Agadir, Morocco

April 4, 2023

On our first day in Morocco, we visited the city of Agadir. Because of high winds which delayed our departure from the Canary Islands, we arrived a few hours late to the city which delayed our tours and Brent's departure on his overland trip to Marrakesh. On the plus side, we were awake for the sail into Agadir. Here are some views from our room.

Since Brent was leaving for a 3-day overland trip to Marrakesh, I decided to do the Fantasia Horse show tour in Agadir. As in Lanzarote, many of the buildings were white. We drove by the long entrance drive to the Agadir Palace where the king resides when he stays in Agadir. It is closed to the public as it is his home. Our Moroccan guides were all enthusiastic about King Mohammed VI and the positive changes he is making to improve the country.

When we arrived at the horse show, we were greeted by the performers and welcomed with mint tea and little cookies. The tea was served in cylindrical glasses rather than teacups. It was a little hot to the touch at first, but cooled down quickly.

The show began with some music as a man with a pipe and a man with a tambourine walked across the arena.

Then it was time for the first horse race. There were additional horse races in between the different performers and again at the end of the show. The raced across the field and all fired their guns as they reached the finish. It took me a couple of tries to get a video where I didn't jerk when the guns went off. Sadly, on most of my videos the sound was not working. I forgot to bring the camera with the working video.

The horse racers and performances shared with use some of the Berber traditions. The Berbers were the original inhabitants of Morocco and much of Northern Africa. Today they are called Amazigh, which means Free Men, but in the show they referred to the traditions as Berber. The first performers were two musicians playing traditional instruments and some female dancers in gorgeous regalia.

Next up were the acrobats. They were my favorite. Amazingly, a few of my short videos of them worked and had sound, but sadly the later ones did not.

Next were dancers who were also playing qraqebs, a kind of hand cymbol. One in particular was very talented with some high leaping.

The finale was a snake charmer. He pulled snakes, including a cobra, out of a box and carried them around to show the audience, nodding his head in time to the music. With the cobras, he also spent time with them on the carpet and played his pipe to "charm" them.

After a final horse race, we got a chance to have our picture taken with a horse and rider.

After the show, we rode the bus to the Berber Market. Along the way, we saw people going about their day.

The market was huge. We followed the guide through in a line past stalls selling fruit, vegetables, nuts, candy, shoes, gowns, cell phone covers, electronics ... just about anything. I made sure to keep with the group as I didn't want to get lost in the market!

After leaving the market, we had some time to look around on our own. I hadn't brought much money so I just bought a fresh orange juice.

We met at one of the gates to the market to board the bus.

Our final stop was up the hill to the Kasbah of Agadir Oufla. The city of Agadir use to be build on this hill, but it was completely destroyed in the Agadir Earthquake of 1960. The earthquake was not expected as there was not much history of seismic activity in the area, so the homes and buildings did not have earthquake safety in mind. The city was leveled and about a third of the population died. The new city of Agadir was built below the hill and the hill itself left barren except for the rebuilt Kasbah in memorial to the old city. You can reach the Kasbah by road, cable car, or by climbing the old stone steps to it. (If you are truly adventurous.)

We were given time to explore the Kasbah. There were many vendors and people with camels and snakes, as well as many, many tourists.

While exploring the Kasbah, I was approached by a man with a snake. I shook my head and said, "No, thank you," but before I knew it I had a snake on me. He offered to take my picture. I told him I didn't have money (I only had about $3 worth of Moroccan money), but he said, "No charge." Soon, a man with a camel came up as well and added his camel to the picture. At the end, I gave them the $3 I had (because they did want money after all).

Once the snake was removed, I quickly made my way to the walls of the Kasbah to take pictures of the amazing views.

We then returned to the ship. On the way down the hill, we had a fantastic view of our ship, Zuiderdam.