Mektoub...Morocco!

And so it is written, we are in Morocco.

We arrived in Tangiers, and after a lengthy stay in customs, complete with mint tea service at our bus(for a nominal fee of course) we passed through the gates into a new country, and a new continent.

It took a few hours for the Yanks to start settling into the new culture, many discussions were had about how to do this, how to do that, and we all came to the conclusion that a smile and observing those around you is always a good start.

One thing that is becoming apparent is, that with our schedule, and our primary mission of getting the bus to Gambia being the priority, alot of sightseeing is falling by the wayside. We made the decision not to go to Fes, even though we all wanted to see it, and push as far as we could towards Casablanca. We made it to Mohammedia our first night- a beach town just north of Casa. Mohammedia is largely a summer resort, so the next morning, after waking up to the 7am call to prayer, it was off to Marrakech. As we were drving out of town we decided to ask about tires and actually found a tire shop near the hotel. The guys there were definitely intrigued by the bus and the Yanks and before long one intrepid employee, Khalid, joined to Yanks to drive around Casa to find tires. It was funny at first - he looked nervous to be getting on this bus with eight American strangers and after much ribbing from his compatriots about BON VOYAGE and HAVE FUN IN SENEGAL in French, we were off on the hunt. Khalid was great, and before long, partly in French and partly in English we talked about the trip and about his fiance Fatima.

To make a long story short Khalid led us all over an industrial area of Casa in search of tires. A few hopeful moments, but no dice. We returned to his shop, Pneu Anime, and changed out our worst tire with the one spare left which is in better shape and hit the road to Marrakech. All the people at Pneu Anime were wonderful and there will be pictures to follow.

We are in Marrakech until tomorrow night and just ran into our first fellow PBCers here at the internet cafe. More later its time to go explore the souks in the medina.

We pretty much decided our new tire approach is cross our fingers and hope we make it. Thanks to everyone who helped here and back in the US try to find les pneus.

We are making one last call to Karas friend Kate in Casa who may have a lead. If that works out an advance team will return to Casa for the tires and then we head south, south, south....