No Donkey, No Monkey, No Dog

We arrived in Muhammedia, Morocco yesterday. As we dropped anchor, we were welcomed by the mid-day call to prayer resounding through the town. Muhammedia is a city half industrial and half beach resort – the harbor draws a stark line between it. As it’s been a full moon over the last two nights, this leads to breathtaking sunrises, sunsets, and moonrises in the oil refinery air.

This morning started with a quick bowl of cereal, some briefings on Morocco, and then the dinghy run to shore. It was a bit of a slow start once at the dock – I think our guide was sorting the final remaining details out with clearing us through customs for a day excursion to Casablanca. By 10 AM or so, we were loaded onto a typical tour bus (one of the ones with airliner seats and a couple TVs). We were whisked all over town. We saw the fantastic huge mosque – 3rd largest in the world. Later saw some large villas in the upper side of town (looked like Beverley Hills in LA). The celebrities here tend to be oil related – Saudi princes and such. Something was said about Bridget Bardou but I couldn’t quite catch it from our tour guide “mr. sugar”. We had a great lunch – tajiin (sp?) which is a dish of a meat (in my case chicken) baked in a special clay pot with veggies and spices. Very tasty. We walked through an open market to get to the restaurant and it was so tempting to stop and purchase fresh goods, but definitely not enough time. Anyhow, there turned out to be other opportunities for fresh foods purchases in Essaouria.