Larache

Larache is not a tourist town; I call it La Raunchy due to its impressive garbage piles, one of which greeted us each morning as we left our Riad. And the Riad gave us much fodder between its grime and our very weird host Hassan......however, we had two great days in the region! The first day we, with some difficulty, found the roman ruins of Lixus, which is not given its due in the guidebooks. We were lucky enough to have a young man guide us through for over two hours. His father and grandfather had also been caretakers of the site, but the ministry of culture no longer supports the guards, so he gave us this fascinating and detailed tour at no charge, due to his passion for the site. The next day we met the Hassan mentioned in all the guidebooks as the expert birder at mousy bousselham- and expert he was indeed! He took us out on his boat and I will let the birders tell all we saw; the pink flamingos were the most unusual to this non- birder. Then he showed us the fishermen who had returned with a big haul, picked out a variety of fish and crabs for us, and shared an amazing lunch in the restaurant nearby who cooked them up for us!