Hola
I can now remember how to spell Alcaidesa without having to look it up each time. And this is the final email about Tunisia so I’m almost caught up!
The slip next to us seems to be reserved for boats needing to be here a night or two. So far we’ve had three neighbors in the short time we’ve been here. They’ve all been nice.
It really is frustrating not having wifi on the boat. As soon as Randal is ready we’re heading over to the café to use their Internet. I’m not at all keen on their food choices but I’ll have to find something as it’s pretty much time for lunch.
Ru
Tunisia Odds and Ends
Port Jasmine and the marina seem to have been created simply as a resort with not much thought about those folks like us who actually live on their boat so aren’t tourists looking for tourist kitsch. We needed things like fruit, vegetables, bread. And don’t even think about diet soda except for Coke. For serious food shopping (non-prepackaged stuff) you had to go to Barraksal, the next town over. It really wasn’t walkable, but there was a bus and fairly inexpensive taxis. The one small grocery store in Port Yasmine had some fruit and vegetables, but not much and the quality wasn’t great. And it was hit or miss what they had. Unfortunately the quality of the produce in Barraksal wasn’t so great either, not by Marmaris standards…not even by Licata standards at this point. Interestingly there were shops to buy red meats, like beef and such and white shops for chicken and eggs and cheese. You knew which was which shop sold beef or lamb by the head hanging outside. No sugar coating things here with meat parts wrapped in saran at the meat counter. At a white shop (no chickens hanging outside thank goodness,) I bought two cooked chickens for our passage and they were quite good as was the cheese from the same shop.
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He reminded me of the “roti man” from Sungei Rengit near Sebana Cove Malaysia. |
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We did see donkeys used for transportation several places. |
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You could think this was folks on horseback, or donkeyback, but it means “out of service.” |
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One of the souvenir shops that lines the main road in Port Yasmine. |
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Flying saucer over Port Yasmine Marina. It was the strangest cloud. |
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Joe and Mick showed us their favorite restaurant where we took them for all of their kind help before and during our stay in Port Yasmine. |
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Of course there has to be a cat, but his one lived at the restaurant so we didn’t have to worry. |
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Metal Camel? On the road from Sfax to El Jem we came across a small local outdoor market.
A barbeque grill in its hump. |
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I might like a donkey, they’re actually quite cute. |
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Old fashioned scales. I bought one of his terra cotta pitchers |
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I paid 2 dinar, about $1.20 but maybe it was made by hand. |
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Half day tours went out on these and you heard the theme to Pirates of the Caribbean blasting away while costumed crew entertained. This one was pulling up to the dock just past where we were tied getting fuel and checking out from Tunisia. You can see a second one just behind ready to come into the marina area. But the marina was relatively quiet most of the time so it was fine and folks looked as if they had a good time. |
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Children selling tiny boquets of jasmine flowers tried to sell them from people disembarking from the “pirate boats.” When we first pulled up to the fuel dock about 11:15 am the small boy in the red costume was just sitting there with his basket of jasmine boquets. There was no shade. He had no food or water with him. He didn’t say a word to us. He was there from the time we pulled up to the dock until just before we left which was several hours. Each boquet cost 1 dinar, about 60 cents. I bought 2. I gave him a packet of cookies and a can of Diet Coke as we had no small boxes of juice or water. Then I gave him an apple. I would have given him all the rest of my dinars but another bigger boy came along, so I had to buy a boquet from him. He actually asked if I’d buy some jasmine and I said I’d bought some from the other boy. So he said,”if you can buy one from him, why not from me?’ I had no good answer other than “you’re big and he’s small,” so I bought a boquet from the bigger boy too. The bigger boy isn’t in my photos, he was even bigger than the 3 boys here. When the pirate boat pulled in they all ran to try to sell their boquets. We saw these small kids selling jasmine boquets or roses all of the time by the restaurants that ring the marina. Even late at night. Joe said the children were safe, that nobody would hurt a child here. Childhood is so different in different parts of the world. |
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As Randal walked to the customs office to check us out of Tunisia there was a discussion of “a gift.” Randal said no and that was okay. |
