterranean region, and has been used for its decorative qualities since the days of the Roman Empire. A young woman greeted us and demonstrated how they process thuya wood into tables, inlaid trays, trivets, carvings, lamps, etc. She showed us how they use aluminum (upcycled from cans) and mother of pearl to inlay within the wood.

She then guided us around the showroom, showing us all of the beautiful products that they create. Even though we were clear about the fact that we wouldn't be buying anything big (despite how beautiful it all was, and how it could be shipped with no problem, we just don't have room for more furniture at home), she treated it as a gallery where we would still want to see everything. We did want to buy something, as the wood and handicraft was so beautiful. We purchased a hand of Fatima (the five fingers symbolize the five pillars of Islam) and a carving of a cat.

After the thuya wood workshop, it was time for our farewell dinner. Jamal invited us as well as Majid to dine at Salut Maroc, which is located right on the ocean. It had modern funky colorful decor, and felt more like an art gallery than a boutique hotel / restaurant.

We went up a seemingly endless flight of stairs to the breezy roof deck. Jamal had reserved a table overlooking the sunset, and there was a band playing on a raised platform above the bar. We also had the option of eating indoors if it was too chilly, but the atmosphere outside was just too beautiful. They brought over a gas heat lamp and they distributed blankets so that we could wrap up. Majid arrived about 10 or 15 minutes after we did.

Craig had a Casablanca beer, I had a berry blessings cocktail: (Bombay gin infused with raspberry and blackberry, blueberry, hibiscus, lime juice, and egg white), and Jamal and Majid had mocktails. We all had the same main course, delicious battered crispy monk fish burger with dill tartar sauce and triple cooked chips. Craig and I split a tropical lime and coconut cheese cake with pineapple coulis for dessert.

We had a lovely view of the sunset, and dodged seagulls as they landed on the roofdeck. It was the perfect setting in which to celebrate our friendship with Jamal and Majid. It was bittersweet, as tomorrow we would be saying goodbye after spending two amazing weeks together. Both of these guys have quickly become our dear friends. They have shown us such hospitality and friendship and taught us so much about their culture and their country’s history. We have also shared many laughs. We are forever grateful and insha Allah we will meet again soon.

Music at Salut Maroc

Before leaving the restaurant, we took some group pictures among the cool, colorful decor of the lobby. It was a surprisingly long walk back to the hotel, and we were all a bit reserved as we knew that tomorrow we would be saying goodbye. We were glad that they were there to lead us back to the hotel, because the labyrinthine alleyways of the walled city were quite confusing. We arrived back at the hotel at around 9 o'clock. We spent some more time chatting with Jamal before saying goodnight.

I took a bath in the elegant concrete bathtub and we got everything packed up for our journey home.

Essaouira Beach

Bastion of the Port, Essaouira

Bastion of the Kasbah, Essaouira

Maalem Najib Soudani, Essaouira

Salut Maroc