It’s hard to believe that my cruise is coming to an end. This will be our last port of call before getting off in Lisbon, Portugal in two days.

Today we docked in Safi, Morocco. There were three options: a half-day tour of Safi, a 12-hour tour to Marrakech or an 8.5-hour tour to Essaouira. Having been to Marrakech 4 times, I opted for the shorter tour to Essaouira. The history of Essaouira is very long so again, if interested, you can read about it all on Wikipedia.

I love this small, historic, seaside city. But we had our first day of rain on the entire cruise. I grabbed an umbrella on the gangway, luckily it was not too cold or windy.

We had a 2.5-hour ride to Essaouira with a rest stop along the way. Of course, it was at another argan oil cooperative, but the restrooms and mint tea were welcome.

It was raining pretty hard when we started our walking tour, thank goodness my shoes are mostly still waterproof. It was a Sunday morning so not much open yet and not crowded.

I love the variety of all the doors in Morocco.

We stopped in a workshop of Thuya wood (a member of the Cypress family). I have several pieces from previous visits, so I didn’t need to shop.

Morocco loves it cats. Most are friendly and love to be petted – so I had to oblige them.

We walked up on the city walls with its views of the coastline.

We visited a Jewish history museum and Synagogue. There was a large Jewish population in North Africa long before the Arabs arrived in the 7^th century. There is still a large Jewish population in Morocco, and they live there in peace.

We finished the walk in Orson Wells Square – he spent a lot of time in Essaouira when filming Othello.

We only had 35 minutes to explore on our own. Luckily the rain had let up. But I really wanted to see the harbor – I love the blue fishing boats.

And today the harbor was full of fish markets with a wide variety of fresh catches of the day.

I loved this little girl obviously eating something strange – I think it was a sea urchin.

After running around the harbor, I had 10 minutes to shop. Luckily, I can power shop with the best of them, and I got what I wanted in the closest shop to the meeting point. We then walked to the bus and rode a short way to a beautiful hotel for a delicious buffet lunch.

Wouldn’t you know, about the time we were leaving, the sun started to come out. If we had had more time, I would have loved to re-create some shots I got on my last visit to Essaouira in 2013. They rent horses to ride on the beach. I told one of the owners that I didn’t want to ride, I wanted him to gallop through the surf for me. He was really puzzled but did it. I showed him my photos, and he loved it and did it over and over for me. Here are two photos from that day:

Like I said, I love Morocco and hope to come back someday and spend a couple of months here. I love the culture, history, food, sights and would also like to see more of the wildlife. A girl can hope…

We got back to ship by mid-afternoon and I had to start packing to go home ☹. Luckily, we had a day at sea to get it done.