On the Road in Morocco!

Friday, April 1, 2011

                           

First and foremost…we heard from Dorothy’s family and she arrived home safe and sound late last night after 20 hours in the air.  God bless and heal quickly.  We and all her friends on the ship miss her very much.

Thursday night it was foggy when we left Arrecife so we were lulled to sleep by the foghorns.  Now it is April Fools’ Day.

We sailed into the harbor at Agadir, Morocco at 6 am.  It was windy and the harbor pilot arranged for a tug boat to push us gently up against our pier while our deck crew secured the lines.  We met our tour group and were off on the road in Morocco to Taroudant.

Agadir is a very new city.  An 7.3 earthquake in 1960 destroyed the town completely, killing 15,000 citizens.  The old town was completely destroyed and has not been rebuilt.  A new modern city was built using whatever could be salvaged from the earthquake wreckage.  Agadir is primarily a fishing village with a harbor fleet of several hundred fishing boats.  Today, Friday, is a Muslim holiday and many workers, apparently including fishermen, took the day off---their boats were still in the harbor.

   

Tourism is a major segment of the economy so the tour buses are running.  Tourism is also obvious by the presence of a long string of luxury hotels rimming the six mile beach along Agadir’s coastline.  This beach eventually evolves into sand dunes which are the Atlantic edge of the Sahara Desert.

Our bus drove us through much of the north side of the city while our guide pointed out the earthquake damaged areas, the fruit and fish processing buildings and shipping docks, the soccer stadium, and several different housing developments.  Our route soon extended into the Souss Valley with a vast area of fairly arid farms and ranches.  Throughout the day we were buffeted by the hot dusty Sahara winds.  We saw fields of wheat, barley and fruit trees.  The valley is a very wide level plain between two ranges of the Atlas Mountains.  One is called the Anti-Atlas Mountains and there was snow on the higher peaks off in the distance.   Most of the countryside was covered with argan trees.  The fruit of the argan tree (looks a lot like almonds to us) can be eaten as oil, consumed medicinally, used cosmetically, or mixed with other essential oils in message.  These trees are public property and if a person were to cut one down, it would mean a jail sentence.  However, anyone is free to harvest the crop. There must be a million trees and they seem to fill the entire valley. In those areas of grass we saw many herds of goats and sheep and a few small groups of camels.  It was open range with herders guarding the animals.  We had been told that some of these goats climbed into the trees to eat leaves.  We thought this was an April Fools’ joke but the picture will prove it was not a joke. 

    

                                       

At the far end of the valley we entered the town of Taroudant to visit the old city Medina (market, bazaar, or souq).  The old city is surrounded by a three mile wall. We filed through several crooked, narrow, crowded alleys filled with all types of shops, swarming with people old and young, in all kinds of garb.  The most fascinating garb was the “blue men and ladies”.  They have been dressing head to toe in blue items for over 600 years.  The blue dyes are not stable and consequently the wearer ends up with blue dyed skin. 

            

There were bicycles, scooters, donkeys, and small hand carts competing with the pedestrians.  We were so busy looking at the sights and dodging people that we sometimes forgot to watch where we stepped.  Our guide was very good at “shepherding” us along and even saved us from trouble a few times when we were caught taking photos of people who did not want to be captured on film – unless we paid them.  

          

There was a Mosque within the walls of the medina.  Many men were in traditional dress.  We heard the call to prayer as we were leaving the city.

          

We were back in port just in time to relish the fresh tuna grilled on the lido deck.  The 330 pound fish was provided by the Canary Island fishermen just as we were to leave port yesterday.  It was scrumptious.  The ship sailed mid-afternoon due to navigational requirements. 

After dinner the assistant maître de usually stops by our table to ask “how was everything”.  The six of us always respond with a “two-thumb’s up”.  Tonight when he asked, we all, in unison, gave him a “two–thumbs down”.  He panicked for a few seconds and was so concerned.  We all started laughing and said “April Fools” and he was still laughing when we left the dining room.