Salé

 One thing that we didn't miss on the islands or during passages is mosquitoes. As a result we didn't bother closing the hatch with the netting and were woken up in the middle of the night by the nasty creatures. Leo got it much worse than anyone else and his skin was covered by red spots which we tried to soothe with Benadryl.

Our goal for the day was to explore Salé, the town north of the Bou-Regreg river, and its medina. The town walls are very well maintained and look "too new" to be authentic.

Inside the walls the quality of upkeep of buildings and streets varies. Some streets are nice and clean, and then a few steps later one finds an area once occupied by a building that is filled with trash.

Through the central streets spreads a central market which blends into Kharazzine, an endless collection of stalls that sell pretty much everything. We started the walk by trying a prickly pear from a vendor. He was cutting off the ends of the fruit and the customer would then take the flesh. Quite yummy and refreshing.

Deeper in the market we found pretty much everything one could need: spices, breads, sweets, fruit. Then there is a street with clothing and shoes.

Further on we saw fish vendors. Some were squatting and cleaning squid and fish, flushing it in the bucket of water. The smell was a bit overpowering. A few steps further there was a meat stall, then a stall selling live chicken, the next one with eggs, and then one further down hoofs of (we're guessing) cow and goats. And then we also found little chicks.

We exited the medina and went to a Syrian restaurant for lunch. We thought we were ordering somewhat conservatively: appetizers for 3 to share and a family meat platter to share. For the equivalent of 45 USD we got soooo much food that we had to take more than half of it back to the boat.

On the way back we did a small tour through Medersa Merinide, a former boarding school that operated for six centuries until 1927. The students were expected to first master Koran and then would get instruction in science, medicine and philosophy. The tour guide spoke French slowly and clearly, so that even Peter could understand quite a bit about the history of ornaments that cover multiple epochs.

And the view of the surrounding area from the roof terrace is lovely!

Back on the boat we had a siesta and then decided to go for a swim on the beach. The number of people on the beach and in the water was astounding! So we only waded through the water and then walked back along the beach. It was curious observe people. Boys & men do not differ from what one would see in the Western world: long shorts, no T-shirt. Women had more of a diversity: some wrapped fully (although we didn't see any niqabs), some in shorts and T-shirts. Not a single swimsuit. Many families had a serious setup: a table surrounded by chairs, and it was clear that they spent the entire day on the beach.

At the marina we met a British couple, who remarked that we were brave to fly the American flag off our stern. "When you get to the Caribbean, you shouldn't do that, cause people will not be nice to you," said the woman, who is originally from Colombia. It's nice to think that we're detached from politics while on vacation, but it's not entirely so. They also explained to us why the marina is so safe: one of the piers is reserved for the royal family, and even though most of their boats left for Tangiers, the guards are around at all times.

Not surprisingly, nobody was hungry at night. We chilled on the boat listening to the live music from the  nearby bar. It is quite hard to describe what we heard. There were a bunch of percussion instruments, something that sounded like violin and a singer. Maybe there was something bass-like as well, but it wasn't the dominant force in the monotonic cacophony. The violin typically used one or two notes, sometimes it would go extravagant and go a fifth up from the dominant. The soloist was not very generous in his vocal range either, but was quite engaging and would frequently inject "hey" or something along those lines. At the end of one of the songs they played a loud neighing sound. Peter and I started laughing. And then they sang Happy Birthday. Over the same general 2-3 note violin accompaniment and interjections like "tschi-tschi". I guess Saturday night was the night to celebrate birthdays, cause we heard the song at least 5 times. The singing wrapped up shortly after midnight as we were falling asleep.