Cueta, Spain

Many people go across the Strait of Gibraltar from Algeciras, Spain, to Cueta, Spain, which happens to be in Africa, to shop in the duty-free shops.

It doesn’t seem to bother Spain that they own the city of Cueta, located on the coast of Africa across the Strait of Gibraltar. On the other hand, the Rock of Gibraltar is on a small peninsula off the southern coast of Spain, and the British have a long term lease. Spain doesn’t like that, so for a few years in the 1970s and ‘80s they closed off the border. If we had wanted to visit the Rock of Gibraltar in 1979, we would have to leave for there from someplace other than Spain.

We had boarded the ferry in Algeciras, Spain, and rode across the Strait of Gibraltar, to the city of Cueta. They didn’t do much except drop us off at a street corner in Cueta and tell us to meet them there at such and such a time. We walked along the harbor and looked at the goods in the stores.

They picked us up as advertised and took us on a little sightseeing drive around the town. We then went to a Cueta bus station where we joined people from other tours with almost no people, so there would be one bus for all.