We did make it to Kenitra about 2:30 and then took a mini taxi to the grand taxi station where we had to wait until all six seats were full—almost an hour—then off to Moulay Bousselham we went. On our hour drive, we had an interesting conversation with a young man who spoke really good English and a man who showed us many pictures of the fruit he grows. We passed huge fields and green houses full of banana tress, strawberry plants & vegetable and lots of avocado trees. When we arrived, the young man made sure we got a local taxi to take us to our Airbnb. The taxi was basically a 3 wheeled motorcycle with a box on the back which we crawled into after throwing in our luggage. A lovely villa on the Atlantic Ocean…a bit past it's prime but nice. We settled & then walked to town for dinner. Rog got the traditional coucous meal. I thought I made it clear that I wanted fried shrimp but was served a huge plate of shrimp with their legs & eyes staring at me…and French fries. I did the best I could removing the eatable parts and was glad they gave us lots of napkins. When we got back to our villa, we visited with our host a bit. One spoke fluent English which he said he learned entirely by listening to music. He was proud to say many think he has an American accent! We asked him to call the bird guide suggested in our Lonely Planet guide, Hassan Dalil to arrange a trip in the Merja Zergo National Park , the "blue lagoon". He did and we got one for the next day.
Next morning as we ate our bnb breakfast, a French couple joined us and soon after Hussan came. We chatted quite a bit waiting for the fog to lift. Around 10, Hassan called a taxi/cycle who took us to the boat launch. Then off we wet spotting lots of sea birds: spoonbills, herons, ibises, plovers, long billed egrets, a variety of gulls, terns, osprey, a great white egret and lots of flamingoes. The tide was low so the birds were feeding. Hassan said that Covid was bad for people but wonderful for the bird population! We got back to shore around 2 and walked the back alley up to have lunch together meeting up with 2 guys from California who were going with Hassan next. Back at our bnb, we relaxed & read while listening to the crashing waves. Around 6, we headed back to the lagoon to see if it was indeed a deep blue. It was the blue so typical in Morocco! Tomorrow we head back to Casablanca so we can take off the next day for Portugal. We spent the evening looking at possible places & things to do in Portugal. Rog did his research on how to get to where we want to go which he does so well! I have to wholeheartedly agree with Hassan & Ali who told us were we so lucky to have seen so much! And we still have 2 weeks in Portugal!!
