photo theme: some flowers of Morocco

I would like to present a series of flower photos taken in various places around Morocco during the past eight months - enjoy!

vacation in Marrakech & Essouira

My Mom and I traveled to Marrakech & Essouira on a nice little trip last week. Now that she's back in America I'm back at my site wondering if it will ever get back to normal (doubt it). There's always a lot going on.

It was fun to get away for a bit and get to visit, see some new parts of Morocco, meet other volunteers, eat lots of good food, do lots of souk shopping, and relax.

Djemaa el-Fna is the main square and center of activity in Marrakech. It is a lot of fun and really comes to life at night. It's full of food, music, dancing, snake charming, henna artists, merchants, and storytellers. It's popular with tourists both Moroccan and international. This is a stand with excellent spiced tea.




And I can't forget the fresh-squeezed orange juice stands. Refreshing, delicious, and cheap! Plus lots of good snacks like apricots, figs, peanuts, dates, and almonds.




The Marjorelle gardens in Marrakech are absolutely beautiful. They were designed by the French artist in the 1920s and also house a museum that happened to be closed when we were there. The stunning blue is everywhere and is patented as Marjorelle Blue. There were so many French tourists there it was unbelievable - I'd say at least 95%.




A three and a half hour trip westward to the Atlantic coast and we arrived in Essouira. There was a lot of great shopping and lazy cats. I think this photo presents these facts quite clearly.




I hadn't been to the coast since I was in Rabat almost 8 months earlier. It's quite a different world from my inland home. The coastal cities were important to the colonisers and Essouira was fortified by Portugese many centuries ago and known as Mogador.




This was also the first time in such a long time that I'd gotten to have real seafood. It was delicious, especially grilled at the popular stands next to the port. Of course you could also buy fresh and do it yourself.




Blue boats of Essouira.....




The busy port with its colorful ships and the old fortress - I like how they contrast.




The grilled seafood lunch stands that I mentioned earlier, can you see why this is funny?




A camel ride on the beach - touristy? Yeah. But it was a fun experience. You're pretty high off the ground on a camel. And mine (seen here) had a bit of an attitude. It would bite the other one, complain a lot, and wanted to stay in the river drinking water forever as I was on the verge of falling off. Nice views and fun times.




Back to Marrakech at the Marrakech Museum. It's in a nicely converted riad (rich family's house). Interior windows seem to be quite popular in Morocco (my house has two). I like the ironwork on the windows. Since they're beautiful they at least seem a bit less like prison bars.




There was an exposition of traditional rugs from all over Morocco (including my region). They seem like they should be old when in fact they almost all say they were made in the second half of the twentieth century.




A very nice vacation, thanks Mom!