I never intended to visit Spain on this trip. In doing my research, I came up with so many sites I was interested in visiting in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia that I thought it robbery to steal time from those places. I love Spain, and Andalusian food is my favorite Spanish food type. Al-Andalus is definitely on the list of places I want to see. I preferred to leave that region for a trip when Stephanie and maybe our former exchange student Paul Cano might join me.

After booking my ticket to Marrakech, though, I discovered that there was no way to enter Algeria directly from Morocco. The land borders are closed. There are no direct flights. The two countries are not friends. This all stems from Morocco’s annexation of the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara. When Spain relinquished control over that territory in 1976, they sought to transfer control to Morocco and Mauritania. Mauritania relinquished it’s claim, but Morocco continues to control the majority of the territory, all major cities and natural resources. There were, however, indigenous tribes who continue to claim it. These tribes occasionally conduct raids, and have even set up their own government in exile in Algeria. They often base themselves in remote desert regions of southwestern Algeria, and therein lies the rub.

Although the political situation has settled into a stasis for the most part creating no real danger to travelers, the border between Morocco and Algeria remains closed. There are a few choices as to how to get around this. Most people would probably just catch a flight from a Moroccan city to Algiers via Paris or Barcelona. Any of these would have taken a full day and cost at least $400. By regional African standards, that’s an astronomical price. Another alternative I didn’t think of until later was to just fly from Morocco to Tunisia, then enter Algeria by land from the East. Had I done that, I could have just flown from Algeria to Cairo, shuffling the order of my country visits. That would have saved time, and probably been a lot cheaper than flying from Fes to Algeria via Spain or France.

In the end, I took a more interesting option, though it cost me about a day and a half. I took a ferry from Melilla to Almeria, spent a day there, then took another ferry from Almeria to Oran, Algeria. I am not sure why no ferries run from Melilla to Oran, since Melilla is in Spain, not Morocco, but there aren’t any. This was a comfortable enough option, and was about 1/3 the price of flying to Paris and back. There was a ferry that left for Oran from Almeria the same night I arrived from Melilla, but the connection was just too close to chance.

It turned out there were plenty of interesting things to do in both Melilla and Almeria. Both are heavily influenced by Morocco and the Moors. Spain’s very possession of Melilla is a sore subject with Moroccans. Morocco believes Spain should cede Ceuta and Melilla due to their physical presence in Africa, on the grounds that they represent a Spanish colonial presence. Spain maintains that while places like Western Sahara were part of colonial land grabs as Africa was carved up by European powers, Portugal and Spain had conquered Ceuta and Melilla in 1415 and 1497, respectively – about the same time the Moors were driven from Spain. From Spain’s perspective, it has just as much right to Ceuta and Melilla as Granada. Spain administers these areas as self-governing autonomous regions, as it does it’s other regions like Catalonia and the Basque Country.

It was definitely a bit more expensive to sleep, eat, and explore in Melilla and Almeria than Morocco. It was interesting to see the Moorish influence after just having been in Morocco for a week and a half. It was a reminder of how much cultures influence one another, in spite of their differing values, religions, ethnicities, and languages. I called this section “Mudejar Spain.” Mudejar is the Spanish term describing Moorish influence. Muslims who stayed behind after the Reconquista designed buildings which are called “mudejar architecture” in Spain. I enjoyed this melding of cultures. I met some nice friends on this Spanish interlude as well. Join me on the next few pages, as I explore Melilla and Almeria, before catching the overnight ferry to Algeria.