A very full day!
Trip Start
Oct 19, 2008
1
11
16
Trip End
Nov 03, 2008
Tamerza, Tunisia
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
haven't been able to transcribe my written journals and post them, but
I thought I'd just post the pictures to satisfy you guys for the
moment. Keep sending me emails though! I'll send another email when I
finally do post the actual writing. Love to all. -Chels)
Today in brief: OMG, I can't believe we did so much in one day!
Morning: toured La Palmarie (basically, the area where the oasis's water gets channelled into agriculture and growing things) in a horse drawn carriage. We saw palm trees full of dates (one of the country's biggest crops & exports), oranges, lemons & limes, peaches, pomegranates, bananas, jasmine, basil, lettuce, tomatoes and a ton more. We then went on a very brief tour of the old quarter to see the unique Berber (indigenous people in Tunisia) brickwork. The Old Quarter here in Tozeur was where some scenes from the movie "The English Patient" was shot--something Tunisians are very very proud of. We then rushed back to the hotel to catch our afternoon tour.
Afternoon: "The Three Mountains of the Oasis"--a tour of the town of Chebika (with it's beautiful waterfall and ancient berber village), then a lunch stop for a "traditional tunisian meal" of soup, cous cous with vegetables (and meat for Ethan and the other two meat eaters who were with us), flatbread, dates and clementines followed by AMAZING mint tea. After lunch, it was on to Mides and it's spectacular gorge, and then a brief stop at Tamerza's biggest waterfall. There, I looked for about a second too long at a man who had some strange thing in his hands.. he saw me looking and immediately thrust a (tamed) salamander into my hand, quickly followed by another one on my shoulder! I think the denar per photo he charged was worth capturing my expression. They were actually really cool to touch and look at, despite my initial shocked reaction. After seeing the mountains, we went out into the desert in an attempt to catch the sunset, but we just missed it.. so instead we went and finished the day with a visit to the very well preserved sets of Star Wars!
