Essaouira

Ok-I need to finish this trip up. This will be one rambling post as my original was lost and I made the stupid mistake of tossing the hand written notes thinking it was all online. Learned lesson there.

The small child that sampled all the drinks yesterday is sick (not surprised on that one), so is her mom. Today, we pack up from the mountains and head to the coast. It is a long windy drive in a small van with widows that barely open and if they do the smell of exhaust impales your breathing passages and makes an already car sick stomach more so. I gave all the kids their bracelets and some Dramamine and end up taking a migraine pill for myself.

We make a side stop to a village that has a nice little garden to walk around. This was meant to show us the saffron plants, but they are already harvested so we really just see plants that grow in nice warm sunny places-nothing new to a Californian but different for our fellow British travelers. Today is a holiday…damn, I wish my post didn’t disappear I had so much on this.

Not only is it New Year’s Eve, but Aid el Kabir as well. This is one the oldest and most important religious festivals of the Islamic world, based on when Abraham was going to sacrifice his son Isaac, for God. Each Muslim household that can afford to do so will sacrifice a sheep; the head of the household turn’s the animal’s head toward Mecca and then slits the throat. None of the animal is wasted-our guide told us that the family eats 1/3, gives 1/3 to the poor and shares 1/3 with family, friends, or neighbors. The women of the household cast a few small pieces of the heart and liver into the corners of each room in order to keep away evil. So along our route we see gatherings of the people in each village on the mountainsides participating in special prayers and ‘masses.’ It is an arresting view to see an entire village dressed in white robes against the red mountains.

Of course this festival attracts controversy and outrage around the world from animal rights workers, who see the ritual as exceptionally cruel as the animal is conscious when their throat is slit and causes a bloody and painful death.
We had to drive all the way back to Marrakech in order to get to the coast-the roads are supposed to be better this way. Along the roads in random open fields we see plumes of black smoke and smell burning flesh. It appears that the portion given to the poor is the head of the sheep-they are all being roasted on makeshift fires. Kids no older than ours proudly hold up the blackened heads as we drive by. The smell is sickening and I wonder how long it will linger.
After 3 hours of driving and a lunch stop, we arrive in Essaouria. This is a nice sleepy coastal area. After checking into our rooms, we spent the remainder of the day walking around the town center and relaxing. Unfortunately while walking around the town center we did encounter one too many roasting sheep heads down small streets. After a pizza dinner, we retired to our room and fell asleep to the sound of dance music from the New Year’s party in the restaurant below.