Day 14 drive to the coast

After breakfast on the roof, we left our splendid riad and set out for the coastal city of Essaouira. It is a 3 hour drive and after 1.5 hours the landscape changed dramatically. Cities were more modern and the rolling hills were pretty. We stopped in the area where argon oil is produced first to take pictures of goats in trees, and then in an argail oil cooperative to see a demonstration of how argan oil is made. This actually is not the time when goats get up the trees to eat argan nuts, but a couple of entrepreneurial farmers got them into the trees so tourists buses stop and they can collect some money from them. It was quite an amazing site. Essaouira is a beach resort city. Even though it’s low Season now, there are lots of mostly French tourist and lots of shops catering to tourist trade. Lunch was fresh fish by the harbor. We picked the fish from the ice display and they barbequed them for us. We spent the afternoon walking all the shops and buying some more Moroccan stuff. Prices here are lower than in Fez or Marrakech, and the selection is pretty good. Then back to our riad, which is located at the tip of the little peninsula so with our corner room we have a 180 degree sea view. We asked if we could get wine with dinner and were told no alcohol here but bellboy/doorman said he would take us to where we could buy some. We followed him down many dark alleys then through a doorway and up 2 flights to a restaurant which had a bar and sold us a bottle of wine While traversing the alleys we saw a man with a bag of cat food feeding a group of cats. Morocco is definitely a cat country. There are hundreds or thousands of cats in every area and all look happy and well fed.