April 23-26–Agadir and Casablanca

We’ve visited Morocco 3-4 times, including with Maddy and Jackson when we lived in Spain. We especially enjoy Marrakech, but will only visit Agadir and Casablanca on this trip. Several hundred passengers will be taking the 4 hour bus ride from Agadir, our first stop, to Marrakech. We’re not excited about 4 hours on the bus; plus, it would get in the way of Karla’s hammam visit. I support that; I want to see her cleaned up and relaxed.

We’re both noticing a bit of travel fatigue in the passenger group. A couple got evicted for the husband’s aggressive behavior. There are lots of stories of laundry wars as passengers compete for the washers and dryers. The Catholics and Protestants battled over whether there should be a joint Easter service. A woman accused Karla of looking at her cards in beginners bridge; Karla was correctly counting cards (she says). Bus passengers get cranky over the order of departing from the bus and on relative levels of air conditioning or microphone volume. I’m pretty sure that the negativism is coming from trump supporters. I continue to travel with a positive person so it doesn’t bother me much. (Although maybe she cheats at cards.) We are starting to think of what needs doing when we return. And, we’ve both packed one of two suitcases.

Morocco has about 37 million people..mostly Muslim…who speak Arabic and Berber. The area has been inhabited for around 300,000 years. It has been ruled by dynasties for most of that time. For a while, they were squeezed by Portuguese from the west and the Ottomans from the east, but the area has been mostly under control of the Alawi Dynasty since 1631. In 1912 the Spanish and French asserted some control, but Morocco became independent in 1956. It is now ruled by a King and has an elected Parliament. The King can issue “dahirs” which have the force of law and can dissolve Parliament. (It’s trump’s dream.)

Casablanca is the business and economic center of the country with about 6 1/2 million people. Over half the nation’s industrial labor force lives there. Beyond financial entities, they trade in phosphate, lumber, fishing and fish canning. We’ve found it a bit sterile, but Rick seemed to like it…if you can believe Casablanca, the movie. We’ve been to Rick’s Place, but it was nothing special.

Agadir, a city of 1 million, is about 300 miles south of Casablanca. It has had a spotty history. The city was destroyed by an earthquake in 1731 and became a ghost town.. A rebuilt Agadir was again destroyed by an earthquake in 1960 which killed about 15,000 people. The city was reconstructed a bit farther south. It is now Morocco’s largest coastal resort with about 6 miles of beach. It is  a center for tourism and a major fishing port. It exports sardines, citrus fruits and vegetables. A major marketing draw is the Souk El Houd, with over 6000 shops. I need to prepare for Arab traders.

We took a “standard excursion” after Karla’s cleansing…which she may describe.

The first stop was a tram ride to the top of a hill where a kasbah (castle) can be found. It provided a nice view of the city as well as the land where the pre-earthquake city was located. Our guide told us his story of losing all but his mother in the earthquake and also told us of the open spaces below the kasbah where many bodies were buried in mass graves as the rubble was cleared.

Besides the castle…which had innards destroyed in the quake…tourists could ride smelly camels or hold snakes for photos. Of course, there were tourist tables. After that we visited a mosque, botanical garden, small veggie market…all pretty standard. The tour was OK, as was the cold beer Karla stopped for as we entered the ship, ready to head to Casablanca.

Since we have visited Casablanca, we decided not take the standard tour. Instead, we walked into town and visited the “Old Medina,” a tangled network of hundreds of small stalls. We arrived early enough so that many still were not open. That didn’t matter since we weren’t looking to buy. We were told that lots of the treasures are from China, India and Nepal so we didn’t miss much. It was fun to see (and smell) all of the fish, fruits and vegetables. It was less fun to see all of the chickens thrown from trucks into a big container and then taken to one stop kill-defeather-slice stalls for sale to passing customers. Probably a Colonel Sanders process we never see. We walked back to the ship and found that some event had delayed the excursions…meaning we had the ship mostly to ourselves. That’s OK. Fifteen thousand steps in the bank and plenty of time for reading.

2012 Visit

2005 Visit