Third & Fourth Day - To the Beach & Morocco

To the beach we went!! We were staying in the town of Benalmadena just south of the town of Malaga, a city that attracts lots of British tourists and those looking to relocate. It was a beautiful, glorious day in the midst of craziness!! I had gotten away from home without packing Jerry’s or my beach towels, but we thought we could all just share. We hit the beach and instantly came upon a kind of cabana area. It was an umbrella with 2 chairs. Beach towels could be requested as well as sand toys. The ladies' sign said “Let Maria take care of you!” We thought we’d look into it expecting the price to be out of our range only to be pleasantly surprised that it was only €4.50 (just under $6) per chair (we rented 2) for the whole day. That we could do! I’m so glad we did! Maria was so nice and sweet to our kids! The beach was just a short walk in front of us where we played in the surf ALL day! A great way to spend our 16th wedding anniversary!! There were several restaurants set back further on the beach. We enjoyed a nice, decently priced lunch without having to take our stuff with us or go far at all. The Lord gave us a calm in the midst of our storm. We couldn’t have asked for a better day! Except for the sunburn I got on my back, ouch!! It was worth it though!We got back to our holiday apartment that evening and learned that Jerry’s dad had woken up and was doing better. Praise God!! Things were going a bit better!

I was still dreading the trip to Morocco, but at least we had some sweet memories of the day before. The roads in this area of Spain are small little beach roads and highways or you can pay for the toll road. To save time we decided to pay for the toll roads towards the town of Tarifa at the southern tip of Spain. Tarifa is about 31 kilometers (about 19 miles) from Tangier, Morocco. In reading through Rick Steve’s travel book on Spain I learned that Tarifa is the windsurfing capital of Europe!! As soon as we stepped out of our vehicle I learned why! Oh my goodness, the wind!!! Oooff!! I have never experienced such wind!! Not even my days in college in Plainview (west), TX! Ha!! I couldn’t see a thing because my hair was in my face the entire time!!
We had tried to buy ferry tickets online but it didn’t seem to work (we learned later that it took our money but gave us no tickets! Grr! We’re still working on that!). Luckily the ferries go frequently enough that we were able to get tickets with no problems. It was only a 40 minute trip but partway through the trip we learned that we needed to go through passport control on the boat. And the line was horrendous! I was really trying to enjoy this trip, riding a boat, going to Africa but that was all lost at this one moment!! We were wanting to hurry so we could turn around and get on the next boat, but it didn’t work out that way. Because this was also a ferry that carries cars, all the people who had cars had to get through passport control first so they could get their cars off the boat. It still didn’t make it any easier and was still so frustrating. Once we got off the boat we'd hoped to turn around and get right back on, but learned that we had to get another stamp clearing us to get back on the boat and return to Spain. We ran what seemed like a mile through the maze of docks to get the stamp only to be stopped quickly by the longest line ever possible!! My heart sunk! And we missed the boat. That meant we had another 2 hours until the next boat left. Not enough time to go look around (which we weren’t really interested in doing anyway), so we sat....and waited. We went to a little cafe in the ferry port for some drinks and a snack and that was it. The time passed SLOWLY of course, and finally our ferry came. We were one of the first ones on. We wanted to be in a prime location to do passport control and get a good seat. This ferry was much fuller. We sat by the passport window only to learn that on the way to Spain you don’t do passport control on the boat. Grr again!! Instead of having a good seat to look out on the water we were sitting in the middle of the boat. And on the way back we hit some rough waters. In Alaska, I grew up going deep sea fishing for halibut every summer. I am use to rough waters, but this was making even me feel sick!! I had given the kids Dramamine just in case. Karis can get motion sick in the car, but the boat didn’t seem to phase her or the other 2, go figure (maybe the Dramamine really did work). We tried to take some strolls around the boat and even walking was a challenge. We got a good laugh out of it though. It wasn’t long and people were getting sick. Not fun!! And both girls had to go to the bathroom during all this. Tight stalls, moving up and down. I was feeling icky. We finally saw land and the harbor come into view. I decided we were going below deck to be one of the first ones off. I practically ran off the boat dragging the kids with me towards passport control!! I was so happy to be on Spanish soil! I practically kissed our van when we got to it! Ha! We were on our way back to our accommodations and found a Burger King knowing the kids needed a little treat after our day.
Here are just a very few pics on our Tarifa/Tangier trip. To say we weren't in the mood for taking pictures is an understatement! Ha!

You can see just a glimpse of the wind in Tarifa.

Tangier, Morocco

Flag of Morocco

The ferry we rode

Ruins in Tarifa as well as the line of cars to get on the next ferry.

This had been a whirlwind trip. In some ways I was so ready to get home, but I dreaded getting back in the car the next day. We decided to get up early and head to the beach for one last dip in the waves!! We had another wonderful morning at the beach, but I was sad to go. The beach was our one reprieve during this whole trip and I didn’t want it to end. Neither did the kids. I think they were all crying as we left. I wanted to cry along with them!! We had a good trip home and were glad to have this trip behind us! We had a great time at the beach and I can now say that I have been to Africa!!
Here are several pictures of our morning at the beach. Ah, what fun times!!