momentum moments

Africa.

Check.

That leaves South America and Antartica as the only two continents I haven´t visited. Man, South America is going to be hard.

Perhaps I´m getting a little ahead of myself. I´m not actually IN Morocco yet. I´m in an internet cafe in Tarifa, Spain, in view of the port and the little strip of ocean to cross. Africa´s just over that horizon - I can practically hear the charm flutes calling cobras to dance.

After a false start, I went to Ronda again, taking a bus this time. The town is perched precariously on a pair of cliffs with a chasm and a waterfall and monolithic bridge between the two halves of the city. It´s the kind of the thing nobody would build today because it´s almost so pretty that it´s silly. I would not recommend traveling here to try and overcome your fear of vertigo.

I slept in some ancient ruins built into the cliffside. I´d strayed off the already remote path I was following and came across them wholly by accident. Passing under an ancient archway, I brushed aside a curtain of vine strands. In the gloom chasing sunset, I see one half of the structure was actually just a cave the rest had been built around. I wonder who used to live here, if they looked out the windows and up to huge bridge across the chasm, if that bridge was even built yet. The windows are mostly filled with green vines that also may their way up the walls and to the ceiling. The floor bears deep holes where I imagine long-rotted staircases used to be, and a few bats flutter in the darkness.

The following afternoon, I ventured to the Rock of Gibraltar. The rumors you´ve heard are true. There ARE wild monkeys here just running around. Lots of them. They look and move and interact in so human a fashion it´s kind of unsettling. I heard one of the infants cough, I swear it sounded just like a human baby coughing.

And now I´m in Tarifa, waiting for the ferry to pull in. I have no way of uploading pictures ´till I get back to Sevilla with Jenn since I left the cord there. By the way, I lied - it´s totally going to be more than 60. But I thought I´d give you a quick little word-ular update. Anyhow, adios, I´m gonna go watch people swallow swords and fire and... kebabs.

Later. I mean, adios. Or should I say مع السلامة?