I can see Africa!

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Pru, Marcus, and I left Sevilla pretty early in the morning bound for Tarifa. Pru and Marcus were heading to Tarifa to catch a ferry to Morocco, and I wanted to check out the coast. The bus ride took a few hours, and we got to Tarifa in the early afternoon. As we approached Tarifa, the ocean came into view, and there was land on the far side of it. I knew that Africa was close (9 miles), but I had no idea it would be so easy to see.

Our first order of business in Tarifa was finding something to eat, so we tracked down a cafe. After eating, we started walking towards the port, and Marcus and Pru stopped in a travel agency to get ferry tickets. We ended up walking the long way around to the port because of some weird signage, but it didn't matter too much as they had more than an hour to kill. When we got to the ferry terminal, we dumped the bags and Marcus decided to stay with them since he was not feeling well. Pru and I took off to find the tourist office and try to get a guidebook for the two of them.

The tourist office was pretty close by, and I got a map of the town. Pru asked where to get a guidebook and they recommended a nearby place in the old town. We headed over there, and they had the Lonely Planet for 26€ (ouch, but I bet they sell a decent number of them). Pru grabbed it, and we headed back to the terminal. We sat around for about 15 minutes while Pru and Marcus excitedly started planning their time in Morocco. When it came time for them to go through customs, I said goodbye and headed off to find somewhere to stay for the night.

My guidebook recommended the Hostal Facundo as a decent place with dorms. When I got there, I enquired about dorms, but it seems they were all full. They had a single for 20€ and I didn't see many other options, so I booked it and dumped my bag. The weather was deteriorating rapidly so I decided to try to head over to the lighthouse that marks the boundary between the Med and the Atlantic. While I was on the little spit of land that connects it to the rest of Tarifa, a convoy of police vehicles went by, including a van that was full of (I suspect) illegal immigrants that had been captured. With only 9 miles between Africa and Europe, I'm sure quite a few people attempt the crossing.

I wasn't able to get all the way out to the lighthouse because it's inside some sort of military installation, but I did get some nice views of Africa and back towards Tarifa. There were also tons of people out on the beach kite surfing. Tarifa is well-known for its sustained winds, and it has a really active wind/kitesurfing scene.

I headed back to the hostel and tried to go do some laundry. Of the two places in town, one was closed for remodeling, and the other wanted 11€ for a wash and dry. Screw that. I dumped my laundry back at the hostel and went to get some food at the supermarket. I picked up stuff to make a turkey dinner, this being Thanksgiving after all. The best I was able to do was a turkey sandwich, but it fit the bill well enough. It would have been nice to have some other people around, but the hostel was pretty dead.

I ended up killing time using the internet in town (I need to try and figure out how much I spend monthly on internet access because I think it's quite a lot), before going to bed early. I decided to see what the weather would do in the morning, and if it was nice I was going to stay, otherwise I planned to head to Gibraltar.

In the morning, the weather was about the same -- overcast and threatening to rain, so I bought a bus ticket for Algeciras where I planned to decide whether or not to go to Gibraltar. I'll save that for the next entry.

I'm hoping to go back to Tarifa before I leave Spain because I would really like to see it on a sunny day.

Stay tuned...

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Photos

The Atlantic...
On one side, the Atlantic

The Med
And on the other side, the Med

In between
Atlantic on the left, Med on the right, looking back at Tarifa

Thanksgiving dinner
Yummy