Adventures of Ange

The ocean is motion -- it isn't a noun, a single thing. It's a concept, a moving and changing idea. The town where I am is perched on the coast of Africa, welcoming the Atlantic sea to flow into it's harbour. It's beautiful, the breeze, the sand, the waves. I feel it taking over me. The ocean has been very powerful for me so far on this trip, a symbol of change and life and the impermanence of everything. Every day I spend here I feel myself becoming more a part of the beach, the ocean... my clothes are fading to neutral greys and beige and browns. I taste the salt on my lips.

I have rented an apartment here in Essaouira. I am having this marvellous love affair with the guy I mentioned before... I'm not going to hide it. It's exotic and romantic and it feels great.

This week has been beautiful, relaxed and free. A vacation from my trip, really. Morocco to me is almost a paradise... behind it's sometimes scary image. I could live here if I was never alone. I want to come back again and bring a friend, to walk alone in these streets as a girl makes it difficult to keep one's head up. The emotions I have here are so intense.

I have all kinds of notions for my next stop on this trip... I am filled with ideas, imaginations, worries and hopes. It's wonderful; it's life.

I don't even know how I will be able to describe the past week. It's been a whirlwind of activity, new faces and cultures.

The city of Marrakech is a bizarre mixture of old and new, local and foreign. The souks, winding streets of shops filled with colourful jewlery, artisan crafts, clothing rugs and everything beautiful have held a lot of my attention. It is for shopping, socializing, learning. I have learned about berber herbal remedies, cloth dying, woodworking, and how to wrap a proper headscarf. I have tasted the freshly squeezed orange juice and cooked tajines of Jamaa el fnaa.

I visited a hamman, a local bathhouse where you are washed, scrubbed, pumiced, and the optional massage. I spent new years eve in a taxi with three friends, listening to the countdown in arabic and smoking cigars, celebrating with the driver.

I also spent a few nights in Agadir, went up to the old Kasbah, dipped my toes in the ocean, saw a beautiful sunset. Met so many amazing people, the locals there are so friendly, we were taken to a secretive lounge with live music and shishah... good company. We played pool with some Moroccans, visited a goat-covered river valley where we were invited in by six men to a fire-cooked tajine.

I also travelled to the Ourika valley and hiked up the snowy mountain, saw the seven waterfalls. I was not feeling good emotionally; I cried up and down the mountain.

Now I am in Essaouira, still sick and alone; however I have met a beautiful man who I feel as if I have known forever. We talked in his shop all afternoon, he took me to the beach and out for tea. I left my doc martins on the ocean shore, they are free for any person or the sea to adopt. It was finally time. Four years of memory, I feel as if I am somewhat reborn.

By the way, I am not answering emails, french arabic keyboards are nightmarish. But I am reading them all, keep it coming.