Africa!

I had a tip to take a day trip to Morocco while I was here since it is so close. I was also told not to go alone. Well, turns out the waiter is a Moroccan citizen and he had a day off this week and needed to get his mother a visa so she is able to come visit him in August. Perfecto! We took the 6:45am bus from Malaga to Algeciras where there was a ferry. Jose had to stop at the Moroccan Consulate to finalize the visa paperwork, so we started there. I wasn't even allowed in the office, I had to wait in the hall. But eventually he came back and we headed to the ferry ticket office. We had just missed the bus, but still managed to get a ticket on the 11am ferry and then shared a cab with two random guys who were also a little late but still getting on the 11 o'clock ferry. The town where the ferry was is actually about 15-20 minutes away from the ticket office. So we made it with plenty of time and had to wait for el barco to arrive and empty before boarding. And we had to go through passport control on the way out of Spain...I now have a boat stamp in my passport! Sometime around 11:20 or so they finally let us start boarding. And when we got on we had to wait in another queue for Moroccan passport control (I've got a stamp in Hindi, too!). So, basically the whole trip was waiting in lines. But we finally docked in Morocco.
Immediately upon getting off the boat, we were approached by men in robes asking if we wanted a taxi. I quickly knew it was good I didn't go alone!  We made it out of the area and started searching for Jose's brother so we could deliver the visa documents. And we exchanged a bit of money...Moroccan money looks like euros but it is worth less than 10% of it.
His brother spent the day with us too. We first walked through a shopping district...I think that is all tourists do! Then his brother wanted to go to a place for lunch that overlooked the water....the hunt was on for a taxi that would go that far outside of the city center....we finally found one, that we had to share with two other people. I was a bit scared...the Mercedes had a horribly spider-webbed windshield, the back window had a sunshade Jerry-rigged to it and the speedometer was broken. Apparently you just agree on a price with the cab driver...no meter was to be found. But we made it. The place we went had a cave with a beautiful opening to the ocean and some random tourist trap souvenirs. But the restaurant had the best location! It was gorgeous! The food was pretty good, too. They had pans of fish with potatoes and carrots that they cooked on a bbq grill. Of course the fish still had heads...I'm not sure I really like my food looking at me! The guys also got an order of anchovies. Yes, full fish on a plate. I couldn't quite bring myself to eat them after my experience with anchovies last year in Italy. But it was a great lunch. And there were camels in the parking lot so I got a picture and pet a baby.
Then it was time to head back into town...we needed a cab. Phew, found one that has just dropped people off and he was willing to take us back. Of course along the way we stopped and picked up two more people. This was not a huge car...but I think they would have squeezed a couple more people in to get the fare. We made it back without incident. We also passed the King's house. Apparently he has one in every city of the country and he spends time at all of them.
We wandered around the city center for a bit and stopped at a nice cafe for coffee. I had Moroccan tea. It was herbal tea with something and mint. I don't remember what it was. But it was pretty good. Then we went back to the shopping area and Jose got a couple of fake Polo shirts for 10Euros. Now it was getting late and we said goodbye to Jose's brother and headed to the ferry. We got there in plenty of time for the 6pm ferry, but apparently so had the rest of the world and they wouldn't let us on, saying it was full and we had to wait for the 8pm boat. That boat finally showed up a little after 8 and after waiting for all the cars to clear out we were allowed to board. But we also had to wait for cars to load. My god, I think the entire country was trying to leave. The entire double decker car port was full, and it took over 2 hours for them to load everything. Ugh. We were extremely tired and cold by that point...sweating all day then sitting in cold a/c with no jacket...I used Jose's shirts as a blanket! We finally got underway and returned to Spain around 11:30. Then we had to take the bus back to Algeciras. Well, the bus station had since closed and there was now no way to get back to Malaga...so we found a hotel and called it a night.
The next morning, I woke with the rock of Gibraltar out my window! The room faced Algeciras port which looks right over the harbor to Gilbralter. Very cool. Although I didn't go climb on it, I at least got to see it!
So we headed to the bus station to catch the 9am train back to Malaga...and wouldn't you know it, sold out! And that was the direct bus. The next one at 11am was a route bus which meant it took forever because it stopped in every town along the way. And trying to get a train ticket was useless as apparently the train doesn't go that way. So 11 o'clock route bus it was...we finally got back to Malaga after 2. Then I got a 6:20 train back to Sevilla. Ugh. It was nice to not be on public transportation for a few hours...but Saturday morning I started all over again with the next leg of my journey...