Day 24 - Jay and I managed the consequences of unchecked local sports enthusiasm last night. The hotel staff spent Friday energetically dragging tables into the cafe to broadcast FIFA Morocco versus Scotland. Anticipating additional noise, I went to the front desk at 10:30 PM to lodge a complaint; this secured our move from room 108 up to room 309 in search of actual silence. The match began at 23:00. Both of us were completely unconscious when it ended, though we deduced a Moroccan victory from the sheer volume of vehicular honking in the streets at 1:00 AM. We naturally penalized the hotel for the disrupted sleep by monopolizing the morning breakfast buffet until 10:30 AM.
Properly fueled by omelets and a vast array of buffet choices, we hailed a taxi to the cable car station for $2.80 CAD. Jay and I rode the gondola up the mountain before noon to explore the Agadir Oufella. This 16th-century Kasbah was originally constructed to aggressively discourage Portuguese ships from lingering, only to be shaken into rubble in a mere fifteen seconds during the 1960 earthquake. Today it serves as a partially restored viewpoint, perfect for judging the commercial port and modernist grid from a comfortable, elevated distance. After inspecting the historical summit and effortlessly ignoring the resident camel vendors, we took the car back down. Having absolutely zero desire to immediately rejoin the concrete traffic, we walked through Tildi Creek park toward the main beach.
Finding a seat along the promenade, we settled in to simply watch the afternoon unfold and observe the passing foot traffic. Tree trimmers were busy attempting to tame the local flora nearby. Two tiny tots, one foreign boy and one local girl, kicked a ball back and forth; meanwhile, groups of all ages paraded past our bench under the sun and a 23°C breeze. Despite lacking any real hunger, logic dictated it was time to eat, so we tactically stopped at the beachside Jour et Nuit to split a pizza.
By 15:00, we had retreated to the hotel for a much-needed nap. Naturally, the sky has now mockingly cleared to an intense blue. We must now decide how to spend our final evening in Agadir. Tomorrow demands an earlier start to catch the 9:30 AM Supratours bus toward Marrakech, putting us on the route back to our departure city of Casablanca. Whatever we choose cannot change the lovely day we've already experienced by the Atlantic today.
