“Hikayat” in Essaouira

For the weekend, we all loaded into a bus again for another adventure – this time, to the beautiful coastal town of Essaouira, only about a 2 or 3 hour bus ride from Marrakech. Along the way, we caught a glimpse of some goats in trees, which looks exactly as ridiculous as it sounds. I didn’t manage to snap a picture in time but here’s one I pulled off the Internet:

 

As we approached Essaouira, upon seeing the ocean outside the bus window, I immediately felt a rush of both excitement and peace. Since I grew up so close to the beach, and since my mom instilled a love of the ocean in me from an early age, I always feel at home when I see the ocean. It is such a powerful force and has some type of grounding power for me.

 

 

The excitement increased even more as we rolled up to our lodging for the night – a super swanky hotel nestled between the high walls of Essaouira’s medina. The lobby greeted us with intricate mosaic walls, a lush fountain, beautifully patterned couches, and mint tea of course. The hotel was built right into the wall by the ocean, so we had an incredible view from our room, which we spent a good ten minutes or so freaking out about by sticking our heads out the windows and yelling about how awesome it was.

 

 

After getting accustomed to our new digs, we set out in small groups to explore the city. A few friends and I stumbled upon a restaurant with a rooftop terrace to eat lunch, where we munched on pizzas as we admired the ocean view and soaked up some vitamin D. Afterwards, we wandered around Essaouira’s medina for a while. It was way more relaxing to shop there than in Marrakech, as there weren’t as many people everywhere and less pressure coming from the shopkeepers (usually in the Marrakech medina we are pelted with nonstop calls of “come look, very nice, student price!” and “Jennifer Lopez? America?,” etc.). Although there were lots of tourists everywhere, I am starting to learn that certain places are touristy for a reason – that being that they are super beautiful and nice. I shopped around for a bit and found some good souvenirs (trying my hand a bit unsuccessfully at bargaining in Darija) until it was time to reconvene as a big group again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the evening, we all met up and walked to an old Portuguese fortress for some traditional Moroccan storytelling. Moroccan storytelling, or hikayat, is a tradition dating back thousands of years but one that is in danger of becoming extinct. A venue called Café Clock in Marrakech is a place where many young Moroccans have been trying to revive this tradition by telling stories in both Darija and English for its patrons. They are trained by an elderly man named Haj, who is the last master storyteller in Marrakech. These storytellers are committed to passing on Morocco’s oral tradition to future generations and keeping their Moroccan heritage alive. Storytellers are called “guardians of wisdom,” as they posses the unique power to pass on experience, wisdom, culture, and morals through their engaging tales. We were lucky enough to be accompanied by four such guardians on our trip, including the master storyteller Haj himself!

They treated us to a few stories atop the roof of the Portuguese fortress as the sun was setting. Haj performed one for us in Darija, and we also heard some from the apprentices in English. Afterwards, we broke up into small groups to discuss the stories we heard and the storytelling tradition. In this discussion, we asked Haj how many stories he knows, and he pointed to his toes and then the top of his head, saying he is filled from top to bottom with them. He also said to tell a story is to enter peoples’ hearts, a phenomenon we got to experience firsthand.

The next morning, we woke up for breakfast at the hotel and then set out on our own to explore some more. We wandered to the ocean wall, where you could walk around and look at the ocean, on a pathway lined with old cannons. I’m not sure what the historical significance of this area is, but I do know that it’s a Game of Thrones filming location!

We also wandered around the port for a bit, which was filledwith blue boats, seagulls, and lots and lots of fresh seafood for sale. The vendors had their catches of the day splayed out, from plain fish to octopi to eels to manta rays (too bad I don’t like seafood!). We found another yummy restaurant for lunch with an even better view than the place before.  We had a bit of time for some last minute shopping and then unfortunately it was time to pack up our bags and head home. I was disappointed to leave so soon, because I felt like I could’ve spent many days relaxing there by the ocean. It was such a nice getaway from the bustling busy-ness of everyday life in Marrakech. It was probably one of my favorite places we’ve visited so far – maybe I’ll get to go back one day, insha’allah!