The Final Countdown: Moulay Bousselham and Asilah

As our final months in Morocco tick slowly away, Jacqueline and I are doing our best each weekend to visit some of the many sites that we haven't yet hit.

Several weeks ago, we headed up the coast to Moulay Bousselham (مولاي بو سلهام), a quiet fishing village poised between the Atlantic and a large inland lagoon. The Merdja Zerga ("Blue Lagoon") is a major pit stop for migratory birds traveling between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.

We checked into the Villa Nora, a friendly bed and breakfast perched high above the beach, and made ourselves comfortable.

While I love animals, I'm no bird watcher. In fact, I almost always prefer to watch bird watchers than to actually watch birds. With no such entertainment in sight, I opted to skip the lagoon this trip. Jacqueline was equally uninterested, probably more out of a desire to avoid haggling for a boat ride with a crew of overeager and underbathed local fishermen. So we wandered down to the beach.

We read, we napped, we swam.

The Atlantic held a shade of pale, tropical blue, and swirled unpredictably around the beach's rock formations. Waves crashed toward the shore, then were turned back and began to break in reverse. Fishermen stood among the tides, casting their nets quickly, between hops to avoid the crushing breakers that attacked from all sides.

This was my excitement for the afternoon. After days of staring at a computer screen, it was perfect.

Jacqueline has more here.

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This past weekend, we hopped aboard the northward train, and disembarked several hours later beside the town of Asilah (أصيلة), on the Atlantic halfway between the ports of Larache and Tangier.

Asilah itself remains, nominally at least, a fishing port. But its charmingly colorful medina attracts so many European tourists - including many who have settled permanently - that tourism has clearly eclipsed the town's traditional trade.

In Asilah's bright murals, immaculate streets, reserved shopkeepers, and relaxed atmosphere, Jacqueline and I felt we had escaped Morocco. It was unlike any other town we have visited here so far. Where tourism seems only to increase resentment, racism, and crime in most Moroccan cities, in Asilah it seems to have had a beneficial effect, bringing some elements of modernization and tranquility. The result is a wholly pleasant destination - clean, free of trash and graffiti, and chock full of art galleries, cafés, and fresh seafood restaurants. There were, to be sure, a small handful of obnoxious faux guides as usual, but Jacqueline and I managed to ignore them and simply enjoy ourselves.

For an afternoon, we strolled through the medina, past the El-Khamra Tower and through the Palais de Raissouli, to the Koubba of Sidi Mamsur, a small shrine whose roof gives a perfect view of the city's sea wall, lit by the sunset. We dawdled over trinkets, snapped pictures of murals and vivid doorways.

That night we found a room at Hotel Azayla in the new city, and a heaping seafood meal outside Bab al-Kasaba.

Yet on that first evening in town, long before we grew sleepy, Jacqueline and I ran out of sites to see, and found ourselves meandering in circles. Ultimately, it was our only lament: that Asilah was not larger, was not quite big enough to justify never leaving.

Comments

[Jim March]

Hi Andrew and Jaci!
Wow, I know Alice would love these places but especially the ocean. From one of Jaci's pictures, it looks like you can body surf, one of Alice's favorite things to do! She's at work now, but I'll show her your photos; she'll be so excited. While I'm not so sure about the honey on cardboard, the home fries appeal to me. I hope they were good! Take care...