Dimanche le premier mars- Agadir Tour

This morning we boarded a bus to go on a trip around the city of Agadir. First stop was to the top of the hill to the Kasbah – On the hill written underneath the Kasbah and is visible to the whole city are the words –God, Country and King. The people of Morocco must respect these in that order of importance. The Kasbah is the older part of a city or town often the market area. It was often enclosed as a fortress and possibly held the castle.
However on Feb 29 1960 at 11:50pm a 5.7 earthquake hit the town and demolished it killing 15000-20000 (1/3 of city population at the time) and many more were injured. The town was rebuilt 3 km’s to the south of the original centre as many were buried on the original centre. What we could see were some ruins – walls and stones. The hawkers were all up the top and as soon as we stepped foot through the gate Seph had tiny baby goat thrown into her arms for us to take a photo – then you have to pay for the privilege! However the people are very poor – if they have a job the average wage is 200 dirhams per month, that is approx $50 NZ! So I really didn’t mind giving a little bit to those who were trying to earn a bit of cash. The Kasbah had terrific views over the town and the port.
We went into the port for a look around, a very old port with many vessels and small boats that certainly don’t look seaworthy crammed in to berths. The Port had a huge sardine processing factory /cannery. It also was famous for traditional boat building. We stopped at a part of the port to get out and have a look, it was so polluted.

Rubbish visibly floating around, sunken rusted ships the stench of dead fish – not pleasant at all. There was also a man in a dinghy collecting the rubbish around the ships. I am not quite sure of why we would stop there – if this is something they are proud of then there isn’t much to see in the city! It also reminds me of how lucky we are in New Zealand and how ‘pure’ our water ways are really.

Third stop was to the biggest Mosque in the area, however non muslims are not allowed into the Mosques and you have to be content to look from the outside.

We then toured the main streets with the guide pointing out shops and areas of interest. There are many large open spaces for use – these are all tidy, paved and often have showers etc for after the beach. The promenade runs the whole length of the main beach – about 8km. Many people are out walking and using this wide boulevard all the time. Naturally it has many restaurants and shops running alongside. These are such a stark contrast to other areas.
The tourism industry is extremely important to the town of Agadir and it is definitely a very up and coming place. It will only go from strength to strength as all the works in progress are completed.
The souk ( an outdoor Arab market) is held within fortressed walls covering a huge area – 2 large square blocks. We only went straight through from 1 side to the other! Very easy to get lost as so many narrow intersecting aisles. The fruit and vegetables were impressive – piled high. All of these are for bartering too. The spices were highly colourful and steeped into pyramid shaped mountains. Many people were buying saffron – very expensive – however the guide did say to only buy from a registered seller (only 2 in whole market) as the others were selling other spice dyed yellow calling it saffron! You have to be so careful!
Seeing the live chickens (soon to be killed?) and other meat produce hanging in the heat certainly puts you off. The other sections of the souk included all sorts – you name it and it was there. Even whole stalls of what we would call total junk – a few odd bolts, screws, broken sinks, single shoes with no partner – along with the cell phones, playstation games etc.. Many clothes and shoe stalls too.
We had some free time in the souk after our initial guided tour – there are many offers from the locals to ‘guide’ you through the souk, however often they will only take you to their relatives stalls! It costs about 10 dirham for a guide - $1, BUT once you have a guide everyone else leaves you alone – so probably worth the money! We certainly noticed the difference after we left our guide. I did however manage to buy a pair of shoes!

I could have stayed at the souk for hours bargaining but the rest of the family wanted to return to the pool at the resort! They won!
We spent the rest of the day lounging around and swimming. The girls were off doing their own thing with their friends.
Pizza Night – Minestrone Soup, Tomato and Mozarella Salad, Pizza and dessert was ice cream. The service was amazing and we readily tipped our waiters. They really were very helpful so that Hermione didn’t have to eat cheese – filled our drinks as soon as they were empty and had a laugh with us. My favourite game and opening line was always “Can you tell my accent?” Many Moroccans couldn’t hear the difference and thought we were British! However it became a great way to get to know the staff.
We very quickly became known as “Zealand” - I think we were the first New Zealanders to stay at the resort as no one could remember anyone else staying. This would make sense as if NZ’ers were visiting Morocco I don’t think they would stay in a resort for a week. We really were being very typically French. I was even speaking French first before realising I could speak English if I wanted. This amazed me – it just came out in French!
I even have had a few dreams in French – more about verb conjugation and tenses than fiction! Does this still count as dreaming in French?
Show: Just For Fun – Comedy sketches!