Blogs from Agadir, Souss-Massa-Draâ, Morocco, Africa
Viajar a estilo do meu host Abi, joelho estourado
Published: April 24th 2012Africa » Morocco » Souss-Massa-Draâ » Agadir
April 9th 2012
Ficamos o dia lagarteando em casa, ou melhor, no quarto, pois nao tem mais nada que umbanheiro. Eu louca para me atirar a passear e o meu host me dando calote. As 4pm fiz com que ele saisse de casa comigo. Fomos com todas as mochilas em direcao a praia. Tivemos uma conversa sobre viajar. Viajar para ele eh nao ter dinheiro nenhum, pegar carona, dormir onde conseguir. Ele disse que eu estava de ferias, tentei argumentar que estou sao tipos diferentes de viajar, mas no fundo aproveitamos a viagem, nao deu certo. Bom, resolvi deixar ele “dirigir” a minha viagem por um tempo. Pegamos onibus local para a praia. Nao gostei de alguns comentarios dele, pois olhando as fotos, vi ele viajando de trem e ele falando sobre hoteis que ele ficou, mas tudo bem. ... read more
February 24th 2012
By Friday evening, the surfing adventure had taken a wrong turn. The self-proclaimed three musketeers (Joe brought the French classic with him to read on the beach, I thought the title fitting) have fallen one after the other. The first to fall was Joe himself, struck down by the all-British ailment known as “lobster syndrome”, in other words a severe heat stroke, which kept him in bed all of the third day. Not that he missed much—the waves were so strong that surfing was off the agenda in the morning, and we wandered around the coastline of Taghazout instead, basking in the sunshine. I was struck down by a more London-specific illness, also known as exhaustion-induced flu. My second day of surfing was cut short when, after a couple of hours in the water, I realised ... read more
Surfing the Waves or Face-Planting In The Ocean?
Published: March 15th 2012Africa » Morocco » Souss-Massa-Draâ » Agadir
February 22nd 2012
None but natives ever master the art of surf-bathing thoroughly. (Mark Twain) Mornings in Morocco are still cold in February, easily below 10°C, and the thought of spending most of the day jumping in and out of the waves suddenly seems a little less appealing than before. We huddle around the breakfast table outside on the terrace for our first Moroccan breakfast. It turns out the staple is bread—the same flat, round breads we had with dinner—eggs and jam. One thing on the table is unique and exciting—a bowl of runny almond butter called Almou. I never thought peanut butter had any competition, but I'm beginning to question my affiliations. Predictably, this little bowl is what we fight for every morning—a good reason to get up early for breakfast –until it runs out on ... read more
December 27th 2010
Starting far above this city we stop at the ruins of Agadir's old Kasbah. Apparently mother nature rocked the Kasbah (and the entire city) with an earthquake in 1960. 20,000 people perished and the city has been completely rebuilt since then. The Kasbah was left as a memorial (and mass grave) to all those who lost their lives. The view of the city from here is stunning...but beware the aggressive merchants on the site. On this day all the new bartering skills we learned in Casablanca are thrown out the window. When there's snakes involved, all bets are off. Long story short....we met a guy with a snake and paid far too much to have pictures taken with it. We knew that would happen but we just wanted the snake off our neck (we look happy ... read more
Just Put Some Argan on it...
Published: September 6th 2010Africa » Morocco » Souss-Massa-Draâ » Agadir
September 6th 2010
We were met by our English speaking tour guide/driver at 8:30am. His name was… Mohammad. We are calling him Mohammad II as we had Mohammad I in Marrakesh as a tour guide. We started the day by heading to an old Kasbah (castle like homes). It was old and broken down but still had some walls and beautiful views. Following the Kasbah, we headed to banana fields. These were amazing to say the least. We were driving through the desert (4 wheel drive of course) and everything was so dry. Before we knew it we went over one hill to see all the lushness of the banana fields and the river surrounding them. There were men hard at work (laying 1 brick per hour) as the river over flowered last year and a lot of the ... read more
August 31st 2010
We decided to take the bus to Agadir. Only 3 bus companies run from Marrakech, one of which isn’t air conditioned. Of course we picked an air conditioned bus as the temperature was averaging around 100 degrees. After boarding our bus in between the mass chaos, we realized it was HOT. The AC wasn’t pumping and there was a faint smell of urine. Definitely not the Hampton Jitney. After sitting for 45 minutes in the melting heat, the bus finally started moving. We drove 3 hours to the coast - Agadir. We got off the bus and a miracle happened… we were not sweating. It was easily 20 degrees cooler than Marrakech. Heaven hit us - a cool breeze. YUM! We got into a grand taxi (there are petit or grand - only the grand can ... read more
November 16th 2009
Nov 11 n 12 Well i'm combinging these 2 days because they were down days for us. We litterally did nothing internet, eating, reading, sleeping. There was one thing I was gonna add but I can't remember so it couldn't have been that big. Haha Nov 13 Today was another slow lazy day. We ate n did some errands in the am. The next swell was supposed to start filling intoday so we decided to try the break called banana point. It wasn't bad only about waist high but we snaged some really fun chill lines. It was a perfect beginer wave so there was tons of them out there. As we were shotng the line it was like a mind field. We did a quick bareback surf. The water was probably lowmid 60s so we ... read more
July 13th 2009
I apologize for not making a post sooner but to be honest there hasn't been anything post worthy in Rabat, probably because I am used to being here so it feels "normal" to me, well as "normal" as Rabat can be. Anyways, here goes... After class on Thursday (7/9) MSJ took a train from Rabat to Marrakesh. We shared a cabin on the train with a family who had a little girl The girl really liked playing with my watch so I took it off and let her play with it for a while. When we arrived in Marrakesh it was oppressively hot, like 110 Fahrenheit. No taxi really wanted to pick us up so we got a ride from a random guy with a van. Jess was pretty sketched out but he turned out to ... read more
Fish, More Fish and Camel Tagines
Published: November 19th 2008Africa » Morocco » Souss-Massa-Draâ » Agadir
November 19th 2008
Good intentions. The road to hell is paved with good intentions (whereas the road to southend is paved with bitumen...). I never did make the essaoiria dawn, although for a holiday 730 am isn't bad as a start. Iwent down for breakfast then set off for a final stroll around this citythat I have to say I have really taken to. Its such a relaxed place and just existing here is nice. I can't really say I've done a ton the last few days but I've loved it. I think three days in marrakech doing nothing much would have driven me to drink, which is not particularly easy in this country! Friendship is a funny thing. I returned to my friends at the spice souk. While willing to offer me all sorts of narcotics for free ... read more
July 13th 2008
This is my 7th continent in 6 months....a great week of fun with Leslie and Tiffany in Club Med Agadir. This is also the 5th continent of Leslie in 18 months, and the 5th one on which he plays golf...and not even 8 years old. The last time I went here was 13 years ago as a golf instructor...not much has changed...it's fun to see that I may get older, but that souvenirs from that far as still well there. There is not much in Agadir. So beside the golf and the mini club, not much to write on. Actually for me, it was more one of these working weeks. Wake up early, drop the kids at the mini club, play 18 holes in the morning, work on the internet all afternoon....and spend late afternoon and ... read more
