[Our hotel's Internet VPN is currently blocking all Flickr accounts. Consequently, I'll be unable to post the accompanying photos for the eJournal posts for the remainder of our days in Agadir, unless tech support comes to the rescue and provides a work-around. I will have to 'backfill' the missing photographic evidence later.]
Day 22 - Jay and I checked out of the Essaouira hotel room around 11:30 AM. We waited out the usual post-checkout lobby time before dragging our bags to Bab Doukkan to hail a petite blue taxi. This was followed by a solid stretch of pleasant waiting and observation at the tiny station until nearly 2:00 PM. That is when our bus finally arrived from Casablanca. Defying all known laws of transit, it departed precisely on schedule at 14:30.
The three-and-a-half-hour journey south along the N1 quickly traded the flat landscape of argan trees for an inland detour through the dense banana plantations of the Tamri estuary. Approaching Taghazout, the geography finally decided to show off. The High Atlas Mountains abruptly crowded the coastline. This forced the highway up to trace the edge of high cliffs. We enjoyed excellent views of the Atlantic surf pounding the rocky shoreline below before the mountains finally yielded. The dramatic ridges smoothed out entirely as the bus descended onto the flat plain of the Souss Valley. Jay and I pulled into the Agadir station exactly on time at 5:45 PM.
Upon disembarking, he and I went straight to the Supratours office tent to buy our Sunday tickets. We successfully locked in the 9:30 AM departure to Marrakech; this ensures the final leg of our return journey toward Casablanca is sorted. With those details handled, we simply walked out the station gate, flagged down a taxi, and made the final short drive to unpack at the Dominium Hivernage.
Once settled, I opened Google Maps to locate the nearest block of dining options in the surrounding Founty district. A short walk led us to a brightly lit establishment claiming to be a Ajikol Pizzeria. Naturally, we ignored the pizza entirely and ended our transit day eating meat skewers off a stick.
It is now nearing 10:00 PM. Considering I have compressed an entire day's worth of travel fatigue into a single afternoon, we are opting to simply go to sleep. The Atlantic Ocean has been sitting out there for roughly 200 million years. It can certainly wait for us to be adequately rested before we wander down to the beach to see it.