January 17

Today we see Casablanca out our stateroom window as we wake. The sun is shinning and the temperature is about 20 and forecast to go higher. The ski is hazy with a lot of smog and as we were to find out later it is dust in the air from the Sahara Desert. A lot of people have seen the movie Casablanca, this does not depict Casablanca in any way. First of all it was not filmed location at all it was Hollywood's representation. At the time of the film there were only a few thousand people not it is about 6 million. We found the city to be dirty and the large number of people was astounding. Our tour guide was the only high light of this tour.

On our tour of the city we visited the largest Mosque in the area, it could hold up to 66 thousand people for prayers for Ramadan . It was a very impressive building. This was the only site that we saw that stands out as a positive. I guess we have never seen a city as dirty, I am glad we did make the tour if we had not we would have wondered what we missed.

January 18

We arrived in Agadir Morocco, again to sunny skies and warm temperatures. Our tour left the ship about 9:15 and arrived back at 3:30. The city of Agadir is a clean and new city as compared to Casablanca , the city is very new in most areas as Agadir was destroyed by an earth quake in 1960. Pictures tell more of the story.

We enjoyed our tour of the city but we will not plan or coming back for a return visit.

During dinner Ray as not feeling well so back to the room, as it turned out it was a viral intestinal infection. Two in the morning was not a great time. The ship requested that any occurrence be called in to the Doctor, he dropped by at no charge to give medication and requested that she stay in the room for 24 hrs. They do not want it to get out of control

January 19

We are in the Canary Islands (Grand Canary) again the temperatures were in the mid 20s and blue skies. The Canary Island are under Spanish rule.

As Raylene was quarantined for 24 hrs I went on today's tour by my self (not the way to travel) I did not like leaving her behind but she insisted that I go. The Grande Canary island is volcanic and rises to approx 1900 meters. In many ways it reminds me of Hawaii.. The ride into the island on bus was very interesting the roads are in very good condition but very narrow and winding up the mountain side. Many corners the bus took the whole road and the drop of on the down hill side was quite impressive. A large number of European's come hear for their winter vacations. As compared to Morocco, the island was very clean and modern.

After looking at the pictures I took on while on tour it appears that my telephoto lens has a problems as most of the pictures are over exposed. A few are worth posting.. Ray is feeling a lot better after I got back from the tour. We will be looking forward to getting a release from the Dr so that we both will be able to see Madeira's capital city Funchal ( a Portuguese island ) tomorrow.