We spent the morning immersed in local Moroccan culture.  We set the alarm for 6:30 as we wanted to eat breakfast and be ready to leave our apartment around 8:00.  We lost one-hour of sleep last night as the clocks moved forward to normal time after Ramadan.  The clocks are moved backwards one-hour at the beginning of Ramadan so that sunset comes sooner for Muslim daily fasting.  We walked about 25 minutes to the Grand Taxi station.  We asked for a taxi to Had Draa which is one of the largest traditional markets in Morocco.   Grand Taxis take 6 or 7 people per trip (you can pay for all the seats to have a private taxi).  We were passengers #3 and #4.  The driver made sure we (tourists) had the best seats in the car.  The car was full in about 5 minutes, and we arrived at our destination about 20 minutes later.  Like most taxi drivers, ours drove very fast, and beeped at everyone to move out of the way.  It cost 20 dh ($2 for both of us).  We guess it would have cost about $40 in the States one way.  The gas price here is about the equivalent to $5 per gallon in the US…we don’t understand how they can make a living on those low rates.

All five of our senses were at work in overdrive at the market today.  We are glad we wore our hiking boots as it was dusty, rocky, and there was a plethora of substances on the ground to potentially step in.  Thousands of Berbers (the indigenous people of North Africa) from all over the surrounding countryside attend this Sunday market to sell and buy goods, a tradition that has been in place for hundreds of years.  We saw weathered blacksmiths; carpenters; farmers with fresh fruits, vegetables, and livestock; butchers; shoe menders; basket weavers; spice, nut, dried fruit, clothing, and household sellers; fishing and farming suppliers.  It was crowded and we were constantly navigating to avoid getting bumped, ran over by a truck or one of the hundreds of carts that men were pushing to deliver and reload products.  It was an infinite maze of short paths and we are quite certain we saw only half of the market.  There were very few women and none of them were selling goods.  Initially we seemed to be the only tourists, however, as the morning progressed, we saw a few more.  It’s definitely a different world than we are used to in the States and not for the faint hearted….dodging the bloody slabs of hanging fresh animal meat and parts, skimming past goat heads with the fur still intact, stepping over the stripped carcass of a lamb, limiting the intake of the odors, all while hearing the chickens squawk as they are being prepared for slaughter.  It’s truly fascinating – a person can enjoy an unhurried cup of mint tea while sitting 10 feet from half of a cow hanging.  We are so used to our packaged products (and what we assume are also sanitary) in the States.  I found my internal biases at work thinking about the germs that are likely living on all the open-air food from it being carted around, laying on blankets on the ground next to thousands of people walking past rustling dust and dirt from shoes.  No judgement at all.  It’s their way of life and their internal body systems are certainly used to all the “additives” present in their food.  Although there were areas in the market that can easily make one’s stomach turn, the smell of the fresh mint that was being sold for the tea was absolutely heavenly.  Our hearts smiled as we saw many locals greet friends passing by them.  We will forever hold snapshots in our mind of the wide range of events and details we saw today.  We are being very mindful to honor the Moroccan culture of privacy and not take pictures of locals (it’s very hard to take photos of a market with thousands of locals in it).  We asked two different vendors if we could take a picture of them if we paid them and they denied our request.  From a small hill we captured a small section of individual stall tent tops.  We were also able to take a picture of a “street” that wasn’t busy.  On our way out of the market we asked a police officer if we could take a picture of the market entrance gate and he said we could.  While we were figuring out how we were going to get back to Essaouira we took a picture of the horse taxis.    

After waiting 15 minutes for a taxi to take us back to Essaouira, we decided to take the bus.  It was packed and hot!  The bus driver made sure we (tourists) had seats on the bus and asked someone to move so we could sit together.  The bus money collector took our 100 dh and gave us a note with a number on it (which we learned from the man sitting next to us was the amount of change we were due).  He collected the money from everyone on the bus and then returned to everyone with their change.  The buses often pack people in with no standing room left.  Our bus only had 5 people standing.  We anticipate there are laws that passengers need to be in seats as the bus money collector told the 5 people standing to crouch down when we passed a police check point so that the police couldn’t see them standing through the window.  The bus cost $2 for both of us, the same price as the taxi.  The taxi was more comfortable.  I told Mike I was okay to pay the $6 for all the seats on a Grand Taxi versus taking the bus next time 🤣.  Mike thinks it is more interesting to ride with the locals, which was his main reason for not wanting to buy all the seats in a Grand Taxi. From the bus stop we walked to another local market that is only held on Sundays.  I finally found ponytail holders and purchased a package of 20, made of fabric, for 50 cents. 

I am not built to live in the desert – the heat and sun wear me out (a much different feel than Florida).  We decided to take a taxi back to our apartment to get out of the sun.  The taxi was 70 cents.  This morning’s experiences are the reason we want to be global nomads.  It filled our souls.

We ate our Greek salad for lunch and took a 40-minute nap.  We worked on our blog and Facebook posts and caught up on other tasks.  We walked along the ocean to the Medina to eat dinner.  We found a quaint tiny restaurant, La Casa, that served Moroccan food. We shared vegetable couscous and meat skewers.  The spread for the bread was spicy!  The Spiced Lemonade Mocktail was refreshing.  After dinner we meandered around the Medina and walked home along the beach.