We knew that we would see quite a few countries on our trip, but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see (part of) a whole new continent! With Spain being so close to Northern Africa, we took the opportunity to cross the Straits of Gibraltar and visit Morocco for the day with a guided tour.
After an early start (about 4am!!!)we traveled to pick up other people from their hotels on the way to the Spanish port of Tarifa (which would prove to be about six hours away). After arriving at the port we passed through customs, though Eli had a few difficulties. The passport officer wanted to see an arrival stamp for Spain in Eli's British passport, but because they don't stamp British passports in the EU, she didn't have one. So to help clear up the confusion the officer continued to speak to us about the issue in Spanish, but much louder and faster!
We were finally let through and boarded the ferry and 40 minutes later we landed in Tangier. We passed through the port and customs (much easier this time) and boarded a tour bus for the first part of the day's activities. We spent the morning touring around the city and being shown the different quarters (American, English, new, old etc.) by our guide Hassan. The guide was quite entertaining, he wore traditional dress (which made him look more like a jedi knight than tour guide) and answered many questions about Moroccan culture (question: why do some women cover their faces? answer: not every woman can be beautiful!). We made a typical tourist stop at a roadside attraction to ride some camels and be harassed by hawkers (who would later convince me to buy an overpriced fez).
Later in the day we were taken to the Kasbah (old town markets) where we were shown around, had lunch, visited some shops and were generally harassed by many more hawkers. With the sounds of The Clash in our heads the whole way (rock the Kasbah)we were led through the winding maze of streets and came across a snake charmer with a cobra. The charmer put on a show for the group and made the snake dance and sway while attempting to bite him at the same time. He finished with an interesting twist, the snake shat in his hand as he was putting it back in its bag! What a finale!!
After a very nice traditional lunch of kebabs and cous cous washed down with mint tea (the national drink) we were off to visit some stores and surprise surprise, get harassed by even more hawkers. At about 4pm we set off on the return ferry back to Tarifa.
Clearing customs was much smoother this time and we boarded the bus back to our hotel passing by the Rock of Gibraltar (an English colony) on the way back. After another really long journey we were the last to be dropped off at our hotel at about 10pm. While it was a long day, the experience was definitely worthwhile.
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