Day 10: The Trust Factor

By Natasha

We are so lazy! Ha ha ha! Every night before we go to bed we say, we’re gonna get an early start tomorrow. But then we never actually do! We did get up early, but took our time getting ready. Finally, after packing in the car in the rain (again!), we got on the road and headed down to Algericas, to take a ferry to Ceuta in Morocco. The drive was beautiful and easy, but we couldn’t help but get swept up into the excitement of finally getting into Africa!

We couldn’t find much online about what the customs restrictions were for Morocco, so we just had to guess. So not knowing we had to accept the fact that we would not be able to cook up our bacon and eggs (still no gas!!) and sacrifice anything else we forgot about. However, we bought some juicy southern Spain oranges - about 20 in the bag - and just didn’t want to loose them if there was any fruit restrictions. So we decided to use our handy compact juicer (dankie Mammie) to make some delicious freshly squeezed orange juice. Tim did the juicing and made about 2 LITRES of juice!! So yummy!

Off to the ferry.. what an experience. As we drove into the port we were met by a guy who rushed us and said: “Rapido, rapido”. He motion to hi swatch saying we have to rush if we want to make the next one. Not knowing the ferry schedule we didn’t want to miss one we could’ve been on and then have to wait hours for the next one. He directed us where to park and then said one of us had to stay with the car and what had to follow him. All in Spanish. It only became clear that he was not official port employee when he asked me to follow him (through crazy traffic mind you) across the street to the ticket offices. I still thought he worked for the ticket office, but immediately I realized that something was up when the guy behind the desk didn’t seem too familiar with the guy.

We had a number in mind and so when the guy behind the desk showed me a much lower quote I thought I’d jump on it. I probably could’ve gotten a lower rate, but with being rushed by this guy, I just wanted to get the tickets and go. The tickets were for the 1 pm ferry - at that point it was 12:55... when I asked what happens if we don’t make it for that one, the guy who brought me said “No problemo, no problemo!” As we walked out he said, “You have money no? You pay at embarca.” and motioned towards an ATM for me to get money out. I just said “Si Si” (God will forgive me cause I lied... I had about 43 Euro cents left in total and I just knew something was up). He took my passports (looking back probably to hold them as ransom) and started rushing through traffic. So I had to run after him to catch up.. and no joke.. I almost got hit by a fast driving car. I managed to sweet talk my way back to holding the passports in my possession... he clearly wanted to keep me happy.

When we got back to the cars, he said: “You pay me, I pay them” motioning to the people behind the desk at the ferry terminal. I just kept asking “Why? I have my ticket”. Again, he said “You pay me” getting angry and agitated and wrote “100” in the dust on our window. I said “No way. You didn’t do anything I couldn’t have done myself”. And when he said, “You pay me, I eat.” I said “What do you eat? Caviar!” LOL..no but seriously, I did offer him food if that was what he “really” wanted. Neither one of us were budging and I have to say I was getting a bit nervous that he was going to hit the car or something. But he left us alone... however, at this point there was no way we would make the ferry!! So the officials (the only people I would speak to after that experience) said we should go back to the office and ask for another ticket.

So I started to make my way back.. and then the same guys started following again saying: “My friend, my friend. Come, come!” I was so mad and felt so taken advantage of, that all I could manage was: “No, I’m not your friend. I trusted you and you just took advantage of me”, not even attempting any of my previous broken Spanish. I could tell he had real remorse over this and began to change his attitude from the previous rushed helping, to genuine and sincere helping (I mean I left my wallet in the car.. so he knew there was no money coming)!Luckily (prayerfully) we were able to get a ticket for the next ferry at 2 pm. And so made it onto the ferry without any rushing (or having to pay any extra money).

The ferry ride was great.. and I am happy to report not a bumpy ride so none of those tablets needed. We got into Ceuta, Morocco and to our surprise we drove right out of the ferry terminal and into Morocco. Little did we know that we were still in Spanish Territory Morocco. And it was only when we left the Spanish Ceuta that we were met with a CRAZY (and our first African) border experience. After the incident at the port in Alfeciras, we were very skeptical of anyone offering to help us. But we soon found out that Moroccans are just very helpful people... no doubt looking out to make an extra buck, but not at the expense of their natural African hospitality!

We are loving being in Morocco! We got some yummy (Halaal.. LOL) lamb chops and cooked them up with some Moroccan spiced Couscous I had in our food boxes! The perfect Moroccan meal for so cheap! Just how we like it!