2 :: Oualidia, Safi, Essaouira

April 9, 2013 - road trip day

Oualidia

     We left Dar Bouazza at 6:30am en route to our main destination: Agadir, Morocco. To make the drive more exciting, albeit longer, we drove down the coast and made several interesting stops. The first stop was in Oualidia for breakfast. We ordered fresh msimen (pronounced "mmmmmmmmmmm-simen" because it's so good) and enjoyed it alongside tea/coffee at a table overlooking the lagoon.

Safi

     Our second stop was in Safi, a town known predominately for its pottery. We were given an exclusive pottery tour before we made some well-priced purchases.

Our pottery tour guide, who immediately crushed those beautiful pieces after making them.

It apparently takes a lot of butane tanks to heat the kiln for the pottery!

The painters

      Our guide explained each process for making the pottery in French, and Dave translated. For this part, he thought that the guide was playfully insulting his painters by saying that they were as stubborn as mules. We eventually figured out that our interpretation of his French was wrong. The guide meant to say that the paintbrushes which were being used by the painters were made from the manes of asses.

Essaouira

     Our final stop was for lunch in Essaouira, a well-known fishing town. Before arriving here; however, we were pulled over at a police check-point for a seat belt violation. We don't believe there are any laws regarding people having to be buckled in the back seats (only in the front), but this particular police officer was set on convincing us that there was. Luckily, we got off with a stern warning to stay buckled...and we did for the remainder of our trip.
     In Essaouira, we ate grilled fish at the port and then explored the medina briefly. It is noteworthy to record that Dad ate fish eyes here...eagerly. Dad and Mary's first squatty potty experience took place here as well.

    On our way out of Essaouira we were pulled over again. This time it was for rolling through a stop sign that we didn't see. The police officer immediately demanded 700 dirhams (the equivalent to roughly $80) as payment for our traffic violation. Lucky for us, we know that Moroccan police officers are notorious for pocketing bribes and for being too lazy/stubborn to write tickets. You can count on getting out of a ticket 99% of the time in Morocco if you play your cards right. Upon sweet talking this particular police officer and insisting that we didn't have 700 dirhams, he pulled David out of the car to discuss an alternative amount that we would be willing to pay as a bribe. The two of them talked for about 10 minutes, at which point it was clear that this police officer was not about to let us go for free easily. Nicole helped out by exiting the car while acting very ill and in need of a bathroom quickly. The act worked immediately, and the police officer pointed us to the bathrooms and let us go. Woot!
     Essaouira is also known for its abundance of Argan trees. The Argan trees are frequently climbed by goats, who eat the fruit from the branches. After the fruit seeds have been consumed and deposited by the goats, the oil is extracted from the seeds and turned into precious Argan oil. Argan oil is considered to be a luxury item and is becoming popular throughout the entire world, particularly for cosmetic purposes. 

& all of this occurred solely en route to our main destination! Stay tuned...

-David & Nicole