Author: Rudy

Well, we’ve booked our next stay: 4 nights in Essaouira, a town that just might be our favourite place in Morocco. It’s just up the coast, about 3 hours. After our inDrive ride here, the poor souls who were squished into the back seat were keen to try another mode of transportation. So we decided to take a bus. The downside is that we need to also have transportation TO the bus station, and also FROM the bus station to our Airbnb in Essaouira. So how far is the bus station here in Agadir? To find out would be this morning’s activity. And what a great opportunity for us to experience local transit!

So after breakfast we headed out. We crossed the street and tried to align ourselves to where Google Maps showed our bus stop. No sign, no bus shelter, no bench. But after a bus slowed down in front of us and then promptly took off, I determined that we probably need to WAVE the bus down.

Both Dave and I were using Google Maps to help us choose the right bus. No direct bus, so we’d also need to transfer to a second bus. So when we finally jumped on a bus that stopped, it was a matter of watching our progress on the phone so we’d know when to get off.

Although the buses diverged from the path Google was suggesting, in the end we got off at a stop that was directly next to the bus depot. But was it? Google said we were right next to it, but the real world didn’t jive with that. After running around for a few minutes, Naomi thought she spotted a bus parking lot back behind the buildings along the street. And that’s how we found the bus station.

I followed some backpackers from Germany to a ticket booth. They recommended the CTM bus line which they had used before. I bought 4 tickets, leaving Sunday at 11:30am. And that was that. We have tickets and we know where the bus station is. What next?

MaryLou had expressed interest in visiting an art gallery, and it turned out there was one on our route back to our apartment. So now that we are ‘experts’ at using the transit system here, we bussed to the art gallery. The Agadir Art Museum has an interesting combination of contemporary art pieces and heritage craft (jewellery and textiles). Our visit there turned out to be a highlight. Well worth the stop.

We decided to walk home from the gallery. Along the way we saw major new construction projects, including a HUGE new theatre. We also passed an impressive large tennis complex. And a truck full of oranges, and date palms along the roadside.

Back at the apartment it was time for lunch. Leftovers from yesterday. Delicious. And then I had a nap. All that exercise…

It was almost bowling time when we organized ourselves and went out for supper. We walked across the road to the beach and had supper at one of the many restaurants that line the promenade. And then it was time to go BOWLING! After a couple of false starts, today looked to be our lucky day. The bowling alley was open, two of the four lanes were open, and the guy at the ticket counter already recognized us as “from Canada”, and was happy to take our money. This was going to be GREAT!

Well, not so fast. We started on lane 1. The order was Dave, Rudy, Naomi, MaryLou. Dave rolled his first ball down the lane. Then the machine that resets the pins came down — and STAYED down! The scoreboard said “an error is detected”. We signalled the manager. Just wait a minute. More customers come in and he gets all busy taking their money — and I think he’s forgotten about us! The man who is bowling in lane 2 yells at the manager, to switch us over to Lane 3 which is empty. More delays. Finally our names come up on Lane 4 scoreboard. We continue the game. Until MaryLou rolls a ball down the lane and the pin-resetter-thing stays down. We ask for help. None coming. Dave and I take a walk to the other end of the lane, and check the machine that isn’t resetting the pins. Hmmm… Don’t know how to fix it. But seeing us snooping in the back of the alley gets the manager guy’s notice. He comes running over, and switches us over to Lane 3. Okay. MaryLou gets a couple of ‘do-overs’. We manage a few more frames before Lane 3 shuts down. This is RIDICULOUS! I take the receipt and walk over to the ticket counter. I want a refund and we’ll get outta here. But no, here comes the supervisor, the guy who ‘likes Canadians’, and he insists we will bowl some more. There remains one working lane, and there are other groups who have bought tickets and are waiting to bowl. But now WE are going to bowl on Lane 2, and possibly finish our game. Which we do. Looks like Naomi, who was VERY hesitant and unenthusiastic about going bowling, really found her game!

After all that activity, it was time for an ice cream. We went back to the same restaurant where we’ve had little cups of ice cream the last few nights. It was a fine way to end our evening.

So after waking up every morning to another bright sunshiny day, today the weather app was correct. Rain. All day. All night. What are we going to do now?

Luckily, we are staying in a lovely apartment and there is room and comfort for all four of us. So we get up, shower, join the Driedgers in the living room where those early-risers have already accomplished much. Breakfast is granola and yogurt and bread with peanut butter and Nutella. That little Nespresso machine in the kitchen only puts out little espressos, but Dave has figured out a way to turn that little puddle of caffeine into a full-size coffee, complete with an impressive pour of Baileys to top it off.

Yep, the app still shows rain for today and tomorrow, but there appears to be a break from 11:00 to 1:00. Well, let’s watch a movie. Our big LG TV with IPTV has just under a million movies available, so I pick “The Forgiven”, starring Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain. The setting for the movie is Morocco, and the Driedgers watched it just before the trip, but they’re okay watching it again. It’s a pretty good way to make lemonade out of lemons — and for the next 2 hours we see a lot of things that are now familiar to us.

And just like that it’s lunchtime. Sandwiches all around. I was a bit too enthusiastic at the beer store the other day, and unless I start putting in a little more effort, we may not finish that ‘twenty-four’ by the time we leave here at the end of the week. I tried to set an example at lunch but the others were not interested.

By the time the table was cleared so had the sky! This was our chance to go out. We decided to take the 20-minute walk to the cable car station, from where we could take a ride up to the top of the mountain that is just north of the city. At the top of that mountain is the Kasbah of Agadir Oufella, a fortress which is one of the most iconic landmarks in Agadir. On the side of the mountain, visible from the beach and lit up brightly at night, is the Arabic inscription — “God, Motherland, King”.

It was cool outside, but now the sun was shining. We bought our tickets and managed to get a car for just the four of us. Nice ride up. Great views of the city, the beach, the marina, the ocean, and the parking lots and green space below.

The rain held off for our entire visit, but there were threatening clouds coming in from the Atlantic. We rode the cable car down and walked back to our apartment. Made it just in time. More rain. At around 5:15 we headed back out, this time to go bowling before going out for dinner. Just in case, each of us wore or brought with us a raincoat. We had read that the bowling alley would open at 4:30, but when we got there the sign informed us that because of Ramadan it would open at 8:30 and stay open until 2:00am. Now what! Well, let’s have an early dinner.

We walked all the way down along the beach, Naomi walking on the sand right next to the sea; the rest of us on the waterfront promenade. The ‘Fusion Kitchen’ restaurant was recommended to us by our Airbnb host. The walk there was about 30 minutes. When we got there we were informed that they were serving only a ‘set Moroccon-style dinner’, not cheap, and not really what we were hungry for. So we stood outside on the umbrella-covered patios and discussed what other options we might have. And then it poured. POURED. Sheets of rain. Although we were wearing rain jackets, our feet were soon soaked with puddle water.

We hopped our way around puddles to the McDonalds sign we saw nearby. But the puddles were too deep and we ended up circumventing McDonalds and took shelter in a large, and very busy, Restaurant Le Nil Bleu. The patio was closed in and they had the heaters going next to some of the tables. We ordered soup and sandwiches and a calzone pizza — and a hamburger and fries that never came — as we waited out the rain.

Naomi went out to take a photo of the sunset at 6:38pm, and that’s when the waiters huddled down at tables next to ours and ‘broke fast’ together. It must be hard to run around serving platters of food to the infidels when you are a Muslim waiter and haven’t had a bite since before sunrise. But in this case, watching all the waiters ‘take a break’ to eat their dinner and my table-mates chowing down on theirs, while I sit there waiting for my friggin’ hamburger didn’t evoke a whole lot of empathy in me.

It was a quick walk back to our apartment. The air was cold but the rain had stopped. Before today, we really hadn’t had a “RAIN DAY” on the entire trip. Today was something different. We were happy to have a warm place waiting for us.

Woke up at 7:00AM. Dave was texting me. There’s a problem with the transportation he’d booked for today. The van that was supposed to take us from Marrakesh to Agadir had ‘cancelled’ our reservation. So I went online with the ‘inDrive’ app — where you put in your destination and invite drivers to ‘bid’ on your ride. A minute or two later I had 5 drivers offering to take us to our next destination. Mohamed offered to drive us in his black Dacia, a car built in Morocco. I thought I was getting a roomy car, since I’d asked for a car that could take FIVE passengers, even though there were just 4 of us. But we all have luggage, and the prospect of sitting in the middle of the back seat, squeezed in between two others, didn’t seem like a pleasant way to spend 3 hours on the road. Although Mohamed had bid on driving us for 479 MAD, once I connected with him the price went up to 700 MAD (about $100CAD). Highway tolls, he said. Okay, I said.

So after breakfast at our hotel, we went back to our room and packed our bags. Man, we are looking forward to sitting in one place for a week straight without having to pack and repack. At around 11:00 Mohamed was at our hotel. He texts me to ask if we can meet him at the BACK door of the hotel. Okay, we can do that. We haul our backpacks and suitcases out to the sidewalk. Now where is that black Dacia car?? Well, there’s a dirty black car parked right here on the road. Now my WhatsApp starts beeping. The driver is not in the car, but he’s telling me that the black car is not locked — we should just get in the car. Now the trunk pops open. We start to pile our luggage into the trunk. The driver shows up and tells us to jump into the car and he does the same. And off we go.

Apparently inDrive (and Uber) are illegal in Morocco, and there were a couple of taxis on the road next to his car, hoping that we needed a taxi. And if they’d seen us getting into the car they would have reported the driver and he’d get a big fine and have his car taken away for 3 days. But then the taxis left, so it was okay for us to get in the car. And now we are IN the car, and the driver assures us that now it’s no problem. Once we’re on the toll road we can make good time and not worry about getting stopped by police.

And we DO speed along. The driver doesn’t slow down even when it seems the lane is not wide enough for us. After about 2 hours of driving we stop for a short coffee and bathroom break. About 45 minutes from the finish line the driver takes an exit off the freeway, drives through the unattended toll gate, then does a quick 180 turn and flashes his RF toll device and we’re back on the freeway. He explains that this is a little ‘trick’ whereby he can ‘save’ a little money and ‘eat better’. I deduce that there was no one to collect the toll for the first 3/4 of the trip, and he’ll only pay for the last quarter.

Along the way Mohamed and I chat. He is friendly, speaks pretty good English, and doesn’t mind ‘visiting’. He is proud of his country, has been and inDrive driver for 2 year, is saving money so he can go to a ‘non-Morrocan’ university so he can brush up on his degree in finance, which doesn’t meet international standards and prevents Mohamed from working in finance.

We arrive in Agadir. Mohamed offers to make a pit stop at a liquor store where foreigners can buy booze. We have to show our passports before entering, to prove that we are not Moroccan citizens who SHOULD be fasting and ‘celebrating’ Ramadan. We clamour back into the car and 5 minutes later we’re at our very new apartment complex. We gather up our luggage and beer and head into the complex. The security guard in the gate office wants to see our passports and copies the info into his ledger. He leads us to entrance ‘K’, up to the 4th floor, apartment number 16. We enter and are met by the local caretaker of the unit. She is lovely. She proceeds to answer our questions as she gives us a tour of the apartment. The place is brand new, and it’s very nice. The Driedgers take the room with 2 single beds, and Naomi and I get the bigger bedroom with the ensuite. The living room is spacious and well furnished, as is the kitchen. Dave does a load of laundry.

At around 5:00PM we head out. There’s not much happening on the big street that separates us from the beach. We cross the street and find a wide, well-lit concrete and stone ‘boardwalk’ that we can follow along the shoreline. It’s not busy, at least not yet. We go for a walk. Yes, there are quite a few restaurants. No, most of them are not open — yet. It’s Ramadan and most restaurants don’t open until folks can break their daily fast, just after sunset. But there are a few restaurants. I suggest we go to the one that advertised wood-fired pizzas. We do that. The women order humongous salads, while Dave and I each order a pizza. And we share.

It’s cold out. The breeze coming off the Atlantic is not a warm one. We go back to our beautiful apartment and sit around until 9:00PM. The Jets are playing San Jose at 1:00PM Pacific time, which is 9:00PM here. I can get the game on my computer but I can’t seem to AirPlay it to the big LG TV on the wall. So Dave and I sit on the couch and peer into my laptop screen. Then, halfway through the third period, I start fiddling with the ‘IPTV’ app on the TV and whadayouknow! I can get all our Canadian channels, including TSN, on TV!

I guess I should have left well-enough alone. The Jets were leading 1-0 until I put them on the big screen — and they couldn’t handle that. Quickly the Sharks tied it up, and quickly they won the game in overtime. Okay, it’s midnight and time for bed. See you tomorrow.

Well, this probably isn’t the right thing to say, but MAN, it sure feels good to know that we won’t be seeing that dented white minivan again. We are in Marrakesh, the last stop on this tour. After unloading our luggage yesterday, we handed our driver Abdul some tip money and said goodbye. And then, to make our joy complete, upon checking into our hotel, the manager informed us that “the bar is open”!  It’s been a while…

We and the Driedgers both booked an additional 2 nights at the Marrakesh Oudaya Hotel to the two that were already booked for us by the tour. Might have been a mistake. The hotel is rated 3.2 on google and I’d say that is generous. But it is so great to finally be able to leave the suitcase open for more than one night before having to repack and load it into the van. So we’re hanging out here until Sunday. Last night Naomi and Dave ‘shopped’ Airbnb and booked a place down in Agadir for a week, beginning Sunday. Looking forward to that.

That sore and swollen ankle of mine hasn’t really improved very much in the 2 weeks since Casablanca. So today I’m sitting in bed with my leg raised up on a pillow, hoping that staying off it a bit will help.

Well, if a guy doesn’t DO anything all day, there will be precious few photos to post. Naomi got a text from the Aussies who were back from their early morning balloon ride, inviting her to join them for an afternoon of shopping. So off she went. I read the New York Times, did Wordle and all the rest of the puzzles,  and watched a few Youtube video highlights of the late night talk shows. Then I went out for a walk around the neighbourhood. There’s a big beautiful cinema just around the corner from us — we’ll have to go see a show one evening. I had a coffee at the hotel cafe. Back in the room to do a couple of crosswords. Dave texts me: Time for a beer? We meet at the hotel bar. MaryLou joins us. Naomi comes through, home from shopping, off to the room for a shower. Hey, look who’s sitting two tables down! It’s Mia, the woman who left the tour a few days ago.

The tour group ‘Last Supper’ is scheduled for 6:45; meet in the lobby at 6:30. Which we do. Some of the people are all dressed up fancy. Alex and Suzanne have opted NOT to join. But Mia WILL be joining us. And so we march off to a restaurant that’s about 3 blocks from the hotel. We’re in the big room upstairs, where the table is set for us. (It’s still okay for folks to smoke inside in a restaurant here in Morocco!) We have one smoker in our group, but the rest of us don’t really appreciate cigarette smoke wafting over our dinners.

Food is good. Service? not so much. Dave and MaryLou’s pizza arrives long after everyone is finished eating. Then Vikram stands up invites each of us to say something that we liked about the trip and our leader. We’ve already each passed our little bundles of ‘tip’ money down to Vikram, and after each of us has had a chance to tell about a highlight of the trip, he hands the packet of money to Malika, our tour guide.

So we’ll postpone movie night to tomorrow — our movie was to start at 9:00pm, and we were already 10 minutes past that time by the time we’d each spoken our piece.

Today we had a ‘free’ day in Essaouira, a port town on the Atlantic coast.

When we went to bed last night, Naomi was really quite ill. But we both slept very well, and Naomi woke up feeling MUCH better — even better than she expected. We went down to the hotel lobby and I had a nice omelette and two cups of good coffee. Quite a few people in our group opted to go for a Hammam Experience, a traditional, multi-step bathhouse ritual focusing on purification, deep exfoliation, and relaxation. (I copied that from our tour brochure — I actually have NO idea what half that stuff means, and it’s not something I’m at all interested in. But Naomi would have gone for it if she hadn’t gotten so sick.)

Instead, the two of us went for a walk after breakfast. We found a way out of our Medina, and out to a big sandy beach. There weren’t many swimmers or sunbathers out in the cold Atlantic waters this morning. But as Naomi walked along the sand, she came upon a beach littered with broken tile pieces. She began collecting tile pieces to take home.

After we left the beach we went for a walk within the Medina. Naomi began taking photos of the interesting doors. There were lots of brightly coloured shops selling leather shoes and purses, slippers, scarves, Moroccan lanterns, and mosaics…you name it.

Eventually we ended up back in ‘our’ neighbourhood. It was around 2:00pm and we were hungry. Naomi wasn’t 100% sure that she should be eating something — but man, those Nutella crepes (or ‘CREEPS’, as the sign said) looked (and were) SO delicious she couldn’t resist. Nutella, banana, and strawberries for her, Nutella and a sliced up Snickers bar for me. So good, but so filling. Probably shouldn’t have done that — likely spoiled our supper, which we were both really looking forward to.

Before going back to our hotel I stopped by to pick up our laundry, which I’d dropped off yesterday evening.

At 5:00pm the tour group gathered in the lobby of the hotel for a meeting. Our tour leader went over the plans for the next couple of days and then also talked about some of the challenges she’d had with our tour, mostly apologizing for times where her instructions or communication hadn’t been as clear as she’d wish they were. She also mentioned some of the serious issues that a couple of group members had caused her (and all of us). And yes, she admitted that it was her first time as a group leader, and thanked us for our patience, etc. Unfortunately, the person who had created a lot of the problems for her was the one person who decided NOT to attend the meeting.

We had plans to go out for a 7:00pm dinner together with the Driedgers and the ‘Aussies’ (Schillers) but since we still had an hour to kill, the six of us ventured upstairs to the rooftop of our hotel to watch the sunset.

Michael and his wife Lisa had been out for dinner the night before and one of them had had the ‘John Dory’ fish, which Michael said was the best he’d ever tasted. I didn’t know that John Dory was a fish, so I was very interested in trying it. So were MaryLou and Naomi. Michael had made reservations for us at a restaurant that served John Dory. And yes, the John Dory fish was SUPER delicious! The only thing missing from our evening dinner was that those beautiful wine glasses on our table would not have any wine in them. Our server apologized; he said he too would happily drink a glass of wine with the meal, but hey, it’s Ramadan, and there would be no alcohol served.

Back at our hotel, Naomi packed her bags. We have to get up very early tomorrow, have a quick breakfast, and then we’re off on a 3-hour drive back to Marrakesh, where we will be for the final 2 days of our group tour, and another 2 days for just the Driedgers and us — to have a break and decompress from our 15 days of go-go-go. It’s been a fun tour, but it’ll be great to just relax and do nothing for a few days.

Today we left the pre-desert country for the magnificent High Atlas Mountain landscape, crossing the Tizin’Tichka pass at 2260m.

Along the way we made a few more ‘WC and coffee’ stops. Our first stop included a visit to an ‘Amlou’ presentation. We watched as some women demonstrated how they crushed almonds and extracted the oil. Then we were led into the ‘showroom’ (sales room?) and shown all the wonderful products that were made from the oil extracted from almonds.

Our next stop was at Zerkten. Across the road from the restaurant was a parking lot for tourist busses, from which tourists might view the mountains and maybe buy some souvenir trinkets from the sellers lining the street.

We headed into the Toubkal National Park, passing through small villages on winding mountain roads, and finally, after 5 hours in the minivan, arrived at the village of Imlil. We had repacked our luggage, putting only what we might need for our overnight stay up in the mountains in our backpacks. We left the rest of our luggage in the van, where our driver would spend the night watching over it. Our backpacks were loaded onto the backs of a couple of mules who would take them up to our mountain gîte.

And so began our 1-hour hike from Imlil up to the little village of Aremd. The hike was great! Not too strenuous, and although the air was cool, the climb was uphill enough so that we were not cold. There was snow in the mountains all around us. The village of Aremd is in the shadow of the third highest mountain in Africa.

Soon we arrived at our mountain gîte (a small, simple house). Our backpacks were already in the cabin, and our rooms were assigned to us by our tour guide. Accommodation here was multi-share, with four to six beds in each room. Dave and Marylou would get their own room. The four remaining men shared a room, while the women were divided into 2 more bedrooms. Each room had a small portable heater. All of us would share the 4 bathrooms and 3 showers.

Out on the patio, our host welcomed us with glasses of hot tea and a couple of big bowls of popcorn.

Michael and Lisa (the ‘Aussies’) and Naomi and I went for a walk through the small village and up into the hills. Men were herding their goats from off the roofs of their buildings into smaller ‘pens’ for the night. Mules also were herded home along the narrow rocky trails. Young children were kicking a soccer ball around in the ‘town square’. Women were busy cooking supper, some on an outdoor fire of little sticks.

When we got back to our gîte we sat down at two tables and our host brought out a dinner of delicious soup and bread, followed by a big dish of couscous and chicken. Fresh local orange slices served as dessert.

A workout on the trail up the mountain, fresh air, a big homemade dinner, and cozy blankets to keep us warm in the crisp cold night air — it didn’t take long until we were in our beds, doing our best to snore in harmony.

Woke up at around 7:30. Our hotel is really cool, but there are a few important things that it is missing: virtually NO internet (a very weak and unreliable signal is offered in the lobby, but that is a LONG way from our rooms), and (at least this morning) NO hot shower.

After a brisk cold shower we packed our bags and headed to the breakfast room. Today the coffee tasted even worse than it looked. I had put some bread and butter on a plate and left it at the table while I went to get an orange juice. When I look back at the table, I see several sparrows sitting on the table and on my plate, pecking at my pad of butter. (At least SOMEONE is enjoying the breakfast!)

After breakfast we had to hurry to get our luggage out to the bus so the driver could pack (and I mean PACK) it into the rear storage compartment. Our backpacks come with us onto the bus and, if there’s still room, they get forced into the shelves above our seats (so that you can get properly boinked on the head by a falling water bottle when we’re driving on a bumpy road). There is NO room to spare on this bus. It has 15 seats if you count the rear bench seat as a four-seater. Up until today I’d been okay sitting back there since it is the only place where I can turn just a bit in my seat to avoid having my knees jammed tightly agains the seat-back in front of me. And because it is the back seat and the view from there is not a view, it usually has one empty seat where one of the women who sits there can keep her backpack on the seat beside her. After a week of riding the bus we’d sort of settled into a seating arrangement that worked for everyone. Well, not EVERYONE. There are two people on this tour that really don’t like each other. They’d sat side by side after their big showdown, but today one of them was first on the bus and took a seat in row 2, leaving the seat beside her empty. As the passengers filed in and took their seats, that one empty seat remained empty. And when the last person to board the bus came on, she walked right past that empty seat and squeezed her butt into the empty seat beside me. She was NOT going to sit beside you-know-who! Oh boy. This is getting ridiculous.

We made two stops before lunch. First at a big ‘dates’ store where they were happy to give us a few samples and even a short talk about dates. Then, after another short drive, we stopped at a ‘fossil’ place where they cut up big slabs of rock from the surrounding area and make them into some beautiful furniture and ornamental pieces (and a LOT of small — and questionably authentic — souvenirs).

After the fossil tour and a WC break, it was about 90 minutes to our lunch stop. We sat down at long tables under an outdoor tent at BIG tour bus restaurant, where the simple basic menu had a fixed price that included a starter, main, and dessert. Most of us were not interested in such a big meal for lunch; all we do all afternoon is sit in a tour bus, and we already have big dinners planned for us. So Naomi and I shared ONE lunch (turkey kebobs).

After lunch we made one more stop before arriving at our final destination. We pulled in to the  Carrefour grocery store to pick up a few things that we might want over the next few days, when there will be fewer options available. Of course I went to check out the beer situation but all they had was zero-alcohol beer, and I’m not a big water drinker. This Ramadan business is a bit inconvenient, even for the tourists who don’t observe it. We ended up buying a few chocolate bars and chips. Not sure that was the smartest thing to do.

Soon after our grocery stop we pulled up in front of our hotel in the town of Haroun. Looked okay from the outside. Not bad from the lobby and the big dining hall. there was a big courtyard out in the back, and even a swimming pool. And while our tour brochure had mentioned that we might have shared bathrooms, not so for us! So that was a bonus.

Best of all, the wifi worked. (Haven’t check to see if there’s hot water for showering.) So it was busy, busy, busy for Naomi and me — working hard to upload photos and write these blog posts. I queued up one of my ‘new’ Van Morrison albums, “Remembering Now”, and we enjoyed listening to to that while we sorted through our trip photos.

At around 4:30 we met at the bus. A local tour guide joined us and after a very short drive we disembarked and began what turned out to be about an hour-long hike. Very nice. Very interesting.

Dinner was downstairs at out hotel. We’d put in our orders before we left on our hike, so the food arrived at the tables right after we sat down. Food was okay. Pasta for me and a mushroom omelette for Naomi. And that was the day! We went back to the room. Naomi had a little headache and I need to finish up this blog. Which I have now done. See you tomorrow!

The alarm was set for 5:45am. The haunting nasal sound of the Islamic call to prayers started up just before the alarm went off. We ignored both for an extra 20 minutes. Then we got up, packed our suitcases, and took them downstairs to the lobby. Breakfast was happening. Orange juice, pastries, yogurt, and (very bad) coffee. A couple of little triangles of ‘cow’ brand cheese wrapped in foil in our pockets – ‘for the road’.

At 7:00am we were on the bus – ALL of us—including yesterday’s antagonists, who ending up sitting side by side in the first row! How long is this going to work?? (Amazingly, the truce held for the entire day!) It was going to be a long hard day of travel, at least 7 hours, sitting scrunched up in the back of the bus as we made our way from Fès down to Merzouga, near the Algerian border. I was wearing shorts because the midday temperature was supposed to hit 27 degrees, but it was a little too cool for my liking at 7:00am.

We stopped for our first WC and coffee break and I hauled out my little box of peanut butter ‘biscuits’ to share with everyone in the group. Dave bought us all coffees, ‘real’ and delicious coffees. Then back on the bus and on we go. We made a couple of stops to take in the sights as the surroundings changed. A very fine highway took us through cedar and pine forests, then over the snow-covered Middle Atlas Mountains. We stopped for lunch at a big roadside restaurant. Pasta for me, a Moroccan ‘taco’ for Naomi. We continued on after lunch. We stopped to take in the view of some deep gorges filled with green palm groves. At around 5:30, with the sun beginning its descent in the west, we turned off the main highway and followed a long sandy ‘driveway’ into the marvelous orange-coloured dunes of the Sahara Desert. We had arrived in the little village of Merzouga.

In front of us was an amazing ‘fortress’. Our bus backed up to the big gate and our driver began to unload the luggage. This ‘auberge’ would be our home for the next two nights. We made our way past a large pool in the middle of a courtyard that was surrounded by hotel rooms. We got the key to our room from the front desk, then went looking for room #70. We found it in another even larger courtyard, with an even bigger swimming pool in the centre of it. The rooms surrounding this courtyard were huge! Private bathrooms, too! And a back door that opened up to our own big patio – and an absolutely stunning view of those big beautiful sand dunes, literally in our backyard!

Naomi went for a long walk out on the dunes while I checked out the lobby. Dave and Michael both jumped into the (cold) pool for a little swim. I got myself a delicious Americano coffee. When Naomi got back from her walk, the hotel manager offered to take us upstairs to the roof of the hotel, from where we watched the sunset. Magical views.

After a bit of a rest back in our room it was 7:30, time for dinner. A long table was prepared for us in the dining hall. The hotel would serve us a local-style dinner; first up, a ‘starter’, which was basically a cold macaroni salad with beets, carrots, and rice. Interesting. Then came the ‘included’ main course, a ‘Berber pizza’. Several large ‘pizzas’, stuffed with beef and onion and covered with another pie crust were set on our table. The bottles of Coke were an extra charge. And for dessert? Delicious local oranges and bananas.

After supper a few of us followed our Berber host out into the desert where we sat on chairs and looked up at the night sky. We discussed the stars for a while, and then Naomi and I excused ourselves and headed back to our room. No internet access in our room (and not very good internet in the lobby either), so we both worked on our respective blog posts, typing them up in Word, with intentions to post them tomorrow when the lobby internet is a little faster.

It was a little after ten o’clock, and although we’d basically sat in the van all day, we were tired. Too tired to even start up a movie from my collection of downloaded films.

So it’s off to bed. See you in the morning.

We got up early, showered, packed our bags, and went downstairs for a quick breakfast (omelet, bread, and orange ‘juice’). Then off we were, once again packed in like sardines in our ‘mini-bus’. The road out of Chefchaouen was winding and up and down. The recent rains, after seven years of drought, made the hills and valleys lush and green. And it also had washed out the road in some places. So it made navigating on the road a little more tricky.

It was a long morning of driving, with a quick rest stop about halfway.

Or first scheduled stop was at the Roman Ruins at Volubilis. We had a very knowledgeable and interesting guide who took about an hour to walk us around while he explained the life in the Roman Empire at this UNESCO World Heritage site. We explored well-preserved mosaics, the basilica, the triumphal arch, and numerous ancient columns. The Roman ruins cover about 40 hectares, though only half has been excavated.

After the tour we continued on for a short drive, stopping for lunch at the AFER Association, a project that is supported by the G-Tours company. This association provides vital services, including literacy and vocational training, health services, disability assistance, and the operation of a local ambulance. AFER’s training center hosts culinary programs recognized by the state, and each year it graduates 30 students, many of whom go on to work in the project. Through this work, AFER creates sustainable employment, fosters community cohesion, and showcases Moroccan culture to travellers.

We enjoyed a traditional home-cooked Moroccan meal, with a choice of vegetable tagine or roasted chicken with onion sauce. After lunch we met some of the women that are part of this community program.

After lunch it was really just a little more than an hour to get to the large city of Fez. We parked in front of our hotel and checked in. After about 45 minutes to unpack and rest a bit, we met downstairs and went for a walk in the neighbourhood. We got some more Moroccon money from the ATM and Currency Exchange. Some people dropped their laundry off at a nearby facility. Then we went back to our hotel, arranging to meet again downstairs; those who were interested in doing this would go to a restaurant (that featured beer and wine — something that seems to be hard to find), and live music.

It was cool, but not too cold, as we ventured out in the evening. Our guide led us on a 20-minute walk to a restaurant. We were seated and had some time to look over the menu. We made our selections, including some white wine and local beers to go with our dinner. The evening was a hit! the food was very good, and the Moroccon beers some of us had with our food was also good.

After an evening of fine dining and some very skilled musicians entertaining us with mostly Moroccan music, we walked back to our hotel. Tomorrow will be another day here in Fez, with some significant time planned for visiting the Medina.

Alarm went off at 6:30. Showered and packed our bags. Went downstairs to the buffet breakfast and looked at some very unappetizing scrambled eggs. Coffee was okay. My ankle was still quite swollen but felt much better. By 8:00 the tour leader was phoning our room: Everyone is in the van, we’re all waiting for you! Hurried down. Bags were all stacked in the back of the ‘bus’. Bus? Hardly. It’s a 16 passenger van with our 14 tour members jammed into too small seats. I joined Dave and MaryLou in the back seat. Maybe a bit more legroom for me, but the back of the bus will surely deliver the ‘bumpiest’ ride. I was disappointed. Not quite what I expected from this tour.

The highway going north out of Casablanca was a relatively new divided 4-lane. Casablanca is a big sprawling city. Once we were out of there we were following the Atlantic coastline for a good part of today’s trip. It was surprisingly busy on the road this Saturday morning. Lots of trucks.

We were making pretty good time, when things suddenly crunched to a halt. And I mean CRUNCHED. A small van was in the passing lane to our left, when apparently it got a flat front tire, causing it to careen right in front of our bus. Crunch! It was straddled across the front of our vehicle and we were ‘pushing’ it along ahead of us until we finally came to a stop. I hung on to the seats in front of me so I wouldn’t follow my big backpack, which  had tumbled down the aisle to the front of the bus. When we finally came to a stop we  were surrounded by big trucks and lots of cars all around us; we were lucky that the line of trucks behind us didn’t end up rearranging the back of our van! Traffic had now come to a crawl as everyone merged into the only open lane to get around us.

The crunched van on our grille managed to push off and ended up on the right shoulder, facing oncoming traffic. Our bus now made some significant noises as the driver pulled over to the side of the road. It was probably at least an hour until the police and traffic cops were through with us. And in the meantime the traffic was now backed up and we weren’t sure if our van could even continue. Maybe we’d get a (nicer) big bus to come pick us up and continue the tour? In the end it was determined that our vehicle would be okay to drive, at least for the rest of today’s trip.

And it was during that hourlong wait in the bus that the next crisis occurred. One person in our tour group made a comment and another woman took great offence and scolded her for it. And that developed into a long, angry war of words. And these two women were supposed to share a room for the rest of our trip! Nope. Not gonna happen. Our tour leader tried to smooth things over. The first woman demanded a single room. Both could not see themselves sharing a room for the next 13 nights. We all sat there in awkward silence. Fortunately it was about that time that the two drivers had settled their claims and we could continue our journey. Truce, for now.

We were delayed by over an hour, so when we got to Tangier it was already after 2:00 when we sat down in the Ali Baba restaurant for lunch. (And lunch was terrific. I had a chicken and mushroom tagliatelle, and Naomi had a chicken tajine.) Then off we were to meet another guide who would walk us through the Medina in Tangier.

It was dark at 7:00PM. We’d already been on the road for at least an hour, leaving Tangier, heading for Chefchaouen. The road was winding its way up into the Atlas Mountains. We had a 15-minute rest stop and then continued our journey for another hour. We pulled up to our hotel, which was on the main (narrow, winding) road of Chefchaouen. We handed in our passports in exchange for the keys to our rooms. Ours was on the 3rd floor. Up the winding staircase. Wow! What a weird and interesting hotel.

We dropped off our luggage and then went back down to the lobby for a short talk from our tour guide. Then we bundled up and headed out for a walk up the road. She took us to see where we could find an ATM, supermarket, restaurants. We asked if there was a place where we might have a drink. Muslim countries like Morocco disapprove of alcohol, and it’s hard to find a pub. Our guide asked a security person in a little park where we might find a beer. She then led us to a little doorway that led up some narrow stairs, and voila! A big and busy room filled with smokers and drinkers! About half of the 14 members of our group sat down around a big table and enjoyed the rest of the evening getting more acquainted over Czech and Spanish beers.

It was late by the time we got back to our room. Thankfully, the A/C unit had managed to heat it up nicely. The bed had nice blankets that would keep us warm. It had been a long and interesting day. It didn’t take long for me to fall asleep.