Essaouira

In the morning we walked along the beach back to the medina. Essaouira is also known as “Windy City Africa” and draws hundreds of surfers. In addition to wind surfing, you can also kite surf, sail, quad or if you haven’t had enough of camels yet ride camels.

I was going to buy a rug if the price was right. After visiting a few shops J&M got a large rug for about 1/3 of the asking price. I figured I could piggyback on the deal and get something that looked nice. However, like a guidebook pointed out, many shops are willing to give a good deal for their first customer and being their potential second customer they weren’t willing to offer me a competitive price. I may be native but definitely not stupid. I didn’t know bartering still exists as J&M were able to get a scarf in exchange for his stainless steel water bottle. Too bad I didn’t have anything of value other than my camera.

I’ve learned that the key to getting a good deal and not get ripped off is knowing the fair value of the goods you are interested in purchasing, stand your ground and be prepared to walk away. In a few instances shopkeepers ran after their customers after they walked away, but this didn’t always happen and sometimes when it did the price was still sky high. I am not much of a haggler but it was still fun to try. By the end of it I had heard it all: "big carpet, small price", "special price for you, my friend", "my <insert product here> is best quality" when the same thing is sold next door etc.

Hammams here are supposed to be nice so I an appointment to come back later in the evening. I didn't know what to expect but a girl who went earlier in the day told me that she had a large naked woman do her massage. I was mentally prepared for my heavy-set masseur and thankfully he kept his shorts on! I started by sitting in a dimly lit room for 10 mins which felt like a steam sauna, but not as hot. Then he had me lie down on the tile floor and scrubbed me down with some sort of coarse-fabric glove which literally exfoliated me! The buckets of hot water that rinsed off the soap felt nice. He then did stretches for me, some of which I didn't think were possible! I felt uneasy in one particular position where he sat behind me, grabbed my arms and leaned back so I was lying on top of him! Good thing there was no one else to witness it! This was followed by some sort of mud/clay paste and a short massage, again on the floor. He was leaning over me to do the massage and I was concerned that he might lose balance and fall down on me. Luckily I walked out unscathed, except much lighter from the exfoliation. I was glad to have experienced it but probably won't do it again.

We had an extremely late dinner that night and on the way back we were offered hashish twice in the medina. Morocco is definitely not a good place to get arrested…

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