Agadir, Morocco, 12/11

Last night was a gentle rolling night on the ship.  Kinda like being rocked to sleep.  Woke this morning to a huge fog bank that blocked any view beyond the railing of our balcony.  It is clearing now and we are headed in to Morocco for a 5 hour tour.  Tomorrow we have made plans to hire a taxi in the Canary's to show us around. 

We landed in Agadir,Morocco about noon. The  entire town of Agadir was destroyed in February 1960 with a loss of approximately 12,000 lives.  They rebuilt the town about 2 miles south of where it originally stood and as a newer town there is a lot of construction still ongoing and it is evident that it will be a major European vacation destination.

We boarded a motor coach for a 1 1/2 hr ride through arid countryside.  Some farms, lots of organges and trees that have something similar to olives which can be used for cooking or medicinal purposes.  Their local goats find something appealing in the trees and you will find that they have climbed to the upper branches to eat the leaves.

Morocco is bordered by Algeria which had a terrorist attack yesterday.

We arrived in the town of Taroundant, the Grandmother of Marrakech. It was originally built in the 1100s.  Many still live like the ancient times in dress and customs.  The streets in the center are laid out like a labrinyth, small and dark, with little shops on each side.  Women are not allowed to handle money, even in the shops where they work. We really know that we are in Africa here and feel like we are in another age.