Bus Ride to Morocco - Part 3

At the end of our visit to Fez, a friend arranged a hired taxi (Grand Taxi) to take us to Melilla. This was one of the most enjoyable parts of the trip. Our driver reminded me of an Arab version of my brother Paul. A great gregarious man who saw the humor and joy in every moment of life. We traded brief conversation with our shared basic Spanish.

We had to stop at a police kiosk in town so the driver could get a permit (tax) for the trip. Back in the car the driver said with a laugh “It makes them (the police) think they have an important job to do.”

On the way back we lost the fan belt on this Mercedes sedan. I think it was a 230D with 300K kilometers on the dial. We all thought – here goes another day. It was Sunday, and the small town looked deserted. Our driver said to sit tight for moment and he would be right back.

It turns out that you can get Mercedes parts on any street corner in Morocco. Every taxi is a Mercedes, and most of the cars. He came back in 10 minutes with a young mechanic, probably 13-15 years old. The mechanic changed the fan belt while we drank Cokes. He probably worked for 45 minutes.

At the end the driver paid the mechanic 2 or 3 dollars (I don’t quite remember). I do remember that the shoeshine boy was ecstatic with the 50 cents I paid him.