الصويرة‎                 ⵎⵓⴳⴰⴹⵓⵔ            Essaouria

After yesterday’s bargaining and exploring of the Essaouira Medina, we got to experience a more rural part of the region.
We started the day with a hike through an argan forest, one of the ones exclusively found in this area of Morocco. In our exploration of this staple export, our wonderful guide, Abdou, explained to us the difficulty of balancing familial ownership of the trees with recent sustainability efforts.

Next, we visited Kaouki, a cooperative where argan nuts are shelled, processed, and distributed entirely on site. As per tradition, the women employed by Kaouki cracked the nuts. They were kind enough to let us try our hand at it, but we were quick to realize we were not half as efficient as they were.

Leaving Kaouki with our argan oil goodies and having tried amlou (a delicious argan, almond, and honey spread), we had lunch at our friend Saïd’s house, where we enjoyed our first homemade tajine and were introduced to the art of Moroccan tea making. After we’d finished our meal, we got the chance to listen and dance to a traditional Berber musical performance.

After showing off our moves, we got to practice our camel riding in Diabat, where Jimi Hendrix ~alledgedly~ spent his time writing songs, including “Castles Made of Sand” from which Morocco was the inspiration ~allegedly~. We took lots of photos so don’t worry. We admired the view of the beach and fended off camels interested in chewing up our shirtsleeves.

We ended the night with a great dinner at the riad along with a surprise birthday cake for Ms. Trespas (Thank you, Abdou!). Happy birthday, Ms. Trespas! Today has been great and we’re excited to see what’s next in Marrakesh. Beslama!

-Andreea and Hywot

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