From Here to There

April 9, 2016.  Another excursion, but this time I landed on an altogether different continent as I embarked on a guided tour of Tangier, Morroco.

With only 11 of us on this excursion we had a much smaller group than the Cordoba trip (there were at least 50 in that group), but it was still a very early morning so that we could get to the port of Tarifa (Spain) to catch the 10:00 am ferry to Tangier.  We saw the “Rock of Gibraltar” (in the distance) on our way to the port – so I can now take that off my “to do” list.  Our Spanish tour guide, Pancho (Frank), handled all the paperwork for us at passport control in Tangier, so a quick showing of our passport on the Spanish side was all we needed to deal with.

We were met in Tangier by a local guide who took us first on a little bus tour of the various international neighborhoods, and then on to the requisite tourist stops – the opportunity to ride a camel, a walk through the kasbah and medina (including  a stop to see the snake charmers) and visits to the rug store and spice shop.  We had lunch in a tourist retaurant, filled with nothing but tour groups all eating the same pre-fixe menu (Morrocan soup, kabobs, couscous with chicken, mint tea and a pastry similar to bakalava).

As hokey and touristy as it was, it was still fun to walk through the throngs of people in the markets, see the mosques, and hear more about the history of this ancient culture.

There were some spectacular views along the way, and some interesting stories (i.e., it was a popular spot for rock and roll artists “back in the day” due to the availability of hashish, which is legal for locals but illegal for tourists/visitors) so it made for a good side trip – and I didn’t have to drive OR try to find my way around in a city where very few people speak English.

According to a friend, Tangier is not a good representation of true Morrocan life – to truly experience it you need to go deeper in-country; but if your time is limited (as mine was) you can still get a little taste of the culture in Tangier.