Recent Posts

Riads and Dars, part 3
This is the last of a series of posts which document our experiences in several traditional moroccan hotels, known as riads or dars. The earlier posts are here and here. In Fes, we tried to stay in Riad Fes but it was fully booked. The riad is situated in the medina and guests are expected…

Port of Essaouira – part 2
Port of Essaouira – part 1 is here. The ocean off Morocco’s Atlantic coast is one of the richest fishing grounds in the world. This post is about human-scale commercial fishing. Have you heard the seminal 1994 collaboration of Ry Cooder and Ali Farka Toure – Talking Timbuktu ? The all-time favs here are “Ai…

Port of Essaouira – part 1
Essaouira (الصويرة; in Portuguese: Mogador) is a historical city on Morocco’s Atlantic coast. We spent a couple of days in Essaouira after our trip to the desert. It was nice to see some water after days of sand and rocks. The medina of Essaouira, formerly named Mogador (name originating from the Phoenician word Migdol meaning…

Kasbah at Telouet, Home of the Pasha of Marrakech
On our way to Essaouira from Ouarzazate, we took a detour on P1506 to see Telouet Kasbah, but passing Ait Benhaddou (a United Nations Word Heritage site which regrettably we did not stop to explore). To accompany your reading, highly recommended is Stephen Micus’s quiet contemplative Nomad Songs published by ECM. We arrived at Telouet…

Road trip in Morocco #4 – from Ouarzazate to Essaouira
This is the last post of a series that documented our second road trip across Morocco that took us from the desert camp at Merzouga to Essaouira on the Atlantic coast. It was a jaunt of about 1000 km made in 3 days. You can follow our Westbound trip to Ouarzazate on this blog here…

Atlas Studios, Ouarzazate
Atlas Studios is a film studio located about 5 km (3 miles) west of the city of Ouarzazate, the second town where we spent a night on our Merzouga-to-Essaouira road trip across Morocco. You can follow our trip to Ouarzazate on this blog here and here. According to Wikipedia, measured by acreage, it is the…




















