0098 Donkey Cart Town (Mor 009—new)
The bus from Agadir to
Moroccan town hides...
First stop: find an honest-looking shopkeeper to watch my bag for me--for a small fee... I found a paper supplies store and the lady accepted--but refused payment... Hmm... I'm starting to like folks in Ben Guerir...
Stopped at a little plaza near the mosque to play my set--a couple of fellows stopped by, but no one introduced themselves. Then I set out to explore the perimeter of the town.
The region around Ben Guerir is normally completely bare and brown--no a blade of grass in sight.
The south side of town is a bit more well-to-do--thus boring... nothing happening on the streets. So I head over to north side. Here I find one of scrappiest "second hand" markets I've seen... the stalls are miscellaneous sheets of metal covered with plastic. I was really tempted to take my clip here--but decided that it might seem disrespectful...
As I continued on through the more folksy neighborhoods, I suddenly realized that Ben Guerir is the first city I've ever seen where donkey carts are still the official form of public transportation! Fantastic! No ones worrying about gas prices here!
Folks are shy but not unfriendly--I even got a couple of girls to smile at me... they're clearly not used to seeing foreigners here...
And the "barber lane" up along the dry canal is a sight to see--each barber just sets up a chair under a sheet of plastic held up by a couple of posts--and voila!
I stopped for an orange juice--the fellow said he had it, but the oranges are a little sour... once again, I'm liking the honest Ben Guerir folks... Then I headed back to the grand taxi stand through the bustling street market.
So if you want to experience a run of the mill Moroccan town--I'd highly recommend Ben Guerir...
