A day in Tangier
Trip Start
May 12, 2009
1
9
52
Trip End
May 12, 2009
Tangier,
Morocco
Monday, June 29, 2009
You can see Africa from our campsite. Russell pointed out that we are closer to Africa (15km accross the Straight of Gibraltar) than St. Paul is to Elk Point.
We took the so-called Fast Ferry (which occasionally lives up to the name) from Tarifa to Tangier, Morocco. It took about an hour to get accross. 55 Euros per person return. Ouch.
So we disembarked - and we were in Africa! The kids though it was pretty cool.
We hired a guide, because Rick Steves said we should. He was very talkative and english-speaking. He seemed to know what he was doing. We quickly caught onto what exactly he was doing: getting us to buy stuff so that he could get kickbacks. We knew about the kickback system ahead of time, but it was still something to behold. We toured a carpet store, a spice store and a restaurant. At each location we were parked with the proprietor for a few minutes for the sales pitch. Apparently these guides get a 20% kickback for whatever the tourist spends.
Interspersed with the Tangier Shopping Chanel approach, we did see actual sights of old Tangier. We saw mosques, churches and a Jewish house of worship.
We managed to ditch our guide after a couple of hours. The old Arab parts of Tangier are really very exotic and faraway feeling. We were not in Canada any more. The are very few streets wide enough to operate even a small vehicle. Some of these alleys squeeze down to less than a meter wide. Some of them are flights of stairs. It is great fun to get lost in a place like that - and really really easy to do.
Much of the old medina is basically a mall. There were hundreds of tiny shops - little holes in the wall selling very specialized goods. Shoes, shirts, sewing thread, spices, dead chickens - each had their own shop.
The smells that wafted around were varied and exotic. Lots of spices, the occasional roast meat, roasting corn - it was all there in the air.
The place was packed - mostly with actual locals, though there was the occasional fellow tourist.
A loud and fast-moving funeral procession barrelled through. We thought that it was a celebration of Spain's victory over South Africa in a soccer game, unitil we saw the body bouncing atop an open rack carried by the mourners. You don't see that in St. Paul.
I got a haircut from a barber in a tiny shop in the heart of the medina. We shared no language at all. I ran my hand over my hair and made a ZZZZZZ sound by way of explaining the style of haircut I desired. He did a great job, using a straight razor (which I have seen only in museums and old movies). He sharpened the dangerous-looking instrument, then disinfected it by dipping it in alcohol and lighting it on fire. I was convinced of its cleanliness.
So for 3 Euros (about 5 bucks) I got the best and shortest haircut that I have had in a while. I shaved off my facial hair a few days ago, so I do look a little different these days.
We did buy a few things. Susan got some spices. Jessie got exotic-looking slippers in the style the local girls were wearing. Nick got a rock with crystals in the centre, which he informed me was a geode. Russell got a used novel in English for a euro. Not bad.
Then we caught the 6 o'clock fast ferry back to Tarifa. We'll stay here another day and then continue on the Gibraltar.
