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.