We walk west of our hotel along Mohammed V - have to be careful navigating as streets are seldom labelled, they often meet at odd angles,and names may be similar (for example there is also a Mohammed VI and the two streets intersect). Our goal is the bureau de tourisme and we eventually find it, though the first policeman we ask says that he's on loan or exchange from Agadir, but his colleague will know - as he does. the office is nicely designed but almost empty; no sign of brochures, etc. The man in charge is happy to give us a fairly decent map, though. Easier to find than the tourist office, not that we were looking, is the Canadian immigration office. The red maple leaf on its sign is visible a block away. It purports to offer services for students and would-be immigrants but we don't check it out, in part because the office itself is on the fifth floor. Spot an interesting building on the way back with Middle Eastern looking wooden balconies at the top above the usual clay-coloured facing.
Even in the streets outside the medina, carts pulled by horses or donkeys share the roadway with buses, cars and trucks. Within the medina they're joined by caleches and bikes, motor and otherwise. The donkey carts are used for deliveries and general movement of goods or building supplies, and also serve as temporary beds when empty - it's not unusual to see a worker having a kip in a cart by the side of the road.
Drop in to the store next to the hotel. As everywhere else, it is subject to flies, but here there are also small birds, sparrow-sized flying in through the open doors and perching on the pasta in open bins or on the chopping block where the meat is cut. the hotel and shops are, if anything, overstaffed, but hygiene is simply not a concern. I find myself thinking that any place that served food at home would lose its licence for similar neglect, when I remember our regular coffee shop in the summer of 2011 when the air conditioning was non-functional and the door stood open all summer.