Saturday, September 26, 1992

3:00 pm

Geez!! So, 24 hours later, I'm on a ferry to Tangier. But I shouldn't have gone out so late last night! I had planned to go for a drink at Bolivia and be in bed by 1:00 am to get some sleep before waking at 5:30 am. But Joel stopped by and told me about the party at Carambuco that I had promised to help with. Actually, I thought it was tonight. But anyway, I allowed myself to get dragged out -- until 4:00 am. And, of course, since the sangria was free, I drank a lot. Now I feel like I did on the Press Boat in Lake Huron after Boat Night in 1987. I didn't even have fun last night. None of my friends came with me. So I was bored there -- and trapped since it's so far away. I finally paid $10.00 to catch a cab at 4:00. Uf. Bad evening. I've had only 7 hours of sleep the past two nights. And Morocco is next! I had meant to call Jenny and Donna last night, but totally forgot.

11:17 pm

It's been a pretty exhausting day. And I'm sure that tomorrow will be, too. First, it was pouring down rain when we arrived in Tangiers. Of course, we were greeted by the standard hustler "guides." David tried the "be friendly but firm" approach when one leeched on to us. I pretty much tried to ignore him. But he wouldn't leave us despite our protestations and promises of no money. After walking a while in the rain, we made it very clear that he had to leave us and he got rather belligerent -- almost violent. In fact, he said, "I'll kill you" at one point. And he had some "friends" rush to his support later on. It was a bit unnerving but we finally got rid of him after he spent 5 minutes calling us names and jabbing us with his finger, demanding to be paid for "showing us the way." David was pretty shaken. I thought it was a great experience! We certainly learned a lot. We never should have let him follow us in the first place. But we found a hotel, dried out for a bit, then went out for dinner and walked around the market area. The sights and sounds, although soggy, were fascinating! We were latched onto a couple more times, but pretty much ignoring them seemed to do the trick. Tomorrow should be fantastic!