Marrakech/Essaouira

This past weekend, we went on our first program excursion to the south of Morocco. We left at 8:30 on Friday morning for Marrakech and got there around noon. Our "assignment" after lunch was to go to the main square (Jumaa al Fina) and "experience our senses". We were divided into 5 groups- one for each sense and then set loose. I was put in the "seeing" group, so we pretty much had the easiest job. We walked from the hotel to Jumaa al Fina, which took 45 minutes, and it was hot as hell. We read on a bank information screen that it was 53 degrees celsius, aka 127 fahrenheit. We later found out that it wasn't quite that hot, but it was pretty close. Honestly, it felt like we were walking through a scenic Hell. We got to Jumaa al Fina and it was less than impressive. There were people there, but it wasn't as exciting as I assumed it would be. We saw some tents with snake charmers, which was neat, but they made you pay to take pictures, so I didn't take any. The vendors are very pushy and a lot of them speak English because Marrakech is the touristy area of Morocco. They were extremely rude, too. In Rabat, I get heckled by men saying that I'm beautiful or "Hello, how are you" in either Arabic, French, or sometimes English, but in Marrakech, I was legitimately verbally harassed....in English. My favorite was the guy who told me I had "nice chips". I couldn't help but laugh. I know that he was trying to say "nice tits", but here he was trying to be a wise-ass and failed miserably. Who's laughing now? :-D
Since there are so many tourists in Marrakech, the vendors also try to rip you off really badly. Nobody, NOBODY rips off Megan Babb. I got myself a nice pashmina scarf for 55dh when it was originally 280dh. This dude was so desperate and it was hilarious. I just gave him a really hard time until he did what I wanted. I am not a manipulative person to begin with, but I have become QUITE good at bargaining. It's to the point where all of my friends want to take me with them when they go shopping so that they can get low prices :-)

So it began to rain and it cooled down significantly. We needed to get back to the hotel for dinner at 8, but the walk was long and we were all exhausted, so 7 of the 12 of us decided to take a carriage ride. We all crammed into 1 carriage and made it back to the hotel with time to spare, and it was fun! :-)

We wanted to go back to Jumaa al Fina after dinner because EVERYONE comes out at night and it's essentially one huge party. Unfortunately, we were all really exhausted, so we stayed at the hotel and ended up going to bed.

The next morning, we woke up at 7am to leave for Essaouira at 8:15. We were still really exhausted, so we got on the bus in hopes of sleeping. Unfortunately, the ride was really bumpy, so none of us got a decent nap in. On the bright side, Essaouira was about 70 degrees Fahrenheit...significantly cooler than Marrakech. We stopped about 15km outside of Essaouira to check out a women's cooperative where they grind down argan pits into oil and then sell it. What is argan oil?, you say. Well, there are these Argan trees that grow in the Essaouira area that grow fruit. The trees are really knotty, so goats are able to climb them and eat the fruit. They cannot digest the pits in the fruit, so they poop them out. People then collect the pits and crush them into oil that is used for cosmetics and food. It's all quite sterile, and we got to sample some of the stuff they make. The edible oil tasted amazing and the cosmetic oil is great for the skin. Unfortunately, it is very expensive, so I did not buy much of it.

We stopped again before getting to Essaouira to check out this overlook of the city. There were some camels there. They were kinda cute and surprisingly, very nice :-)

Essaouira was so nice! The weather was great because it is right next to the beach. During the day, we walked around and checked out the medina. A few friends and I went to check out the beach before dinner and found a MASSIVE jellyfish washed ashore. It was the biggest jellyfish I have ever seen!

We then got some dinner at a different hotel from the one we were staying at. They played some nice American music for us. Then Justin Bieber came on and I for some reason found myself doing the stanky leg to "Baby". Then the rap section of the song came on and I randomly had the urge to bust a move. My entire group was laughing until they cried, and some of the Moroccans were just staring and laughing. I was very happy to provide such wonderful entertainment. Then some real entertainment came- some traditional Moroccan musicians!!!

It was the time of year for the Gnaoua music festival, which takes place in Essaouira every summer, so we headed over after dinner. It was really crowded. My friend Marissa, who went on this same program 2 years ago, told me to be extremely careful because she and her friends could feel people feeling them up for money. I kept my passport holder under my shirt close to my chest and I never let go of it. I kept my camera wrapped around my wrist and clutched tightly in my hand. Some of my friends didn't have such good luck. Although everyone was extremely careful, someone's camera got stolen and someone else's bag got slashed, but not all the way through, so she didn't lose anything. It was a scary thought to know that people had knives/razors that close to our chests. One of my friends even saw a guy with a razor. When we decided to leave the huge crowd, some guys ended up grabbing my friends in some very inappropriate places, hoping only to cop a feel. One guy put his hand on my waist, but I had no problem throwing it off. It was very strange and scary for us to experience people groping us. We were not happy, but the good news is, nobody was hurt. Despite the horrible experience at the Gnaoua festival, the music was amazing.

The next day, we went to a woodworker's shop to watch how he made wood designs. We then got to try doing it ourselves! It wasn't as easy as he made it look...

We had lunch at the same restaurant again. We were served shrimp as the first course. They still had heads attached.

We decided after lunch to spend the day at the beach. I didn't want to swim because I knew we would not be returning to the hotel to change, so I just went to dip my feet in the water with a few friends. Some Moroccan preteens thought it would be hilarious to run by and splash us. We were pissed the first time, and the second time, my friend's butt got soaked so she just got out. I jokingly told my friends I would tackle them if they did it again. They did, so I decided to run after them. I kicked a lot of water on them and one of the boys fell over, but I kept kicking the water anyway. It was 3 vs 1, but I triumphed! We were all laughing so hard... I got soaked, so I had to dry my clothes in the sunshine, which proved to be an interesting feat.

We then had dinner at the same hotel again, then went out to explore the medina at night. We went back to the hotel around 11, showered and hung out in my room for a bit. We then got up the next morning to head back to Rabat!

On the way home, we stopped in Al Jadida for lunch and then hung out at the beach for half an hour. We got back to Rabat at about 5pm and I went home and passed out.

In conclusion, the excursion was great. The best thing about it was that we had a lot of time to explore and do stuff on our own, but we had an experience, not a vacation. We had some ups and downs, but I definitely enjoyed my time, no doubt about that. It was neat to experience Moroccan culture in different cities...it DOES differ from place to place!