Tangiers in a day

We tackle our Tangiers today, via the Coast Africa tour. We talked our new five girlfriends into joining us for the tour, so on this day we are eight. Although still quite hot outside I wisely opted to wear jeans instead of my usual leg-baring shorts, knowing we are going to a country populated mostly by Muslims.

This is the longest we will journey in a day trip, as it took us about 3 hours by bus to get to the border crossing, then an hour by high-speed ferry to get to the Moroccan ferry port.

The Tangiers experience was overall a bit cheesy, but then we knew it would be. You want to ride a camel and have your picture taken with the snake charmer, clap along with the Moroccan dance troupe, and are fascinated by the quick glimpses you get of the culture and the people, as you walk past the Kasbah's fortress walls and through the Medina area. The tour also included a drive through the newer parts of Tangiers, but there were no off-the-bus stops. The Moroccan lunch was enjoyable; it was in a very Moroccan setting with live music, and we all loved the spicy soup, sheesh kabobs, and mint tea. However, the shopping experience, particularly on a tour where you feel so rushed and have no time for comparison shopping, was quite stressful! Bargaining there seems so insane, with items starting at ridiculous amounts, like 500 euros, but sellable for maybe 20 euros? How do you have any idea when you have 15 minutes in each store and there are no comparable products in any of them? You know you are getting taken advantage of and your ‘helpful guide’ Abdul who ‘assists’ you in bargaining is only out for all the commissions he can rack up for himself. But none of that of course stopped us from buying things, because we were only going to be there once, right?....

There seemed to be three big advantages to being in a tour group: easier border crossings, we had a guide to lead us through the medina and english-speaking translators (especially helpful when you realize that all street signs are in Arabic!), and it felt safer.

Tonight we enjoyed dinner and a Flamenco show at our resort. We were skeptical the show would be anywhere near as good at the show we saw in Seville, but were pleasantly surprised. The dancers here were also very skilled, and the show was excellent.

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