Sat 16/07/11 15:26

Today is my second day in Essauaria and I’m feeling a little bit bored. I think the main reason is, is that I’m traveling alone now. I realized that I don’t have the comfort of knowing that there is anyone that I can talk to about my day or hear what they did. After all tours it’s the same, and it’s not like I didn’t expect this, it’s just now that I am living it, it’s a little bit more real. No worries though.

I headed out to get another look at the city, starting with the area outside of the medina. The area I went to adjacent to the wall that shielded the city from the ocean, but isn’t inside the walled area where the shops are. I was surprised how poor the area was. I walked for at least two kilometers along the wall and in that time didn’t see a paved road, though I did on my way back. I remember being in Mexico as a child and walking through the village we were staying at and there was only one paved road, that’s kind of what this reminded me of. I like seeing how people live more than what we’re supposed to see as a tourist, and this morning gave me a feel of just that.

After making my way back to the medina, I wandered my way down alleys watching the shop owners getting ready for the upcoming rush of tourists. They were hanging shoes, sweeping stoops, and stocking up on fruit. I don’t think one of them even noticed me looking in storefront windows and to make it even better, I wasn’t scared off by over zealous sellers because I stayed too long. During this time the medina is beautifully simple. I finally made my way to the end and back to where my hotel is and had a coffee. I went out later and did some shopping, but nothing to talk about.

There was one thing that I thought was just the coolest thing I had happen to me lately. It happened yesterday as I was sitting on the rocks of the beach waiting for the sun to set. The only reason I am adding this here is that I just want to remember it later on. Anyway, I was sitting about 30 meters from the break wall that I talked about earlier on some craggy rocks, possibly lava, but it doesn’t really matter, I was away from the majority of people sitting by myself without anyone around for at least twenty meters. I hear someone coming up, a small boy, maybe 4 or 5 years old looking in the small tide pools for fish/mussels/crabs or whatever. I turn back to the sun and about 2 minutes later the kid is trying to get around me, it’s really craggy rocks that aren’t easy to walk on, I move my feet and after a couple of grunts, he manages to get past and then sits right next to me. He doesn’t look at me, he doesn’t say anything, but he’s sitting like 1 cm from me. I thought it was so cute that he just wanted to sit there, and maybe he felt safe sitting next to a man. I notice that he’s inspecting some of the things that he’d found in the pools, and seemingly unhappy with his find, he throws them back, one by one. After about ten minutes he gets up, and heads away, at about 5 meters away he turns and yells “au revoir.” It was just a cute kid. I think if I had known how sweet kids could be, I’d have had a couple when I was younger.

I had dinner with Fabien and a friend from his hostel that night. It was nice to be around people as it takes a little bit of the sting off of traveling alone.

Tomorrow at 12:30 I head back to Marrakech for the end of the tour…yep, even though I’m traveling alone, and had the last meal two days ago, I’m technically still on the tour, seems kind of strange to me. I think I’m going to head to Tangier next and then cross the Straits of Gibraltar early next week. That’s the plan at least.