The wheels on the bus...

Essaouira Morocco

...go round and round...round and round...round and round...all through the town.

At least that is how I remember the lyrics going for the song from preschool. The bus company in Morocco seems to have taken the song quite literally. Ben and I made it down to the Atlantic Coast yesterday and hopped on a bus to return to Marrakech today. We arrived at the bus station in Essaouira early and bought our tickets and a little breakfast. The bus was supposed to depart by 815 and I suppose that it actually did. But as Ben and I waited the last few minutes to depart a bunch of random guys walked around the parking lot yelling Marrakech. They herded people on the bus, seemingly getting people that were not even planning on going to the ancient city. Perhaps they offered them a discount just to get on the bus? Or maybe they were just stragglers? Still, when we finally departed these quasi shepherds accepted a tip from the official bus ticketer and then looked around for the next bus to fill.

Funny thing though is that it didnt stop there, as we drove around the small town picking up random people from seemingly random locations. Ben and I got the feeling that we were not going to be leaving until the bus was full. Every now and then the bus would slow to a roll and the ticketer would hang out the window, yelling Marrakech. Sometimes the bus would completely stop and the entrepreneur would run up to a cafe and a random chap to encourage more butts for the seats on the bus. It really did seem like a negotiation. I could just picture it perched from my high seat on the 20 year old bus. "Oh, you know that you want to go to Marrakech. Good price. I give you good price." Sometimes they would relent and we would be one spot closer to departure. This went on and on, and continued when we passed through smaller villages.

The result: it took us about 3.5 hrs to go about 100 miles. Nice.

I will write about Marrakech a little later today or early tomorrow. Ben left for Switz and I leave tomorrow for London.

By the way, here is an article on my dissertation from Cambridge.