Kids in Aroumd on the morning walk.
Street scenes.
The town and their walnut trees.
Hiking back out.
Rachid, Tara and another guide, Hassan.
Women working the targan nuts.
Unloading our van for the last time...
to enter the medina of Essaouira.
Saturday,
September, 23rd.
Today
we had two options for hiking. One was a four hour trek up the
mountain and back to visit a pilgrimage shrine, and the other was a
two hour hike across the dry river bed to visit the town of Aroumd. I
chose the shorter one because of my energy level and quite frankly it
sounded more interesting.
Rachid
led the six of us across the river and up the road that circles up
and around the town to the top of the hill. The views of the valley
were spectacular. Then we walked back down through the narrow winding
streets of the town and watched as the people got started with their
day. On the way back to our gite, Rachid took a different route and
we got lost following the irrigation canals through apple and walnut
orchids and then some berry brambles that caught on our clothing. We
had to retrace our steps and change route.
When
we got back we met up with the rest of the group and had a provided
Berber lunch. Then we packed up, thanked our host family and hiked
back down to the town at the bottom.
We
loaded our stuff back in the van and drove back down out of the
mountains to the plains of Marrakech. As we drove we saw a number of
shepherds with their flocks of sheep and goats. We stopped at another
women's co-op where they make oil, makeup and edible products argan
nuts. The argan trees grow exclusively in this area of Morocco.
We
arrived in Essaouira by about 6:30. The temperature here is much
cooler than it was on the outskirts of Marrakech, which was in the
high 30's. Here it is windy, cool and humid. According to Rachid
Essaouira means windy city. Tonight we are staying at a riad, a small
local guesthouse with several floors and a terrace overlooking the
city. A riad is a home with an interior garden or courtyard. After we
moved in we met up again and went out to a nice seafood restaurant in
the medina. Rachid picked a seafood place as he knew that most of us
were getting tired of tajine or couscous. We
had a good dinner and then headed back where I worked on catching up
on the blog because the internet connection was stronger and I could
finally upload some photos.
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