Spring in Tunis (Finally!)

It's been a busy few weeks here and I have epically failed at keeping this blog updated...

I had to double check when my last blog post was and I couldn't believe that it was so long ago!

Summer is finally arriving in Tunis, though it still is about the same temperature as most European cities (Berlin, Paris) and is cooler than DC... Really, it is nice that we are putting off the crazy hot summer, but seriously, DC should not be hotter than us.

Some interesting things have happened in Tunis this spring. The Constitution has been voted on and elections are "going to be before the end of the year." We'll see if that actually happens. But there is significant forward movement in many areas. The situation in Libya is going to affect the summer tourism, but there still seem to be quite a few tour groups around, which is a good sign. On a economic note, a scandal rocked the cell phone world when the Tunisian owned Tunisiana (one of the biggest mobile providers in Tunisia) was bought out by a Qatari company practically overnight. I woke up one day and my mobile provider had changed! As the article below shows, people here were not happy.

http://www.tunisia-live.net/2014/04/28/tunisians-reject-qatari-takeover-of-tunisiana-cell-phone-company/

As I celebrate over a year in Tunisia, I have started to make more of an effort to see different parts of the country. Some friends of mine and I headed to southern Tunisia at the beginning of May. I've been wanting to go down there for a long time and it is getting close to closing time in the South. Of course, the whole south doesn't close, but many of the tourist things do because it is too hot to attract enough customers. I can understand that, after experiencing the heat down there in early May...

Sunrise

We took an overnight bus to Douz, (a town in the Sahara) so we woke up in the desert. I always knew that the Sahara part of Tunisia was beautiful, but it at sunrise was a spectacular introduction. After copious amounts of coffee, we planned a day of adventures i.e. camels, 4 by 4s, and an overly forward guide wrapping a scarf around our resisting heads (the outcome varied from Kelsi looking like a TM Ninja Turtle in green, and me resembling an Emirates airline hostess in red...).

Starting out

Emirates Flight Attendant

It was totally worth the cheesy-ness though I could have done with less time on the camel. We went out into the dunes on the camels (sand dunes + camel saddles made of wood and blankets = a lot of clinging desperately to the mane) and came back through a date tree farm. Even though my camel ran me into every low lying palm frond he could, I sadly did not get to pick any dates. We then took 4 by 4s into the desert for a little more hands on interaction with the sand. Unfortunately, my camera once again took a dive into the Sahara. It has now recovered, but it was out of commission for the rest of the trip. I ended up stealing other people's cameras quite a bit.

Plato does the Sahara

Date Tree Farm

Dunes where my camera met its fate...

The next day we headed west from Douz to Tozeur, which took us directly through the huge natural salt flats. On one side of the road, there was a salt plain all the way to the mountains, interrupted by makeshift coffee shops with random flags and statues to distinguish them, while on the other side, the salt was being extracted and processed for sale. After a lunch stop in Tozeur, we headed for points west. The first stop was Chebika, a beautiful oasis hidden in the mountains. After spending way too long there for people who see water regularly, we went to Tunisia's biggest waterfall. It was no great falls, but was beautiful and the drive there took us though the impressive mountains on the border with Algeria. From the waterfall, we headed for the Star Wars sites. It took about 45 minutes of during in to the desert to get to the first site. We followed a path marked just by some tire tracks, which often veered off in various directions to form many paths that led over various dunes. What looked like a vague trail to us was the main road to the sites and our driver proceeded like the desert was full of clear road signs. Our end destination was the set of Mos Epa from Star Wars Episode 1 (I think?) located in the dunes of the Tunisian Sahara. We walked around, taking a lot of pictures, including one with light sabers (picture to come later).

We then set off to find a good dune to watch the sunset from. That was easily one of the top 3 experiences I have had in Tunisia. Since we avoided the dunes with screaming children and very prepared Star Wars enthusiasts (some of whom were in full costume, including very fancy light sabers), it was a gorgeous way to spend an evening. The next day was uneventful, since we spend the entire day on a bus home. The bus only broke down once and it was cool to see the changing landscape in the sunlight. We left Tozeur on May the Fourth, so we apparently missed a Star Wars convention. The bus ride was long, but the bus only broke down once and the trip was fairly efficient.

I have traveled a little more since then, but this is already far too long, so more in the next blog episode.