Rooftop Garden, Riad Le Lieu in Tiznit
The past couple of days have been pretty chill. I needed it, I think, after the chaos and commotion of the music festival, fantastic though it was. I’ve been staying at the Riad Le Lieu in Tiznit, a lovely little hotel just inside the kasbah. After getting me checked in the first night, Ayesha had to leave town for a bit, but I’ve been looked after by two awesome guys who are really nice and cool as well. I think it’s low season here, so there weren’t too many other people in the hotel while I was there. They had some downtime now and again to sit around and chat with me, which was fun and interesting. Occasionally we had to turn to Google translate for some assistance, but for the most part we got our points across and had some good disussions.
Cool grafitti at Anglou Beach
One of the guys, Jihad, likes to mix music, and actually has a channel on youtube that he (and I think one other guy) uploads songs onto, La Belle Musique. During the day, when he has downtime, I get to hear him mixing songs and I usually really like his style.
Woman at Anglou Beach
At Anglou Beach
I got some advice from Najib, the other guy, about how to get to Anglou Beach from Tiznit for my second day in town. I’d walked around Tiznit a bit on my first day and seen some of the sights, and had heard from Issam that Anglou was also beautiful. It wasn’t too far away and was accessible by bus or taxi. So I spent the day there, enjoying myself on the beach, which was indeed lovely with beautiful rock formations that looked like they had been swept across the beach by the wind.
Anglou Beach
The Goat Cheese and Tomato Salad-of-Art by Jihad
One night, I asked Najib for recommendations of places to go to eat. He told me that the best place to eat in town was Riad Le Lieu. I thought he was just talking up his hotel, or saying that because he should. So I went out for pizza in town. But the next night I made plans to eat at the Riad. Jihad is the cook there. I definitely should have eaten there every night. He is an amazing cook! The first thing he made for me was a crazy-beautiful goat cheese, tomato, and basil salad. It was a work of art. I couldn’t believe it – it was almost a shame to eat it, but I did my best! I also had a boar tangine that night. Yeah, wild boar. It was good, made with prunes and raisins, the way I had enjoyed in Fes, however, he added apples….mmmm!
Wild Boar Tangine
He offered me camel as well, which I decided to take him up on on my last day at the Riad. I had planned to take a grande taxi to Legzira Beach, further south down the coast – almost to Sidi Ifni. I had seen some pictures of the place after Isaam told me about it in Essaouira and realized I absolutely had to stay on the actual beach, so I booked a room in Legzira itself. Since I was going to take a taxi, I wasn’t in a big hurry to leave, and I had internet at my hotel in Tiznit, so I wanted to wait a little for some news about how a family member’s surgery went before going. After packing and working on the computer all morning, I told Jihad I would take him up on that camel he had offered me. I’ve never tried camel meat – I don’t think I’d had wild boar before either, so this was all sorts of new stuff for my taste buds! The camel meat was not bad, actually. Kind of a mix between pork and beef, (with a dash of chicken flavour thrown in, ’cause just about everything tastes like chicken, right?) He cooked it in a tangine the way I liked it (yay!), and the sweetness of the fruits really flavoured the meat nicely. All in all, a delicious farewell meal.
Cool Faucet in Courtyard of Riad Le Lieu
Afterwards, I decided to get ready to head down to Legzira. Najib and Jihad were aware of my plan to get a taxi. They were so great – they offered me a ride to the taxi stand, just outside the kasbah, which I (with my luggage) gratefully accepted. Then, when we got there, Jihad haggled with the taxi drivers for me, while Najib and I ran to an ATM.
The transport was kind of tricky for Jihad to set up, because the grande taxis run between the towns only along specified routes. The hotel I was staying at on the beach in Legzira was off the route between the towns. Often, the taxis stop along the way to let off or pick up passengers, but they don’t really go off the path at all. We had tried to call the hotel and see if they could pick me up the few kilometers’ drive from the beach to the main road, but there was only one guy at the hotel, who couldn’t leave. So Jihad arranged it for me to get a ride to Sidi Ifni and then get dropped off by the guy on his way back. It was so great of him to arrange it. I would have had a bit of difficulty doing that because of both the language barrier and the fact that the drivers would have tried to way overcharge me because I’m a foreigner. I was so appreciative of both of the guys’ help. They were great and really made my stay in Tiznit enjoyable. I’m glad I stopped there.
And then I was off, one of 6 people plus a driver crammed into a grande taxi, headed for Legzira Beach by way of Sidi Ifni – the crowded, barely-room-to-breathe, slightly-out-of-the-way, scenic route, but cheaper than the bus!
Fisherman at Anglou Beach