19th Stop - Casablanca, part 2

On Thursday, we drove out past the Corniche for an afternoon at the beach. We got there kind of late and didn’t get as close to the water as we would have liked because all of the tables were taken. This actually was to our advantage. After an hour or so, the tide came in and surprised the hell out of everyone right up close to the water, washing away sandals, food, bottles and other beach goodies. In the end, we had some prime seafront property, until the tide rose even further and Nezha got trapped on a chair!

That night, I had invited my Moroccan colleagues for a meeting at the Scala Café to discuss corporate social responsibility. Thanks to Nezha, a JCI member from Tunisia, and Nezha’s friend Ichrak for coming. We listened to some great live Moroccan music while we spoke about CSR.

Time to get clean, time for a hammam. I worked on planning the next legs of my tour for most of the day, then went to the Pacha for a full body scrub and relaxing massage. I highly recommend the Pacha. Everyone was very friendly, it was clean, and parking was easy. Hammam’s are great, you go into the steam room for 15 minutes or so, then come out and someone scraps all of the dead skin off of your body using a coarse washing glove. Then a shower, followed by a relaxing massage with argan oil.

Last day in Morocco, we decided to take advantage of our Saturday to go on a hike in the Beskoura forest. After our walk, we picked up the business cards I had made. Thanks Nezha for helping find the right people to do this! If you’re in Casa and need some printing done, be sure to contact Mostafa Drissi from Imprimerie Dima Press (dimapress@gmail.com or 0654 142 184). We had just enough time to stop in at the high-tech piracy hub of Morocco called Derb Ghallef to get my phone flashed.

Well not really enough time. By the time we got back to Cornelia’s and I got my things together, there wasn’t any time for me to take the train to the airport so Cornelia dropped me off. Thanks again Cornelia, you’re a lifesaver.

On a side note, I didn’t manage to sell my car as planned. Too complicated without the registration papers and too expensive with the €6000 customs tax--three times the asking price for the car! So I left my car under surveillance in Casablanca and am actively looking for someone who would like to drive it back to Nice. If you are interested and want more details, please contact me!

Thanks again to Nezha and Cornelia for making me feel most welcome in Morocco and Cornelia for hosting me. A friend who asked to remain anonymous also donated $50 in Nezha’s name to buy 5 bednets and thank her for her hospitality. See you all in Osaka I hope!

Next stop: Cameroon!