Picked up by Faysal (last night's driver) along with Side, the guide at 12:30pm.
Walked down through casbah,
after waiting for no-show police escort.
Visited very very nice restored Turkish palace
which now houses an art collection. After casbah headed to a main boulevard and Lonely Planets top restaurant for lunch. Very fresh dorado and pomme vapor. Excellent. Free wifi too.
After lunch more driving around till we got to the two museums at the top of a hill. Entered one even though it was after closing time. Lots of roman artifacts. Concluded that Sedi's guiding and language skills aren't up to snuff. Sure it's a chicken...
Lots of traffic (rush hour) but headed up to recently restored basilica.
Following this maps out on to the car trunk and micro planning of the post desert Constantine trip. Faysal has already invited Sedi to be our guide - whoa. Sent emergency message to Kirsten to make sure she knows we don't wish to change previously made plans with Aissa. Hope she can that out before we get back.
Hand off of two bottles of wine and a wad of cash for Mr. Mani our Tuareg driver who will meet us in Djanet.
Coffee at a neighborhood restaurant - iPad slide show for guide and driver - then dropped Sedi before heading up to the Monument of the Martyrs. Impressive.
Then it's to the airport and the next problem.
Faysal has Cherry's eticket but the other ticket is for Paul Eowarska, not me. Faysal thinks this is the guy who flew last night. How would he have got through security? No, this the ticket of the Journey's traveller who dropped at the last minute. Faysal buys a one-way ticket for me and expects that I will swap tickets with mystery Paul when I get to Djanet. Fat chance. Unfortunately Cherry and I worked this out after we had sent Faysal home. Nice problem waiting for Mr.Mani.
Characters:
Faysal, possible Cheche employee and Algiers driver. Nice guy.
Sedi, Algiers guide. Nice guy but English not so good. Contested to Cheche.
Aissa: number 1 guy at Cheche Tours, in Wargla, Algeria.
Kirsten: our rep at Journeys Travel in the US
Mr. Mani, our driver in Djanet - who likes his wine.
- from my iPad
Location:Algiers
