We had a very difficult time getting the name of this beautiful Atlantic coastal town right, Essaouira. A tour bus took us from Marrakesh west to Essaouira, about 3 hours, to the ocean. This is a place where a lot of people come for holiday and reminded me of Santa Cruz in that way. I really wanted to ride a camel on this trip and read that this is one of the few places to do it.
The town has old ramparts that eccentuate the beauty of this town. The town is surrounded by these old walls of war and are accented with magnifisent archways and are lined with palm trees. With in the rampart walls there are winding streets with blue doors about every 20 feet, old cannons, and towers. Facinated by the beauty, we could not resist taking pictures every few moments. There are loads of fishermen and everything that comes with them: birds, boats, the smell of fish being gutted.
As we stolled along the beach dipping our toes in the water, we were approached by a business man who had camels. As is the tradition in Morocco, we bartered for a ride on on his camels. We found that saying that we're students helps a lot, and loving a good deal helped me swing a camel ride for less than a 1/3 of the asking price. Ridding our camels along the shore, we saw the the old Sultan ruins that provided the inspiration for "Castles Made of Sand" by Jimi Hendrix, kite and wind surfers and rode through sand dunes.
After a long day of being in the wind and sunshine, we loaded up on the bus and headed back to Marrakesh.
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