Tangier, Morocco (AFRICA)

March 19th—Today we headed to Africa…we woke up at 6:00 a.m. and left the apartment at 7:00 a.m. We took a taxi to the Marbella bus station where we got on a 7:30 bus to Algeciras. It was a direct one hour bus ride. Once arriving to Algeciras, we took a taxi to the town of Tarifa to catch the ferry. Tarifa is the Southernmost point in Europe. It’s also the town to where you catch the 35 minute ferry to Tangier, Morocco. We tried our hardest to make the 9:00 ferry ride, but unfortunately were too late. The frustrating part was that the ferry was still in port, but wasn’t boarding anymore people. Oh well! Anyway, we had a couple of hours to explore Tarifa since the next ferry wasn’t until 11:00. We went to find a place to eat breakfast and stumbled upon Café Central. Café Central was a happening place. We’ve decided that when a restaurant is crowded, then it must be good. It was probably the cheapest meal we’ve eaten so far and was very good and filling. By the time we finished up there, it was time to walk back to the port. We certainly didn’t want to miss our ferry. We had to go through Tarifa customs in the station, but once on board the ferry, we then had to go through Tangier customs. The boat ride was a little longer than the 35 minutes due to high winds, but we made it fine to Tangier. Once debarking the ferry, our private tour guide, Mohammed was waiting on us. We booked our guide prior to even going to Tangier. It is recommended to have a guide before arriving to avoid the stress of being mobbed by potential guides at the port and being hit up to buy stuff all day long. Having Mohammed meet us was great because he lead us straight out of the station onto our private tour van. (This is where I have to put in a side note to the day: We have realized that we love using Rick Steves’ book…love his self guided tours, all his personal touches, and that you are at your own pace. In Tangier, we learned the good, the bad, and the ugly of having a tour guide. Mohammed was great! Very friendly, knowledgeable and loved the kids. He kept us feeling safe through the town, drove us around the town, took us to the great sites and a great restaurant for lunch. The bad is that along with all of that you also get thrown into “tourist traps”, as Rick Steves calls it because the guide makes a commission from your purchases. The ugly is that I didn’t get to go into ALL the shops. J) Anyway, back to our day…once getting into the van, we drove through Tangier seeing the Old Town, the New Town, mosques , and various sights. We then made our way out of town through the “rich area”. Here we passed the King’s palace and numerous palaces that are owned by rich international kings, princes and businessmen (including the head of Fiat). Once out of town, we headed toward the Atlantic Ocean coast. We made several stops along the way to get pictures. One stop was where the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea meet. Another stop was at Hercules Cave. We walked through this cave and got a wonderful view of the Atlantic through a cut out that is said to resemble the shape of Africa. It was at this location that we saw several tuna boats. It is big to fish for tuna in this area and most of the fish is sent to Japan. We also got our up close experience with the camels. Abby and I got on first. It was quite an experience when the camel stood up. If you’ve never gotten on one, then you definitely don’t realize how they go back and forward several times before standing straight up. It gives you the feeling like you are sure to fall off. Well, this whole event scared Austin because he did think we were going to fall off. So, he got a little upset and wasn’t sure he wanted to get on a camel anymore, but he did and quickly got over the scare of it. We left the Atlantic coast area and headed back into Tangier. Mohammad had told us to just let him know when we were hungry for lunch and he would take us to a local restaurant. We ate lunch at Mamounia Palace located right inside the Medina (Old City) wall next to Grand Socco. It had a great atmosphere with local music being placed. It was actually an awesome experience. We ordered the menu of the day which was a 3 course meal of Harira (soup), Pastella (chicken) with couscous and Patisserie (a chicken/raisin pastry). It was all very good and safe, to our stomachs that is. After leaving lunch, we were on foot at this point. We walked out of the gateway of the Medina and through the Grand Socco (the big square) and into the new town. Here we walked through the market. Mohammad took us into an area where we saw many artisans spinning thread in their shops. It was an interesting experience watching them in their small shops make blankets by hand. No electric machines here. We then headed back through the town walls of the Medina and through Petit Socco (the small square). The Medina is full of winding lanes and tiny alleys that weave through the old-town market area. If we didn’t have our guide, we sure would have gotten ourselves lost. Here we saw one of the public bakeries. Many people cannot afford private ovens so they drop off their ready-to-cook flour at the bakeries. Throughout the maze we were in, we saw ornate keyhole doors (lead to neighborhood mosques) and green doors (the color of Islam and symbolize peace). After this we were led into a local shop with many rugs and decoration items. We enjoyed a presentation on all the different types of rugs while sipping on some drinks, one being Moroccan mint tea. It was hard to explain to them that we couldn't buy a rug because we don’t even have a house to buy one for. We did purchase a unique mirror made out of camel bones. We figured that we could surely find a place for it in another house. From here we went to a Berber pharmacy where we were presented various herbal medicines and spices. We actually bought some spices that can be rubbed on chicken, fish, etc. We figured we’ve had a hard enough time finding spices to cook with because of the language barrier, so this would be a good purchase. It was now time to head back to the boat. Mohammad drove us to the port and escorted us to the customs line where we said good-bye. While waiting on the ferry, I noticed a girl with a UT cap hanging from her backpack. I walked over to talk with her. Her name is Danielle and she is a junior at UT on spring break. She was with her brother, Chris, who recently graduated from Georgetown last year and now works in Madrid and his roommate, who is also from the US and works in Madrid. We started talking with them and actually ended up all sitting together on the boat. They were great to talk with and even gave us a few tips on places in Barcelona, our next stop. They were amazingly mature for their ages. We arrived back to Tarifa a little after 9pm and caught a free bus to Algeciras. We then caught the 10pm bus from Algeciras back to Marbella. After a short taxi ride, we got back to the apartment a little after 11pm. The kids basically fell asleep on the bus from Tarifa and slept all the way to the apartment. We had a great day! While it is impossible to truly experience Morocco in a day, our side-trip gave us a legitimate taste of North Africa and the Islam culture. It was a day that was very different and unique to any previous experience.

Windy Day Out

March 18th—Today was a very windy day on the beach so we decided to escape the sand and water. We headed to the Selwo Aventura Parque in Estepona. Estepona is about 15 minutes from Puerto Banus. The Selwo Aventura is described as “a great jungle with more than 2,000 animals living semi-free”. We explored a big majority of it on 2 different safari routes. These safari trucks first took us through half of the park seeing rhinoceros, zebras, buffaloes, and antelope, to name a few. After our first ride, we walked around to see a snake exhibit ,the giraffes up closer and Bengal tigers. It was at this midway stop that we ate lunch and got a beautiful view of the parks nature and waterfall. We then got on the second safari truck that took us their “Africa”. It was on this ride that we saw bison, camels, tigers, bears, and elephants. Once reaching the top, we had to depart the truck, but could get back on after viewing the area or walk back down. We chose to go exploring. So, we walked through the nature of the area and across 3 suspension bridges. Suspension bridges are a little iffy on windy days like today! We got an up close look at the elephants, one was a baby elephant. The baby elephant’s name is Little Kanvar and is unique in Spain. We made our way back down to the halfway point and decided to take the Safari truck down to the bottom. As we were riding back down, we realized that we could have walked through the bird sanctuary. So, once we got off, we walked up through some of the bird sanctuary. At the bottom of the park, there were many kinds of monkeys which of course the kids loved. We also saw a toucan…we named him Fruit Loop. There were many peacocks just wandering the area around the red pandas we saw. We left the park and went to an indoor play area in Estepona that opened at 4:00. Abby had seen an advertisement for it in a local magazine and had been begging to go there since. We arrived a little after 4:00 at the KidszKingdom which was located inside Super Sol (grocery store). This place was awesome and FULL of kids. There was only one way in and out and the door was locked so no one could escape. As an added bonus, Wednesday nights is “kids eat free night”. The kids played for 3 hours and want to go back again.

The Rock of Gibraltar

March 14th--Today we left the apartment about 8:15, got a taxi to the bus station in San Pedro and then got on a bus at 8:40 heading for La Linea. After several stops, we arrived at La Linea a little before 10:00. We had about a 5 minute walk from the bus station to the Gibraltar border. Picture crossing into Mexico...it was a very similar experience. All they wanted to see was that we had a passport, but they didn´t look at them too closely. To get into town from the "frontier" (as the border is called), we took the #3 bus, but instead of getting off we took it all the way through town up to Europa Point. It´s here that the Gibraltar Lighthouse is located. It dates back to 1841 and stands 49 meters above sea level with a range of some 37 kilometers. From here, we had our first view of Africa across the Strait of Gibraltar. We then took the bus back into town to find some lunch. We walked down Main Street which is basically a shopping drag. We ended up at Casemates Square for lunch at All´s Well Pub. It is highly recommended by Rick Steve´s to sample some English pub grub; so we had fish and chips and jacket potatoes (baked potatoes with fillings). Mike ordered the Moroccan chicken tanjine which is also recommended since you are so close to Morocco. After lunch, it was time to head to the top of the actual ¨Rock of Gibraltar¨. The limestone rock mass is nearly a mile long, rising 1400 feet high with very sheer faces. When we first entered into Gibraltar, there were many signs posted stating that the cable cars (which take you directly up the mountain) were closed for the month due to maintenance. So, our only way up to the top of the rock was by a taxi tour which turned out to be a great way to see all the sites. Our taxi driver, Chris, was a born and bred, 3rd generation Gibraltarian. He was very nice and knowledgeable and brought his son along for the ride. He filled us in on a lot of history of the island. The taxi took us for a 90 minute loop tour with four stops: a Mediterranean viewpoint (called the Pillar of Hercules), St. Michael´s Cave, a viewpoint near the top of the Rock with a close up view of the monkeys, and the Siege Tunnels. The first stop, Mediterranean viewpoint was where we got our best view of Africa and the ferries that go back and forth. Before exiting the car at our second stop, St. Michael´s Cave, we had to get our instructions on how to handle the monkeys since there were several just running freely. The rules were to not be scared of them, don´t feed them, and don´t run towards them. St. Micahel´s Cave was about a 15 minute free walk throughout one of Europe´s most dramatic natural grottoes that is situated about 300 meters above sea level. Recently, a sound and light system have been installed that dramatically enhances the cave´s natural features. At the end of the walk, we entered an area that has been converted into an auditorium where performances are done within the cave. When we exited the cave, there was a gift shop (imagine that!). There were several apes hanging out in the area. Our taxi driver pointed out that one was sick (comparable to Parkinson´s Disease) and then there was another one that clapped his hands when he wanted more food. That was funny! Anyway, we got back into the taxi heading for the Apes´Den. It is here that we saw a lot of monkey action. There were some tourists that had them sitting on their shoulders. We decided to pass though. There was one monkey named Michael. I found that very funny! He is 26 years old (oldest in the area) and is crossed eyed. They usually live about 15-20 years, so Michael was definitely old. Once we had enough monkeying around, we headed to the Siege Tunnels. These tunnels were blasted out of the rock by the Brits during the Spanish and French siege (1779-1783). Inside the tunnel, there were tiny windows which were used for perches from where big cannons could fire. From here, we saw a great view of the airstrip and the man made land of Gibraltar. The entry road into Gibraltar crosses right through the airstrip so it is closed down about 3 or 4 times a day to allow planes to land or take off. After the tunnels, our tour was basically over except for the drive back down the Rock. On our way down, we passed the Moorish Castle. The only part of the castle left is the Tower of Homage, which dates back over a thousand years. After our tour, we decided to walk back down the Main Street and do a little shopping. The kids were determined to get monkeys (stuffed ones that is) after seeing so many on the Rock. It´s funny because this is the first time in all our traveling that they´ve insisted on getting a souvenir. After the monkeys were purchased, a snack was in order. We sat back in Casemates Square, enjoying the beautiful weather while the kids ran around playing. We left there about 5:00 to give us plenty of time to exchange our pounds back into Euros (Gibraltar´s a British Colony so it uses the British pound) and cross back over the boarder. Our bust left out of La Linea at 5:45. Gibraltar was a wonderful day trip and had so many fascinating things to see. We really enjoyed it!