Border patrol...

The bus ride from Ceuta to the border was somber at best. I think a combination of bus ride fatigue and anticipation had everyone tongue tied. But it was nearing sunset so the views were breathtaking anyway. (although difficult to capture through the window of a tour bus)

From Morocco

From Morocco

When we got to the border we were told to put our cameras away, but I'm not very good at following directions, so I snuck this photo. It's difficult to see but there's a boy (standing next to that pillar) with a hook on a rope, leaning out through a hole in the barbed wire and lowering it down to retrieve packages and smuggle them into the country. The sad thing is, some of what they were smuggling was simply chocolate bars, but I assume it was to avoid paying any kind of fee or import tax.

From Morocco

I don't know if any of you have driven across the Mexican border, but if you have, there is clearly a line, drawn along the road and on one side of it, you're in America and on the other side you're in Mexico. This was nothing like that.

From the time we entered the "border" area it was at least an hour for our passports to be checked and rechecked and for our luggage to be carefully examined (not opened, mind you, just looked at.) No x-ray machines in sight so I'm not too sure what they thought would be revealed to them if they simply kept staring at our luggage inquisitively, pointing, laughing and saying things in Arabic. It almost looked like a game the guards played to pass the time. "Hey what do you think is in that big red one over there?" "Chickpeas. Bags and bags of chickpeas" "Oh yea?" "Yea." "How about that big one?" "Not sure, but it definitely belongs to a woman, men would never pack that much for a weekend trip. It's probably full of shampoo." and so on and so on until they get tired of guessing what's in your luggage and move on to the next tour bus.

The bus creeps along slowly from one examination station to the next and it looks like rush hour traffic with cars bumper to bumper, honking and wanting to know what the big hold up is. Suddenly you realize, it's at least a mile, maybe two from the gates you enter in Ceuta to the gates that open up into Morocco and the vast fenced in mini-city is a no man's land. It's a long way from one border to the next and if you don't arrive in your own personal vehicle or a tour bus, you have to walk.

We saw old women and men loading themselves up in Ceuta with boxes of juice, packaged candies and unidentified bundles. We even saw one woman holding up her dress while friends taped goods around her stomach and chest. These little old ladies were carrying packages on their backs that had them completely doubled over, shuffling along the 1-2 mile trek from one border to the next. Even tourists who arrived by taxi were making the long journey with their luggage in tow, stopped randomly by guards along the way until they could pick up a taxi on the other side.

It was the most bizarre border crossing I had every experienced.