Ghost town

Shortly after sundown, at least during Ramadan, Rabat becomes a ghost town. Most all of the residents have fasted (or severely reduced their caloric intake) all day, and at sundown everyone is at home to break the fast — Iftar.

I was out tonight walking through a park near the hotel around sundown. Shortly after the official sundown, I wandered back up to Agdal, the part of town I visited on Sunday. Sunday afternoon there were people everywhere and the streets were full of cars. Tonight, I could have sworn I was the only person in the city; no one on the sidewalks, no cars to dodge in the street, silence. It was eery!

Rabat is actually two cities, Rabat and Saleh that are separated by a river. On this satellite image, notice how the line of houses on each side of the river doesn’t quite come up to the edge; see how there’s a lot of farmland right at the river. Well, that’s because there are some pretty dramatic cliffs that you can’t quite see from the satellite. Tomorrow I’m going to try to get a picture or two of the view to post later.

I learned today that there is a lot of agriculture here in Morocco. Citrus, olives and, of all things, strawberries! A couple people remarked about the strawberries and how, during season, you can get a kilo for just under $1.

Tomorrow is the big day and I’ll be working with about 20 people for most of the day. Since it’s Ramadan we won’t break for “lunch,” but I’m going to need a snack even though I expect to eat a huge breakfast. We visited the site today, and everything is up to par and ready to go.