Tangier, Morocco

January 17, 2020

Since Hector has gone back to the US for work, I decided to do a little excursion. This week I signed up for a day tour (Malaga a Pie €88) of Tangier, which is just across the Strait of Gibraltar on the Moroccan coast. At 5:45 am the tour bus picked me up downtown and at 10 am we were boarding the ferry at Tarifa, after having collected 30 more passengers at all the tourist towns along the way.

Ferry to Tangier

45 minutes later, after landing in Tangier, passport stamped on the boat, we got on the bus and headed up the hill to the British quarter, obviously to see the best first. We drove through all the gorgeous parks and palaces on the hillside, then abruptly stopped at a parking lot for the obligatory camel ride. Non, merci.

Our guide spoke Spanish, English, French and German fluently, which was very impressive until it became clear that she intended to repeat every word in each language, since we were quite a mixed bag of tourists.  Once we got to the old city, the medina, we divided into smaller groups, fewer nationalities.

Entrance to the Medina

The walk through the narrow streets of the medina was wonderful, although it lacked some of the thrill of danger that can be found in other old cities (see my post Marrakech). A young Moroccan vendor I chatted with, lazily selling key chains, told me we were the only tour in town that day so no one was very committed to doing the full show.

He took great pleasure in the poor old British ladies who were afraid of everything. He said the Chinese were that way too, terrified that one of them was about to steal their camera. As we headed toward the bus, my friend would scream “last chance, you’ll be sorry!” then have a good laugh.

In the medina

Later, we went to a “Moroccan Spice Shop” which turned out to be a full-on old fashioned medicine show, with an adorable Moroccan man flirting with the ladies and kissing the bald heads of the men. “Ladies, you got lazy husband don’t give you jiggy jiggy? Give him two drops of this and 20 minutes later jiggy jiggy! Who has hemorrhoids? I have lotion for that!” And on and on. It was worth the cost of the whole tour. Everyone bought something, I bought two bottles of Arnica oil: “sore muscles and smooth skin, maybe hair on your head too!”

Clear your sinuses. Permanently!

Back on the ferry, and very long ride home, dropping off all the Germans, French, Spanish, British, Canadians in Marbella, Estepona, Benalmadena, Fuengirola, Torremolinos, and the final stop at 9:30 pm, poor little American me in Malaga. Should have got that hemorrhoid lotion!