After six days in Morocco, we felt that we had just scratched the surface of what there is to see and experience in that country. Still, we knew it was time to move on to our main destination, Senegal, and were eager to catch our late night flight to Dakar.

When we arrived at the city air terminal in Casablanca, a small office in town where we had checked our bags and checked-in for our flight earlier in the day, we were surprised to discover that only one other passenger had elected to use this service. His name was Badu, a Senegalese who regularly travels between Senegal and Morocco on recruiting missions for Senegalese football (soccer) teams. He was the first Senegalese we met on this trip, and if Badu was any indication, Senegalese were a very friendly people. We talked on the bus all the way to the airport as if we had known each other for years.
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We spent our final day in Morocco in Casablanca, as our flight to Dakar didn’t leave until 11pm that evening. Our expectations for “Casa,” as everyone calls it, were not that high. While the city is very crowded and European and does not have the character of Marrakech or Essaouira, we still enjoyed seeing another side to the country. We were also excited because we knew that in a few hours we would finally be in Senegal.
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We needed a break from the intensity of Marrakech and took a 2-hour bus ride to Essaouira (pronounced “essa-weera”). Essaouira used to be an important port before the French deemed Casablanca the main port. It has recently discovered tourism, however, and we saw a greater concentration of tourists, both Moroccan and non-Moroccan, than in Marrakech. But it still retains the feeling of a large town going about its daily routine. We enjoyed our 24 hours here.
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