jay | To Africa and back again, pt. 3

I had booked

tenacious_snail and I in Tarifa, in order to catch a morning ferry across the Mediterranean to Tangier. After a non-optimal group tour a year ago, this time I paid an extra E60 to hire a private guide and cab for the day. It was a *much* better experience, well worth the additional cost IMO...

For example, since we weren't on a bus tour, and the guide worked for us, we could request to go other places... like outside the city into rural Morocco and the lovely, harsh Atlantic coast:

The guide was obligated to make some set stops, like the camels and a couple of shops in the old town. Even then, we stopped, played with the camel and left in 3 minutes, not 20, and were off again. Here's

tenacious_snail on a camel (adding a third to my collection of photos of sweeties-on-camels ;^)

And we could dally, and explore hidden side alleys and quiet courtyards, like this one in the Kasbah:

Even if the usual hustlers came up to us (like the snake charmers), they were fewer and much better behaved.

We had lunch at the same place where I'd been with

patgreene,

dawnd and

sarahh last year. Next time, I might pay more and order off of the menu, but Les liked the music.

We did some shopping... several places that we chose, a couple (like the carpet shop, or the apothecary shown here) that were apparently required stops.

After the ferry back to Tarifa, we found dinner... seafood, great rice with giant shrimp served tableside for two in a Dutch oven. Then drove back 3 hours to Rio Tinto, arriving at 2am.

Rising at 6am, in order to take

tenacious_snail to the airport for her flights home.