Alizé is a French word meaning “trade wind”. Thats what they call the wind here. According to Google, the trade winds are the permanent east-to-west prevailing winds that flow in the Earth’s equatorial region (between 30°N and 30°S latitudes). They are also called easterlies. I’m sure everyone has heard of the nor’easters. The easterlies off the coast of Africa (where we are) are where the nor’easters and hurricanes originate. They often begin as a small storm or thunderstorm cluster moving off the coast of Africa or an area of low pressure known as an easterly wave in the Atlantic. They eventually find their way into the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, the North America mainland or swing out to sea in the open Atlantic. 
The trade winds are very common here. This week, the winds were kicking up the Atlantic ocean on both sides of Morocco. If you look at a map in an aerial view, Essaouira is right on a curved tip of land so the wind blowing the ocean around the rocks can make for some amazing sights.
We could hear the howling of the wind from our apartment and it was pretty loud since we are on the 3rd floor. Looking out over the Medina, we could see the waves splashing against the rock. We decided we would go out in the afternoon and take some photos during our walk. It did not disappoint.
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| Seagulls aren’t just white. Many different species here. |
The waves were magnificent. You can become mesmerized with the sound and the motion of the splashing against the rocks. After a while, Chuck was able to figure out when a large wave would hit by watching the movement of ocean. And he was pretty much right each time. When we ran out of film (ha ha), we walked around a different way through the Medina and ended up on the older part. This area we believed was more for the locals.
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| Fresh Moroccan bread. |
It had so many different types of food and items not really partaken by tourists. Unless, you were long term like us. We decided to look for some of the Moroccan bread and we found some! I had to push my way along with the other ladies, fondling the bread and grab what I wanted.
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| Street lined with Moroccan flags. |
I handed 3 large pieces of the bread, about the size of a 9-10 inch pizza, to the guy to wrap up. They were still warm so we knew they were fresh. The cost was 4.50 dirham which is barely $.50 in USD. The local fresh food’s in the Medina are much more reasonable in cost than at the supermarket. Since we have been here and visited the supermarket three times so far, our groceries have been a little pricey for this area. (in my opinion)
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| The older part of the Medina where mostly food products are sold. |
We are spending about $80 USD on average per week. In Spain and France, it was around $30-$50 USD per week and we haven’t really changed our eating habits. Until today, I couldn’t understand why everything here is so very inexpensive but the food at the market was ridiculous in comparison! Now I know.
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| Another colorful sunset. God loves to paint! |
The locals buy much of their food supplies in the Medina at a fraction of the cost at the supermarket. Tonight we warmed up some of that delicious bread with butter and made baked chicken with some seasoning I brought from the US and added a little corn. A great meal! We usually only eat out once or twice in each location. The majority of our meals are cooked at our holiday home. This is how we save money as well as stay healthy. Well, except for carbs in the bread that Chuck insists we eat so much of! Oh well, just have to walk more.
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| Pretty daisies lining the walkway. |
May God bless you always!
Chuck & Lea Ann
WorldTravelReynolds 