It was raining when we awoke, but stopped before we left the boat, and the sun soon came out. Our 1st stop was back down Winston Churchill Rd.-the main road, to where it crossed the runway. Planes were due in at 10:50 and 10:55am. We watched the barriers come down across the road, like we have at railroad crossings, and the policeman closed the gate across the sidewalk. A crowd gathered to watch the 2 planes land, cross the road, and pull up to the terminal. It wasn't as loud, exciting as I thought it would be.
We then walked through the town center until it was time for lunch. We went back to the marina to Ipanema's Restaurant for a highly anticipated buffet lunch.
We picked up our luggage at the boat and walked out of Gibraltar and back into Spain to the bus station. Just a 15 minute wait until the local bus back to Algeciras. It was 3:45 and we were just about to enter the ferry terminal and a man on the street told us there was a 4pm ferry and if we bought our tickets at the travel agency across the street we could make it. At the terminal they would make us wait until the 5pm ferry. So we bought the tickets and ran back across the street and into the terminal. We made it! This was a different ferry line than we had taken 2 days ago. Much fancier. And there were cabins on the deck above, so the ferry must be used for cruises. Once we arrived at Tangier Med we boarded the Supratours bus for the ride back to Tanger. We had tried to buy WiFi minutes on the ferry, but it didn't work, so we had no hotel booked. We met a Canadian couple on the ferry who had been backpacking through Africa for 3 months, who were also hoping to find accommodations on the internet. They said they had been camping or staying in hostels. I then started thinking about how much money we were spending on hotels and asked Amanda if she wanted to stay in a hostel. It was fine with her. We planned on looking for a restaurant with WiFi when we got off the bus. Of course, we were approached by a "representative of the tourist bureau" who wanted to help us. He told us there was a hostel right near the souk (market), and he would get us a taxi. Amanda was more agreeable than me. I was reluctant, especially when he walked us over to a taxi with no light on, and he jumped into the taxi, too. I immediately looked for inside door handles. This had me very nervous. This man chose the taxi, and rode with us. My plan was that if we left a busy area, we were out of there at a red light. This was too contrived, and I pictured us sold into white slavery. We got to the hostel, which was really a hotel, and the man went in with us and asked the man at the desk for room #1. This made me even more suspicious, figuring they were all in it together, and he had another key to the room. He asked us if the room looked OK. We said it did. Then, the motive became apparent. He offered to escort us to the souk for 2 hours for 15Euros each. (Since Tangier is so close to Spain, they accept Euros along with Moroccan Dirhams). When I scoffed, he lowered the price. He explained that the "tourist office" didn't pay him for giving the tourists advise. This was how he made his money. The guide books do advise to hire a guide in the souks so that you don't get lost. We told him we only wanted to get a dessert and then go back to the room. Amanda offered him some money for his help and he left. Our room has a bolt, so we are safe. I told Amanda all of the reasons I was concerned, but she said she just went with her gut.
No comments:
Post a Comment