Wheeler Dealer

It's a deal...!

There was a decidedly shady air about the small group that huddled furtively around the little iron table beneath the pergola. The tension in the air was tangible. Clearly the stakes were high. Chicago Mohammed drummed his fingers on the table nervously. We had immediately rumbled the sinister looking fellow on his right, with his thin, mean moustache and dark, slicked-back hair as being the ruthless mobster, who lurks in the shadows of all the early Hitchcock thrillers. Lorenzo, of course, might have felt out of his depth in such company, were it not for his having me on his side. As it was, with his dame to impress and the thought of canned sardines for breakfast for the next three months, he knew he had everything to play for... everyone’s cards were on the table - the negotiations could begin in earnest... 

200 dhms (approx £20) per day, we reasoned, some twenty minutes later, was not a bad deal for the cute little red Hyundai that was parked cheerily in the garage next door. When he smiled, the Hitchcockian mobster looked positively genial, and Chicago Mohammed was decidedly relieved that the outcome was happy for all. Even the sardines tasted better, with the knowledge that from here on in we might supplement Ali’s ‘basics’ with fare from the snazzy new supermarket which opened in Essaouira just two weeks ago. Even Adventurers won’t turn their noses up entirely at the thought of creature comforts!

Already Lorenzo and his little car have become a happy sight on the main road between Sidi Kaouki and Essaouira. Every day as he does the supermarket run, in the hope of finding similar stock more than two days in a row, he gathers smiling locals along the way. How glad he is to feel able to give something back to the community who have welcomed us so warmly from the first... Perhaps we will decide to stay and provide a rival taxi service to the ‘Grand Taxi’ cabs, seating six, that leave the square every twenty minutes or so for Essaouira, at a total charge of 6dhms (£6). We could be ‘Magic Carpet Cabs’ and only ask that our clients teach us two new words in Arabic per trip and continue to make us feel so very much at home...