I decided that the next stop will be Marocco. The reason? I haven’t been there before! And it’s only 30 miles from La Linea. So – why not?
I’ve heard a lot of good words about Marina Smir, and there we went. Having not much time (not to miss the right wind to Balearic Islands) we were going to visit only one closest city – Tetuan. I always liked the name anyway.
We left Marina Alcaidesa, refueled on the famous duty-free fuel station (around 60 cents per liter) and headed towards the African shore. Crossed all the strait beam reaching, but at the African “corner” it started to be interesting. The wind from any directions, strong current and riptides made us stop relaxing and start working with sails. After the cape the wind was blowing straight on the bow, so we said “fuck it” and started the engine.
We didn’t see any fishing nets approaching marina, but there were a lot of crazy jet ski and motor boats, one has to keep an eye!
In Marina Smir first you should dock at the Reception quay aka Fuel dock, to the left from the entrance. The white building is Marina office. Harbor master, passport police and customs are in the same building, which is very convenient! Security guys are super friendly, they took our lines and walked with me to all the authorities, welcome to Marocco! The guy in the customs asked: “Why is your power of attorney not notarized?” – “I have no idea, we always do it like this in Europe…” – “Really? Ok then!” – he said. Marvelous! No money needed, everybody is smiling, we are not the first Russians so they know that we don’t need visa, all the paperwork took 15 minutes! Very nice! I’ve asked them if I can stay at the reception for couple of days (didn’t want to maneuver on the full keel boat in the marina with quite a fresh breeze we had, and WiFi they have only in the office…), they were not very happy, but at the end let us stay there. Although without electricity and water. But I had enough solar energy, and the showers were 15 m from the boat, so no problem with that.
And in the morning we went to Tetuan. In the Marina office they said that there is no currency exchange or ATM, so they exchanged me some euros for dirhams. Exchange rate was 1 euro = 10 dirham, very convenient to count! And by the way there was an ATM near the Marina entrance, next to the supermarket. One local guy tried to offer us his services as a guide (quite cheap, bu the way, 5 euro a person) for Medina and castle, but I refused, it was more interesting to explore ourselves.
The bus #35 goes to Tetuan, the bus stop is infront the Marina entrance on the main road. No timetable, the ticket is 7 dirham. It is 40 minutes to get to the city center, but we spent more time in a bus because we didn’t know that the bus station is not in the center and traveled a bit along the edge of the central part. Could go further, but a nice man sitting next to us recognized stupid tourists and tried to tell us in French that this is the last opportunity to hop off the bus if we are going to visit the center.
As for language, by the way, English almost doesn’t work there. It’s French or Spanish. French is for younger people, Spanish – for older. But the Moroccans are very friendly, smiley and ready to help anyway.
So we went towards we were thinking was the center. I don’t know why but it seemed to me that it should be on the hill. Wrong! But instead we’ve seen an ordinary neighborhood, ordinary people and a lot of extraordinary colors! And had no problem at all. At the end we’ve reached the top of the hill, haven’t seen any Medina, gave up and asked for directions. Old Spanish-speaking lady showed us the way through the narrow side streets, steps, even more amazing colors and children playing in this labyrinth.
And finally here is Medina. Old town. As usual in North Africa, it is a big market. But unlike Tunis here the market was mostly for locals. Fruits and vegetables, cooking utensils, tools, fish, live chicken… We found only couple of souvenir shops not far from the President Palace.
We’ve explored the market, ate a pastry with some strange drink, than made a stop fort traditional mint tea (extremely sweet), and it turned out that we haven’t seen even a half of Medina! Ok, let’s continue. And later we’ve seen more interesting part and climbed the winding steps till the very Kasba, the fortress. What a view! The fortress is abandoned, so we’ve climbed the fence. And it turned out that there were people living there. And they’ve asked us to leave, haha.
So we went back down to find a place to it. But couldn’t find one! A lot of people were sitting in the cafes and restaurants and drinking tea or coffee and eating nothing! Odd… And it’s not Ramadan time! We decided to go back to the marina, at least they have proper restaurants there. Found the bus stop, squeezed into the bus and there we go! Just in case you will need it: the way to ask a driver to stop is to bang on the window.
By the way, all our amazing trip cost us 7 euro for both of us. Including the transportation, pastry with a drink, mint tea, couple of peaches, half a kilo of olives and a souvenir.
Marina restaurants were happy so feed us. Comparing to the trip budget it was a devastation!
Security on the reception quay checked Sasha’s backpack. Watching out! But began to smile when seen two bottles of local wine.
In the morning the guy from the customs came. He forgot to fill one more paper. Oh come on! I’m already going to check out! But ok. Took the docs, followed him. We were laughing like hell in Spanish while he was filling that paper.
The check-out procedure took 5 minutes. The payment procedure in the marina off is – the whole hour! They were just soooo slow!
Good that we were either not in a hurry. The marina fee for my 33ft boat was 20 euro a day without electricity and water. Keep in mind that they are not accepting cards! But I gave them back the dirhams we haven’t used and the rest in euro.
Ok, thank you, Marocco, off we go, next stop – Ibiza (or so we thought).
And here are “some” photos. Sorry for the amount, but the place was so picturesque!
PS. Morocco is definitely a cats place, and unlike Tunisia here they are loved. So you can find some cats photos as well!
Here is the neighborhood we’ve got lost in:
Medina and the market:
Another part of Medina and the way up to the fortress:
Kasba (fortress)
And streets on the way down:
