Agadir continued....

So we definitely went to the beach to start off our day bright and early at 7 am. Which foot is mine?

It was a good time. Today was the first time I had seen the ocean since I saw the Gulf of Mexico. I tasted it becasue it was Gena's, a girl on the trip to, tradition to do that when ever she got to a lrge body of water. If you would like to taste some yourself just go to your kitchen and dissolve lots of salt into a glass of water. Enjoy.

After the beach we ate a wonderful breakfast in our hotel. We had crepes, eggs, potatos, fruit an more fruit, jams and bread, fresh sqeezed orange juice and sidi ali water. It is the water out here. While we are on the topic of food, today I had trajine which is the pciture posted here. I have now actually tried beef, chicken and lamb trajine. They just bake it in this pot and the beef one really reminded me of pot roast. Sorry I don't have a pick of the actual meat but I am sure there will be one later. They serve us SOO much food. this is usually the order: bread, appetizers, main course, fruit, and finally mint tea. Here is a picture of mint tea being served. The Moroccans always pour it far away from the little cup.

We have also go to some cool farms today. We went to a feed mill where they made feed for many types of animals. They showed us their bagging, and milling processes. The same man also raised chickens. We visited his farm and wore protective clothing, lunch lady hair nets and dipped our feet. : ) The market for processed chickens isn't as popular as live chickens at the market but it is growing steadily.

After the chicken far, we piled back onto our bus to make the 1 1/2 hour trip to Touradant. Our tour guide Mustafa ( no not mufasa fromth lion king) told us all about the argan tree. It is a tree only found in this region of the world. Many people live totally from this tree. The people of that ethnic group have goats and anyone can grazed their goats on the trees. By the way, sheep can't graze here becasue they can't climb the trees well. Each tree has a specific owner but their are only fences around the trees when they are producing fruit. Any other time, any and everyone is free to graze their goats around the trees. The Argan tree can't be cut down because the Moroccan people have great pride in these trees due to the fact that they are the only reason their country has survived during times of famine. Also, farmers grow their crops around these trees. So scattered throughout a field you see these Argan trees. I thought it was pretty interesting.

Then we visited a nursery/greenhouse that raised citrus, many types of beans, peppers and olive trees. We got to visit one of their greenhouses that they are trying out growing olive trees from cuttings. I really enjoyed this visit. The greenhouse where they grew the beans was amazing and huge. They have well over a hundred acres of greenhouse crops. We also got to see their resourvior. From the top of the resourvior we could see the entire farm. It was definitely the largest greenhouse operation I had ever seen. As a matter of fact, it was the largest in North Africa and Arnold Swarzeneggar (spelling?) visited it last year.

One of today's most interesting journey's was our toilet experience at a gas station. It was pretty much a hole in the ground with foot grips. Oh and a bucket of water to wash it all down. : ) I do miss our toilets.

The Traveling Bogart,

Kasie