The photo above is my “taxi” to Tarifa. I use scare quotes because this was not any sort of official taxi, it was a dude with a car who offered me a ride for money.
But let’s back up a minute. First, yes. I know unofficial taxis are BAD NEWS in any country.
I arrived at the Malaga airport. Some initial research indicated I should be able to find a bus to Tarifa. I followed instructions at the airport and took a bus to the Malaga bus station. Once there, I found out that there were no busses to Tarifa today, only to the sort-of nearby Algeciras (and no official way from Algeciras to Tarifa).
The driver above had approached me, and once I found out there were no busses, I made the risky judgement move to trust this guy. As a bonus, the 50€ he quoted me (for a 2-hour drive) was half the price that I got quoted by a similar driver at the airport. If I was going to get knifed or kidnapped, might as well make a deal out of it.
Before we got driving, the driver (whose name I never got) mentioned that we were picking up another passenger, a woman. His Spanish and my Spanish were mostly compatible but it took some back and forth. Eventually I pieced it together, we were picking up his wife after work at a restaurant, and taking her to the ferry to Morocco, which also happens to leave from Tarifa. The “five minute” stop to pick her up took a little longer than expected, but as you can see from me writing this, everything seems to have worked out alright.