We
have only a couple days left in Europe to finish up our blog, calculate
and pay estimated taxes, and wrap up bills and other administrative
chores. The lack of information in Tarifa kept us from getting on
timely busses, so we caught a mid day bus to Algeciras, the most
southerly port and huge waterway of trade for Spain. We were hoping to
make it onto the 12:40 bus to Madrid, but when we arrived, tickets were
"completo." Such is our luck. We stashed our bags in a big storage
locker, and went out to explore the city for several hours. It's your
typical border town, felt like San Ysidro in San Diego, down near the
Mexico border. However, there were some attractive historical
buildings to drink a nice café con leche by, which helped us pass the
time a little better.
We
take our late afternoon bus, and arrive to Madrid at 1:00 a.m.,
assuming we'll need to take a taxi, as the metro closes at 1:30 a.m.
To our pleasant surprise, the taxi driver told us to go back to the
metro, as long as we get through the turn-style and have our ticket, we
can make it, for a fraction of the cost of his taxi. Wow, now that's
an honest guy. By 2:00 a.m., we're checking into a little hostal, and
settling ourselves into bed. Madrid is quiet, ironically, as we're in
the heart of the city here. We're fortunate to have accommodation, as
most was completo, and this place came through with an email, minutes
before our departure from Tarifa, to say they had habitaciones con cama
matrimonial. Sold. From Algeciras we skyped the reception, who spoke
not a lick of English, to confirm our very late arrival, and our luck
ended up very good, after arriving so late. So we'll spend two days
here in the city, getting those last available western world products
from the pharmacy, finishing up our important administrative activities
and hopefully taking in a few nice meals and bebidas while we await for
our flight out to Guatemala. Tomorrow is all about organizing a place
to stay in Antigua during the independence day festivities that we are
landing into upon arrival, securing modes of safe, yet cheap
transportation there, and finalizing our volunteer and language
activities.
