A Taste of the Seaside in Essaouira

Looking from the fortifications to the seaside city of Essaouira

Morocco has been fought over by many civilizations, tribes, kingdoms and more. As European navigation and sailing approved, the Portuguese began to seek out trade markets and build forts along the Atlantic coast of what is now the kingdom of Morocco. A flashpoint where Europeans fought North Africans was the town of Essaouira. It is a popular day trip from Marrakech, so I booked one to see this city of blue and white on the sea.

The blue and white seaside city of Essaouira is a pleasant day trip from Marrakech

Essaouira is a port town with a harbor bursting at the seams with blue fishing boats, hauling in loads of fish for the local market and throughout the country. Protecting the harbor are fortifications built during the wars, bristling with cannons, stone towers, walls, and bastions. Wherever I find an old fort, I am happy to wander the walls. I enjoyed taking pictures of the city across the inlet, it’s whitewashed walls gleaming in the sunshine. I examined the huge cannons (24 pounders, is my guess for my military history readers). Each brass cannon was inscribed with where it was cast and in what year. Just past the harbor was a tiny island with an even older, crumbling stone fort.

The fortified bastion protecting the entrance to Essaouira is a wonderful place to wander

And everywhere you looked, seagulls circled above, landed, roosted, strutted proudly, and squabbled good naturedly with each other. I took pictures where the seagulls seemed to be manning the cannon, calling for a load of chain shot to bring down a vessel’s masts. Other shots had the seagulls eyeing me up and down, as if sizing up the fort’s newest recruit. It was fun composing photographs with these fearless, white birds. I probably spent close to an hour wandering the walls, climbing up in the tower, or peering out the typical, rounded Portuguese style sentry points. I would switch between my normal lens, my telephoto, and iPhone like an artist eyeballing new angles on a subject.

Seagulls are a constant sight posing wheeling around the skies, and riding the wind

Eventually, we descended from the fort and walked across the esplanade towards the city. Wandering through one of the gates, we walked along the streets and alleyways looking for a likely cafe for lunch. We settled on one advertising its menu of the day. This was the first one I had noticed, but would discover it was THE thing for restaurants catering to tourists in Morocco. Like with my grilled meat experience in Marrakech’s square, we began with bread and a tasty vegetable soup of some sort. Then the mountain arrived! We had ordered Couscous (think a rice-like wheat) with vegetables and chicken. The bowl containing the food was piled in a giant cone easily eight inches high. The base of Mount Calorie was the couscous, the slopes were various veggies, and the meat clung to the summit. Truly, a family of four could dine on the amount of food we were given for $12!

The beautiful views were my favorite thing about Essaouira - wandering and composing photos

Being a coastal city, rain showers blew through Essaouira regularly. I was reminded of an Englishman’s description of weather along the coast of Cornwall (England’s southwestern tip): “We don’t get weather here. We get bits of weather - a little sun,a little cloud, some rain, more sun, more clouds…” That description fit Essaouira perfectly. Still, it didn’t stop us from wandering the city and tracking down ATMs to withdraw the necessary dirhams we would need for our upcoming Sahara Safari. We sought out picturesque deserted alleyways and crowded market streets. We used the iPhone to locate the recommended museum of culture to find it closed. That seemed to be a trend in Morocco - museums closed for renovation.

Market streets were busy in Essaouira, while quiet alleys were deserted

We shopped a little in the markets, more “scouting” for future purposes. This was only day three in Morocco and we were staying for 10 days. We explored the harbor, photographing the brightly painted boats and fishermen selling their pungent catch from the Sea. Those who know me understand I want nothing to do with a seafood meal. I always tell the incredulous who can’t believe a world traveler dislikes seafood that there is a reason for the phrase, “Something smells fishy…”!it was cool to see the sheer variety in their catch, including some horrible looking sea beasties that I couldn’t identify.

The fishermen’s stalls selling their fresh catch were interesting and a little pungent

We began to meander towards where our driver would pick us up. I took out the telephoto lens to get shots of the kitesurfers sawing through the waves trailing behind their brightly colored sails. I zoomed in on the three masted sailing ship anchored a couple hundred yards off the beach. I maxed out my lens to get an image of an array of wind turbines built on an island further offshore. In the desert and mountains I would later see lots of solar arrays bringing power to those too remote to tap into the nation’s electrical grid. In fact, the world’s largest solar tower is currently in Morocco, and the count has plans to build more to export electricity to Europe.

The blue boats lined up and crowding the harbor of Essaouira were a colorful sight

Eventually, our driver spotted us and scooped us up for the three hour drive back to Marrakech. It had been a very enjoyable day amidst the sun, sea, and the fortified city of Essaouira.

Offshire wind turbines beyond the Essaouira harbor

I was really glad we visited Essaouira while in Marrakech